IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Saturday, June 18, 2011

This Saturday I was going to meet my friend Philippe from France at Goblin Valley in the evening before sunset. That gave me all day to do some exploring on my own along the San Rafael Reef. I started out driving south along the Reef to Three Fingers Canyon. I hadn’t been back there in a year or two and wanted to gets some better photos of the petroglyphs.

Light on the Reef

On my way to Three Fingers Canyon I drove south along the Reef. There were some early morning clouds in the sky that spotlighted the reef in this photo.

Three Fingers Canyon

The mouth of Three Fingers Canyon.

Three Fingers Panel

Looking up at the main panel of petroglyphs in Three Fingers.

Vertical Circles

Another panel of petroglyphs.

Wave of Petroglyphs

Here’s a few more petroglyphs, but what I like about this photo is how the sandstone kind of resembles the shape of a wave.

Painted Petroglyph

The anthropomorphic petroglyph here has the remnants of some paint.

After spending some time exploring the Three Fingers panels, I continued along the Reef so that I could revisit the Ochre Alcove again…..one of my favorite Barrier Canyon Style pictograph panels.

Transformation Scene

An overview of the main panel of pictographs in the Ochre Alcove.

Painted Twins

A closeup of two interesting figures.

Dreams

Three of the larger anthropomorphs….two of them have lines of dots rising from them…

Horned Serpent

A closeup of the largest anthropomorph and the horned snake.

Very Small

Here’s a very small anthropomorph that I missed on my first visit here…..it’s very small and very detailed.

Once I was finished examining this panel closely I finished hiking up the canyon in search of two other rock art panels that are supposed to be in the area…..but I came up empty handed on those. So when I got back to the Jeep I went out in search of another new panel in North Temple Wash…..which I did find!

North Temple Wash Panel

The new panel I found this trip……very faded.

North Temple Anthropomorph

A closer look at the above panel.

Old Car Under Temple Mountain

An old car near Temple Mountain.

After looping around Temple Mountain, I returned to the Reef and stopped by the Temple Wash Panel again.

Temple Wash Panel

Good Dog

Shot Up

From there I headed over to Hanksville for some dinner and to top off the tank in my Jeep. By the time I arrived back in the Temple Mountain area I finally met up with Philippe. We headed into Goblin Valley in hope of a nice sunset…..but that never happened. We did have a nice time exploring the further reaches of the park, though. Here’s one of the few photos I did take in Goblin Valley.

Goblins

Once the sun was down, we left the park and found a campsite so we could rest up for our hike on Sunday 🙂

Sunday, June 12, 2011

On Sunday morning I slept in just a bit later than on Saturday…..not because I wanted to, but because I was planning on photographing through the doorways of Pueblo Bonito during the early morning sunlight, and the park would not be opening the gates until 7am…..so there was no use for me to get up earlier than I had to. I arrived at the gate a few minutes before 7am in hopes that it would be opened early. It wasn’t. They actually didn’t come open it until 10 minutes after 7…..which means I was sitting in my Jeep anxiously waiting. Once the gate was opened, I went straight to Pueblo Bonito and started shooting…..I didn’t have much time before the sun would be too high.

Pueblo Bonito T

Nice light through the big T-shaped doorway.

Typical Doors

A typical doorway photo in Pueblo Bonito.

Once the sun was too high, we made our way over to check out the Casa Rinconada Community.

Casa Rinconada Kiva

The large kiva at Casa Rinconada.

Gallo Camp

When we were done exploring there, we went back to camp to pack up. Here’s a photo of the ruin behind our campsite.

Once we were all packed up and ready to go we stopped to take one last hike to Wijiji before starting the drive home.

Wijiji Hike

Hiking along the old closed road to Wijiji….Fajada Butte in the background.

Wijiji Pueblo

Wijiji Pictographs

Faint pictographs near Wijiji. There are a number of faint negative handprints, faint spirals and red lines, plus a couple of zoomorphs that appear to be standing in the middle. I wish I had brought my telephoto lens with me on this hike, but I wasn’t sure how close we would be able to get to these pictographs when we started…

Wijiji Pictographs Closer

A closer look.

