Blogging with WordPress in the Age of Coronavirus

March 23, 2020March 22, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 40 Comments

A great blue heron eyed me suspiciously when I took its photo in Florence, Oregon. Peggy and I had gone over to the coast for my birthday three weeks ago. The town has several excellent restaurants and we had made it a point to visit several. They are closed now. Coronavirus has arrived. The world has changed.

This coming Thursday we were flying out to Fort Lauderdale in Florida to climb on a cruise ship that was going to take us through the Panama Canal. There were to be stops along the way in Costa Rica, Columbia, Nicaragua and Mexico. Peggy was super excited. She had lived in Panama in the late 70s BC. (The BC here stands for Before Curt. DC is During Curt. We are hoping to avoid the AC.) She wanted to see her old home at Fort Amador, to revisit where her daughter Tasha was born, and visit the Canal again.

I was equally excited. Just watching Peggy would have been enough. But Panama, Columbia and Nicaragua were new countries for me and I am always up for seeing new places. Cartagena has been on my bucket list for a long time. I figured I would get enough blog material to last up until summer! But it wasn’t to be.

We watched nervously as coronavirus made its way from China into other countries. Given the nature of the disease and its rapid spread, the President’s words that we had only 15 cases in the US that would soon number zero rang hollow. It seemed to us like it was time to gear up and get ready, not play down the danger. It was hardly rocket science, or so it seemed to us.

Nothing focused our concern more about the trip than people being stranded on cruise ships with a highly contagious disease. Countries were refusing to let them land. Reluctantly and sadly, we came to the conclusion that the trip wasn’t worth the risk and cancelled. A few days later Princess Cruise Lines cancelled all of its cruises. That’s how fast this pandemic has developed.

As my post goes up this morning, I expect that our Governor, Kate Brown, will issue the same stay-home order for Oregon that our neighbors in Washington to the north and California to the south have. Our trips into town will be limited to quick in and outs to buy groceries and other necessities. (And no, we aren’t hoarding toilet paper.) We will practice the same social/physical distancing and hand washing/use of sanitizers that people throughout the world now find themselves doing. And we will try ever so hard to avoid touching our faces. The mere thought of it makes my nose itch.

We are lucky in that we live on five acres out in the boonies with our property backed up to a million acres of national forest. Social/physical distancing doesn’t get any easier. Our property is excited that we are going to be around to give it more attention than in normally receives— and the star thistle is bummed that I will be around to yank it out by the roots. It’s a nasty plant that spreads rapidly like coronavirus, kills off native plants, and sucks up precious groundwater. I’ll probably do a blog on it. Woohoo. Also on my to-do list: go looking for Bigfoot. There’s a reason why the world’s only Bigfoot trap is located three miles from our house. And I may go searching for gold. Why not. An old gold mine is located a few hundred yards behind our house up in the forest. Maybe Bigfoot hangs out there. I’ll let you know.

And speaking of blogging, it is hard to imagine a more positive activity in these perilous times we are facing. For one, it is the ultimate in social/physical distancing. Two, it keeps me occupied. And three, most importantly, it allows for safe social interaction with a number of people I have come to consider as close, Internet friends over the past several years. So keep blogging, stay safe, and don’t scratch your nose.

As I was writing about Bigfoot, this teenage doe slipped in and started drinking out of our birdbath. I grabbed my camera. Wildlife is an important part of our entertainment here. I’ll be blogging about it as well. We should soon have fawns. And then there is the flicker, a large woodpecker that has decided the best way to call his love is to pound on our roof vents. It sounds like a jackhammer. We’ve had a number of discussions but it seems that nothing can get in the way of true love.

And finally, I’ll conclude with this butterfly hugging a flower, or so it seemed. A nice message. Take care.

NEXT POSTS: Still thinking about Wednesday. I may take you back to my journey down the Pacific Crest Trail, or off to Europe. Since travel is out, I have plenty of posts to remind me us of the how fun, interesting, and exciting travel there can be. Friday will be special. Peggy and I just made a trip up to Crater Lake National Park to see what it looks like in the winter. One word comes to mind: beautiful.

