Newspaper Rock. I am standing beside the National Historic Site to provide perspective. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)
It’s Wednesday, so that means a quick photographic essay, selected from my 20,000 pictures. It would be ever so easy to spend a day selecting photos, which would seriously detract from my objective of freeing up time. So I decided to do random. I closed my eyes and scrolled down iPhoto. When I hit enter, I opened my eyes, and there was Newspaper Rock, staring at me.
Over 2000 years of Native American petroglyphs are found on Newspaper Rock.
Newspaper Rock sits on the edge of Canyonlands National Park up in the northeastern corner of Utah. It contains all of the news that’s fit to print, or at least all the news from the perspective of local Native Americans who have chipped away at the rock for over 2,000-years. Who knows what it all means. As the information sign says, “We do not know if the figures represent story telling, doodling, hunting magic, clan symbols, ancient graffiti or something else.” That means the figures are open to interpretation, right? So interpret, I will.
Food has been sighted. What’s on today’s menu?
Two flying squirrels were seen leaping between Ponderosa Pines.
A large buffalo is down at the wallow.
Three elk are up on the ridge.
A Big Horned Sheep with scrawny front legs is feeding up on the mountain.
And Big Bird is down at the pond. (Nothing scrawny about her legs.)
Stay out of the canyon. The tracks of Momma Bear and her cub have been sighted.
Hop on your horse and grab your bow and arrows. It’s time to get dinner.
Ready for the hunt.
Whoops.
Having been warned, Walks on Feet hiked into the canyon anyway. Now he is being stalked by Momma Bear. The trail ends here.
Success! Always Gets His Buck shoots an elk in the butt.
It’s time for a feast. All the cool guys will be there.
Scorpion Hat shakes a leg and Sheep joins in.
Ladder Man shouts “Woo hoo!”
And Horny Fellow practices a flying leap.
For after dinner entertainment, Stands On Horse will perform his amazing tricks.
And Antenna Guy will display his recently captured flying saucer. That’s it for today. NEXT BLOG: I start my essay series. First up: Looking for God in All the Wrong Places.
Wandering through Time and Place 
Great imagination and I must say you’d make a great newspaper columnist too. You could put ‘hieroglyphics translator’ on your resume!
No problem with imagination here, G, except possibly too much. 🙂 –Curt
Good reading today. If only newspapers could be like that. Put that in your pipe Mr Murdoch.
He’d try to buy it, Gerard. 🙂 –Curt
Love your interpretations – great imagination!
I had fun. Thanks. –Curt
Excellent. I think you have started the outline for enduring stories. Stuff to dictate behavior, creed and psychology. Something we can hold on to. There’s truth with a capital “T” in these drawings, Curt. Just work on the packaging and branding and then spread the word.
Well, if nothing else Bruce, the petroglyphs are endlessly fascinating, at least to me. –Curt
It reminds me of the bulletin board in the laundromat when I was a kid.
Packed with messages, no doubt. Funny.
That is totally friggin hilarious! You are so right. 🙂
Thank you for this awesome post.
Am a petroglyph freak….
Loved this so much, used it as my background here:
https://tahtonka.wordpress.com/
As are Peggy and I. I’ve done a number of posts on petroglyph sites we have found as we’ve wandered the West. BTW… looks nice as a background. –Curt
Thank you Curt!
Geology minor at CSUN, love the rocks!!!
Especially in Wyoming and South Dakota~
Wasn’t a minor but was certainly one of my favorite courses. Gorgeous mountains in Wyoming… and the badlands of South Dakota. –Curt
Amazing.
Oh my, I love your interpretations! Note how the buck was so startled to get an arrow in his butt, that even his horns stood up on end! I would love to go to a party with Scorpion Hat and his goat.
Laughing, I had the same feeling about the buck. It seemed that the artist really captured it. 🙂 You could dance a jig. –Curt
And interpret you did! How fun is this. And don’t you just wonder just exactly what was going through their heads? Thanks for posting. Would love to see this place.
Half the fun with petroglyphs is in wondering what the artists were thinking and what their view of the world was. The other half is in admiring the art. I have always found so-called ‘primitive’ art to be powerful. –Curt