Wijiji

A nice sky over Wijiji.

Follow the Old Road

Hiking back from Wijiji in Chaco Canyon.

Thankfully, the drive home was uneventful with no further issues with the Jeep. We both had a great weekend and lucked out with great weather that wasn’t too hot (especially for this time of the year) and are looking forward to our next trip to Chaco Canyon in the future!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

On Saturday morning I got up a little earlier than Amanda and headed out to try and get a photo of Fajada Butte at sunrise (since they don’t open the gates to the main park until 7am). When I arrived there were some nice clouds behind the butte, but they cleared out before the sun finally came up.

Fajada Butte

Early morning sunlight on Fajada Butte.

Once the sun was up, I made my way back to camp and found that Amanda was awake and ready to go. We had a little breakfast and then went into the park just after 7am. We wanted to get an early start since we were going to hike the longest backcountry trail in the park to Penasco Blanco….and we wanted to do it before it got really hot out. Along the way we took the Petroglyph Loop trail and searched the sandstone walls for petroglyphs. We ended up finding quite a few.

Sheep Designs

A well defined sheep petroglyph overlooks some faded designs that are rather unique. I see the heads of two sheep below the designs facing each other, too.

Sheep & Pictograph

A bighorn sheep petroglyph with some more recent scratchings. Above the sheep is a faint pictograph that might represent a rain cloud?

Spiral Serpent

A spiral with a head…plus some more recent scratchings.

Curly Tail Sheep

This one was located high above and hidden. I would have missed it if Amanda hadn’t spotted it!

Chaco High Panel

My favorite petroglyphs along the loop…also located high above us.

Lizard Men Panel

The last panel along the loop trail.

After finishing the loop, we continued on and eventually crossed Chaco Wash. Once on the other side we reached my main destination for hiking this trail; The Supernova Pictograph.

1054 Supernova Pictograph

Some believe that this pictograph in Chaco Canyon represents the supernova that created the Crab Nebula on July 4, 1054.

Shield & Claws?

After passing the Supernova Pictographs there’s another .8 miles until you reach Penasco Blanco. Along the way we passed a large boulder that had this large shield-like petroglyphs on it. Maybe it is more recent as I’ve not seen anything like it before, but I don’t know? I do know I saw some similar claw-like hand petroglyphs near the campground, too…

Continue reading

Friday, June 10, 2011

Amanda found out pretty last minute that she was going to have a three day weekend from work and she wanted to go somewhere new. I gave her a couple of suggestions for places I wanted to get to this year that we had not been to yet, and she agreed that we should head down to Chaco Culture National Historic Park (just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) for the weekend. I quickly secured that Friday off from work and our weekend plans were made!

Bright and early on Friday morning we finished loading up the Jeep and headed south. As we drove through the San Juan Moutains over Red Mountain Pass, we got to see how much snow was still up there. It didn’t look like any of our favorite Jeep roads would be opening anytime soon. Between Silverton and Durango they were chip-sealing the road and a vehicle in front of me picked up a rock and cracked the windshield on my Jeep. It started to spread right away and was beyond repairing before we even reached New Mexico. A nice way to start the trip….but just the beginning!

Shortly after crossing the state line into New Mexico we made a stop at Aztec Ruins National Monument. This was just a quick stop for us since it was on the way to Chaco. We walked the short path around the Monument, snapped a couple of pictures, grabbed some lunch in town and then were back on the road to Chaco. The most interesting part of Aztec Ruins was The West Ruin Great Kiva, which Earl Morris excavated in 1921 and then rebuilt in 1934. It’s the largest rebuilt kiva in North America.

Aztec Kiva

A view inside The Great Kiva.

Aztec Kiva Ceiling

The reconstructed ceiling of The Great Kiva.