7,000 Year Old Rock Art… And Wile-e-Coyote

March 20, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 17 Comments

Are these vacant eyes staring at you from the ancient past? Probably not since these two 7,000 year old pecked indentations are merely two out of many that cover a rock at the Grimes Point Archeological Area.

I took a detour on my trip down Highway 395 from Reno to Mt. Whitney last summer to drive east on Highway 50 to the town of Fallon, Nevada. I was excited to visit the Grimes Point Archeological Area with its ancient rock art five miles east of the town. They represent some of the oldest petroglyphs in America. The oldest are located approximately 60 miles away at Pyramid Lake.

This sign greeted me at the entrance to the site. The strange lines on the left represent one of the petroglyphs found at the site.

Highway 50 stretching off into the east from Grimes Point across Nevada claims to be the loneliest road in the US. The grooves you see on the right are to wake up motorists who fall asleep while driving the road.

The circles and wavy lines represent some of the oldest petroglyphs found at the site. Rock art is made by using a rock to peck away the dark, desert varnish that covers rocks exposing the lighter colors underneath. You’ve seen many examples on my posts over the last three weeks. These petroglyphs are almost the color of the rock, which means that the desert varnish has had time to cover the rock art, literally thousands of years.

This is another example of pits, this time with grooves connecting them. It almost appears to be horns on a steer-like head, but who knows.

One of the pit covered rocks. Peggy and I found similar petroglyphs on the Big Island of Hawaii. Information at that site said that the pits had been used to place umbilical cords in.

This is what the countryside looks like at Grimes Point. A pickup hauling a trailer can be seen on Highway 50. Having ridden my bike across Nevada on my 10,000 mile bicycle trek and driven across the state numerous times, I can attest to its lonely, wide-open spaces. No problem with social-distancing out here!

Lichens added some fun color to the rocks.

There were some discernible figures such as this leaping or dancing stick figure. Is it “Come to me sweetie,” or “Gads, look at the size of that snake!”

I wonder if this asterisk-like petroglyph represents the sun.

Those with an overactive imagination might see a UFO landing!

The most mysterious to me was this horse-like figure. Horses went extinct in North America around 11,000 BCE and weren’t reintroduced until the 1500s CE. Petroglyphs at nearby Pyramid Lake date back to 10,000-14,000 BCE, however, so horses could have been around then. Maybe we are looking at a dog, coyote or wolf. Or maybe none-of-the-above.

Here we have a much more recent petroglyph from Canyon de Chelly showing Navajo hunters in pursuit of a deer. Note how light the petroglyphs are in comparison to Grimes Point.

I’ll close my coverage of Grimes Point with another pit covered rock. We can only wonder why.

I’ve enjoyed sharing petroglyphs with you. I can guarantee there will be more if for no other reason than the fact that Peggy and I enjoy them and are always searching for new sites. There are thousands throughout the Western United States. I can’t resist a few more from the Petrified Wood National Park and Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

This interesting collection of petroglyphs is from Canyon de Chelly. Check out the top. You’ve heard of having your ducks in a row? So, apparently, did the early Americans…

But how about having your turkeys in a row? These are pictographs at Canyon de Chelly, painted instead of pecked. The figure on the far right is Kokopelli playing his flute.

The ‘newspaper rock’ in Petrified Wood National Park is one of my favorites. Check out the figure to the right of the nudes. Could it be? Is it possible…

Yes! It’s Wile-e-Coyote! That does it for the day. Grin.

NEXT POST: I’ll take you on a visit to Crater Lake National Park.

Stop and Smell the Flowers: Part 1… Along the PCT

March 18, 2020March 15, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 18 Comments

Penstemon. One of at least a hundred beautiful flowers I photographed on my 750- mile hike down the PCT two summers ago.

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is serious business for those who decide to backpack the 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada in one season. Think of it as hiking a 26-mile-marathon each day while carrying your food, water and camping gear on your back over mountains, across deserts, through snow, and every imaginable kind of weather. As such, it is not an exercise in wilderness appreciation; it’s an exercise in human endurance. It is one of the toughest, most grueling physical challenges in the world. People involved in can be forgiven if they don’t have time to stop and smell the flowers.

This isn’t to say they don’t have an appreciation for the incredibly beautiful country they are hiking through. It’s impossible not to. But this appreciation is limited. When Peggy and I were backpacking through the Three Sisters Wilderness of Oregon as part of my 750 mile trip, we met Big Red, a giant of a man who summarized it well. “I’ll camp on a beautiful lake,” he said, “and I’ll think, ‘Wow! I would love to spend a few days here.’ But I can’t. I have to get up the next morning in the dark and be on the trail by dawn. Otherwise I’ll never finish.”

I felt the pressure myself, even though I was moving along at around 15 miles a day. At 75, my shorter days were the equivalent of the longer days being hiked by the 20-40 year olds. I was glad I had my camera along and was committed to recording my journey with digital photos. It forced me to stop and smell the flowers— and to admire the beauty of my surroundings. Plus it was one hell of an excuse for a break even though I rarely allowed myself more than a minute or so to capture a subject and had mastered taking my camera out and putting it away while walking. (Okay, some subjects required 15-30 minutes!)

The flowers along the trail were gorgeous. I shared some of these when I blogged about the journey. I’ll be sharing more over the next few weeks as I use my photo-essay Wednesdays to feature pictures from the PCT. Enjoy.

Close up of Western bleeding heart flower.

FRIDAY’S POST: My final rock art post for now featuring petroglyphs from Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Petrified Forest National Park and northern Nevada.

Backyard Rock Art… Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque N.M.

March 16, 2020March 15, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 18 Comments

A note to our blogging friends: As the world reels from the Coronavirus, Peggy and I want to wish each of you the best in making it through this world-wide pandemic, the likes of which we have never experienced. Our travel plans, like yours, have been put on hold as we hunker down at our Oregon home, avoid as much social contact as possible, and wait for the worst to pass. Assuming we are able to avoid the virus, I will continue to blog, possibly relying on older materials. In the meantime, be careful and be safe. Curt and Peggy

You might not believe it from this photo, but the Petroglyph National Monument is located minutes away from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Petroglyphs are found throughout these rocks along some 17 miles of this volcanic escarpment. The blips you can see on the horizon are small volcanos. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

This is a photo I took at the beginning of the escarpment. Suburbs literally back up to the National Monument. Downtown Albuquerque can be seen in the distance.

Peggy and I parked Quivera in a small parking lot for the Petroglyph National Monument that we found behind a fast food restaurant. Fifty yards up the trail we began to find petroglyphs. Archeologists believe that there are around 25,000 in the 17 miles.

The rock I am standing next to provides an idea of just how concentrated the petroglyphs can be at the Monument as well as providing a perspective on their size. The grumpy looking circular guy on the left is the god of death. He will return in Friday’s post. Scary huh. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

It is estimated that the majority of the petroglyphs were carved between 1300 and 1680 CE by ancestors of present day Pueblo people, but some of the petroglyphs have been dated back to over 2000 years ago. Many of the petroglyphs we found at the Monument are similar to others we’ve found throughout the Southwest. For example, does the following rock art look familiar?

I named a similar petroglyph that we found at Three Rivers Cat Woman. I thought it was interesting on how this rock art was created on a rounded surface. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

Surprise! Check out the feet. My ‘cat woman’ has the paws of a badger.