After driving the very washboarded road to Chaco, we found an open campsite in the Gallo Campground and got ready to setup our camp for the next two nights. When I stepped out of my Jeep, I saw that one of my back tires was almost flat and losing air quickly. I knew I needed new tires pretty soon, but I thought I could get by for a few more weeks…..apparently I was wrong. The tire was actually cracked between the almost non-existant lugs and was losing air from there. Before we setup camp, I had to change the tire to the spare. I knew that when I arrived back at home, I would be buying a new windshield and some new tires…..this was turning out to be an expensive weekend! 😉

Once camp was finally setup we stopped by the Visitor Center to speak to the ranger and get acquainted with the park. Before the day was through we had visited Una Vida, Chetro Ketl and Pueblo Bonito. I also searched out some petroglyphs near our campsite and above Una Vida.

Little Guy

A small pictograph at ground level near our campsite….hidden behind a small ruin.

Faint Boulder Glyphs

A boulder near our camp that had some petroglyphs on it.

Una Vida Petroglyphs

Closer to sunset I hiked up to the Una Vida petroglyphs to get some shots with the late evening sunlight on them.

Turkey Over Chaco

A bird-like petroglyph that looks like a turkey watches over Chaco Canyon and Fajada Butte as the sun gets ready to drop below the horizon.

Steps & Doors

A black & white doorway shot in Pueblo Bonito

Sun-Lit Walls

A view from inside Pueblo Bonito during sunset.

Supported Wall

The tallest wall at Pueblo Bonito still standing, with the supports to help keep it that way.

Bonito Last Glow

The sun lights up the top of Pueblo Bonito and the clouds above in Chaco Canyon.

After it was dark out, we headed back near the Visitor Center to check out the Night Sky Program where we listened to a talk from Ruth Van Dyke. Unfortunately, clouds had rolled in after sunset so there was not much to see in the sky. We headed back to camp early and went to bed since we would be getting an early start on Saturday.

Saturday to be continued…

Sunday, May 29, 2011

On my way home from the Comb Ridge area I decided to make an unplanned stop and hike up Stearns Wash in search of some petroglyphs. I had read that there were petroglyphs somewhere along Stearns Wash but I had no idea where. I figured I would just hike up the wash and would hopefully find them. Luckily, early in my hike I picked out a spot ahead of me that I thought looked like it might be a good place to search. Once I found the way there I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had chosen well 🙂

There were a bunch of petroglyphs located at this site, many of them bighorn sheep, but most of them were pretty faint and didn’t photograph too well. Here’s some of the better photos I was able to take at this site.

Sheep Line

This was the first set of petroglyphs I came across that let me know I was at the right place.

Faded Anthropomorph

An outline of a pretty large anthropomorphic figure.

Another Stearns Sheep

One of the ‘more visible’ sheep petroglyphs at the site.

Not quite sure what is going on in this panel…..very unusual.

Sheep in a Line

A line of bighorn sheep.

Faint Outline

Another outline of an anthropomorph with a large bighorn sheep.

Stearns Wash Sheep

The biggest bighorn petroglyph I found.

Convent in the Dust

Just a little nearby scenery….still plenty of dust in the air from all the wind.

After exploring the area I headed back to my Jeep and then back home.

Check out my other posts in the Moab Area Rock Art Series:

Moab Area Rock Art I | Colorado River Gorge / Golf Course / Kane Creek
Moab Area Rock Art II | Kane Creek Canyon & Potash Road
Moab Area Rock Art III | Mill Creek Canyon / Kane Creek / Bartlett Panel
Moab Area Rock Art IV | The Secret Grotto & More
Moab Area Rock Art V | Hidden Valley & Behind the Rocks
Moab Area Rock Art VI | Yellow Comet Alcove
Moab Area Rock Art VII | Solstice Snake
Moab Area Rock Art VIII | Dark Angel Petroglyphs
Moab Area Rock Art IX | Mill Creek Canyon
Moab Area Rock Art X | Stearns Wash