You also met up with the Horned Serpent on my post about snakes at Three Rivers’ petroglyph site. Here he is coiled up. I alway assume rattlesnakes mean business when I find them coiled up with their tails rattling at 50 times per second and ready to strike. Experts claim that the snake can only strike about half the length of its body. Assuming you know the length of the body, you can determine how close you can get. I always leave an extra ten feet for margin of error. (Grin)

Peggy and I visited the site at absolutely the wrong time for photography: high noon. (Being the old hands we are with our cameras, you think we would know better.) As a result, a number of the photos like cat/badger woman aren’t as clear as we like— even with photo processing.

Speaking of headdresses, check out the one on this petroglyph. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

Here is probably the most recognized character in petroglyphs across the Southwest, Kokopelli and his seductive flute. A second Kokopelli plays away in front.

It appears to me that Kokopelli is playing a duet here under a full moon.

I was amused by this fellow with shaky legs. Reminds me of a time I hiked into the Grand Canyon when I was a bit on the pudgy side. That’s what my legs were doing by the time I reached the bottom.

If people want a ring in their nose or their bellybutton, it’s their business. Why not. But it’s not for me. No thanks. But how about an arrow in your nose like this guy sports. Ouch! (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

My first thought on seeing this was Big Bird. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

But a closer inspection showed Big Bird’s head was actually a face. And not a happy one. The line you see coming down from the right eye probably represents crying.

Having dealt with the Big Bird that wasn’t, here are a few more animal petroglyphs that may or may not be what they seem. This rock art receives my nomination for the strangest. I’d say anteater on the bottom, if they made their way that far north. On top, a really wild guess would be a horned serpent hitching a ride.

Check out the petroglyph on the left. If an anteater making its way north seems strange, you really have to wonder about an alligator in the deserts of the Southwest. Maybe it’s a fat lizard. I also liked the caterpillar dog on the right.

Another large bird with a very big bill, or something.

Doggie? Or does that long nose suggest another anteater?

I’ll close today with this dramatic mask, including ear rings.

WEDNESDAY’S POST: Flowers of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Beauty and Mystery… The Three Rivers’ Petroglyph Site

March 13, 2020March 18, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 14 Comments

This cottonwood decked out in fall colors was one of many views we had from the ridge where Peggy and I wandered among the rocks searching for rock art at the Three Rivers’ petroglyph site in New Mexico.

I find petroglyphs mysterious and magical. My attraction to the so-called primitive art started when I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa way back in the 60s. I use the words ‘so-called’ because the art carries an inherent power and a simple beauty— both of which were recognized by artists such as Matisse and Picasso in the early 1900s— that defies the word primitive.

An African medicine mask I brought back from West Africa.

Petroglyphs and pictographs have the ability to transport us into another world and time— and, in so doing, enrich our lives.

While I have two more posts on petroglyphs from other sites we visited on our Southwest tour last fall, I am wrapping up my posts on the Three Rivers Petroglyph National Recreation Site today. It is a special place that contains over 21,000 petroglyphs representing prehistoric Jornada Mogollon rock art created between 900 and 1400 CE. Peggy and I visited the area once before and will likely visit it again. Judging from our photos, we still have another 20,000 or so petroglyphs to find! (Grin) Aside from that, the beauty of the area alone would draw us back.

Peggy and I have often found petroglyphs located in beautiful areas and couldn’t help but wonder if that wasn’t a factor in deciding where to locate rock art. If I were going to peck out a masterpiece, I’d want this view. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

The stream flowing through the area shown by these colorful cottonwoods was a village site for the Jornada.

While some petroglyphs are easily recognizable, like a roadrunner going after a rattle snake, others, such as this human-like figure grafted on to what appears to be an octopus, are mind boggling. I call him Octoman.

At first, Peggy and I couldn’t identify this bird. Checking out the Sibley Guide to Birds afterwards, we determined it was a roadrunner with its crest down. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

Petroglyphs can be quite simple like this stick figure. Maybe it was the shaman’s day to take his child to work and he handed her a rock to peck with.

More sophisticated but what’s the meaning? It had me starry eyed.

Bighorn sheep petroglyphs are found throughout the Southwest. Some of the most sophisticated are found at Three Rivers. Note the use of the bump in the rock for the eye.

And this head on view. Note how the horns are curved back in a realistic way, even with a degree of perspective..

I may be wrong, but I looked at this and saw a fox. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

No question about this fish. Patterns are often tied into petroglyphs of animals, and in this case, fish. They may have meaning or they may just be decorations.

Just for fun, I think this is a dragonfly.

I found both the shading and the the eye impressive here.

Another view of the surrounding area. (Photo by Peggy Mekemson.)

Part of the mystery for me is trying to figure out what I am looking at. The triangle in the box is obvious as is the circle on the right. But is that a skull above the triangle with chin, mouth and eyes? Is there an arm over to the left? Or is my imagination working overtime again?

I’ll close my Three Rivers’ posts with photos of my favorite rock art from the site: this mountain lion with its tail proudly folded over his back.

A look at the rock including other rock art.

Looking up at the rock from below. My final photo today.

MONDAY’S POST: Think you have to go traipsing off to remote corners of the Southwest to find petroglyphs? Think again. The Petroglyph National Monument sits on the edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico. You can be there within 15 minutes from downtown.

While Dead Men Tell No Tales, Dead Trees Do… The Wednesday Photo Essay

March 11, 2020March 10, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 29 Comments

Dead men tell no tales, or so they say. But dead trees talk back to you. At least it seems that way to me. I was backpacking into the Marble Mountains when I came upon this face on a burned tree. Was it saying, “Go back!”? Or maybe it was standing in for Smokey the Bear.

I’ve been hard at work on my next book: It’s 4 AM and a Bear Is Standing on Top of Me. In it I tell stories from 50 years of wilderness adventures ending with my 750 mile backpack trip down the Pacific Crest Trail to celebrate my 75th birthday. I’ve reached the point now where I am about to embark on the last section, my hike down the PCT. In preparation I’ve been going through my photos of the trip for inspiration as well as to jog my memory.

As I reviewed photos, I was struck by the idea that they would make appropriate content for my Wednesday Photo Essays. Rather than follow my days, which I more or less did in the blogs I wrote about the adventure, I’ve decided it would be fun to do a categorical approach and look at flowers, trees (mainly dead trees that have unique personalities), rock formations including mountains, and streams and lakes. There may be other categories as well. Today, I am going to include trees and brush I found particularly interesting. (I have a lot more but will alternate with flowers, etc. to keep things interesting.)

There is something almost heroic about this dead tree my nephew Jay Dallen and I found in the Trinity Alps. We both took numerous photos. I could imagine Michelangelo capturing this tree in marble.

I captured this photo by using rocks as a frame. The rocks shared a similar tortured look.

The tree encouraged close-ups and photos from several different angles. Jay and I must have been there for 30 minutes.

Dead manzanita lends itself to dramatic photos. The rock that the manzanita had grown over creates a close to perfect backdrop.

As you know, I have an active imagination when it comes to seeing faces in rocks and wood.

This was one of the most interesting I have ever seen. I looked through a knot hole and this peered back at me.

I’ve always liked this statement by Joseph Campbell. If you find yourself falling off a cliff, “Dive!” Why not.

Are you a fan of “Lord of the Rings”? This sculpture that also led my nephew Jay and I to take numerous photos struck me as an Ent in search of Ent wives. Or maybe he was tearing out rocks to bring throw down at Sauron.

A closer look at the sculpture in its dramatic setting.

A black and white of the top of the ‘Ent’ sculpture.

Of course most of the trees along the PCT are happily living. I always like crown shots like this.

High altitudes with cold temperatures and high winds do their own unique job of sculpting trees. My father loved to paint trees like this.

This manzanita bush had plenty of beauty on its own but it didn’t hurt to have distant mountains including Mt. Shasta as a backdrop.

One should never discount the possibility of using a convenient tree as a chair! Peggy said it was quite comfortable.

Moss often adds a bit of color to dead trees.

Nothing tells a story like old trail blazes left behind by explorers and pioneers to mark their trails. It’s a good place to end this post. If you have ever heard the expression, “Where in the blazes are we?,” this is where it came from.

FRIDAY’S POST: I am going to do a wrap on the petroglyphs from the Three Rivers National Petroglyph Recreation Area. (I still have two more petroglyph posts covering other areas we visited on our fall Southwestern tour.)

A Bit of Humor Among the Rocks… The Petroglyphs of Three Rivers

March 9, 2020March 8, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 11 Comments

Who would have ever thought that we would find a cow on a pedestal giving us ‘the look’ at the Three Rivers petroglyph site in New Mexico! Wait, there weren’t any cattle in North America when this petroglyph was made and the ‘cow’ isn’t standing on a pedestal, it is standing on its tail. And a big tail it is!

My blogging friend Cindy Knoke, who also likes petroglyphs, commented on my Sego Canyon post that it is “fun to try and interpret” rock art. And she’s right. Rock art can range from being a few hundred to several thousands of years old. The best we can do is make educated guesses about what the petroglyphs mean— and this, in turn, gives us a lot of room to use our imagination. Today I am going to take even more liberties in my interpretation and go looking for humor among the rocks. Hopefully the shamans won’t zap me.

I know that some of you are punctuation geeks. Obviously, I’m not. But I depend on Peggy to catch some of my more glaring errors. For example, I am constantly adding an apostrophe to “its” when none is needed. I know the difference, but apparently my fingers don’t. I ask all of you, however, do you think an apostrophe is required here?

I had to look twice, and maybe even three times. These shamans have created an imaginary bus for their journey into the other world— and imaginary seats.

This woman (or girl) is having a bad hair day. “I recognize that, ” Peggy says.

Speaking of having a bad day, I’d say that this Bighorn sheep qualifies. And that’s definitely a ‘why me’ expression on its face.

The problem for the guy with arrows is minimal comparison to this fellow who had turned around to see why his front legs are missing and discovered a badger draped across his body eating his back legs as well. The expression here is more like ‘What the…!”

The only solution is to get out while the getting is good, as fast as you can.

If you think your life is complicated… The rabbit is keeping its distance while the stick figures throw up their hands in dismay. Meanwhile a lizard uses its laser eyes to avoid the confusion. Don’t you just hate it when your day starts like this one.

Lest there be any doubt, a really big Bigfoot. The turkey can only look on with awe. But just how big ?

Cat Woman has an idea. And check out her expression.

I kid you not. And I certainly wouldn’t pull your tail. Ouch!

Okay, it appears that this frog has learned how to juggle. But sitting on a pointy thing while juggling? It brings the art form to a whole new level! Forget your flagpole sitters. This is the real thing.

It seems like Kilroy was here. With that thought, I’ll conclude today’s post.

WEDNESDAY’S POST: I have been working on my backpacking book, “It’s Five AM and a Bear Is Standing on Me.” I’m to the point now where I am writing the section on the 750 mile backpack trip I did two summers ago down the PCT to celebrate my 75th birthday. I’ve been going through my photos of the journey for inspiration and as a reminder. I decided it would be fun to rerun some of the photos in categories: trees, flowers, rocks, streams and lakes, etc. The should keep us busy for a few Wednesdays.

FRIDAY’S POST: I’ll do a wrap on Three Rivers Petroglyph National Recreation Area.

When the Snake in the Grass Is a God… The Plumed Serpents of Three Rivers

March 6, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 13 Comments

Peggy demonstrates our normal reaction to snakes hiding in the grass— or just wandering among the rocks, minding their own business.

Panamint Rattlesnake in Death Valley. — What to look out for! (Peggy and I found this fellow in Death Valley.) Note the distinctive viper head. You will see it on several of the snake petroglyphs that follow.

I’m convinced that a deep fear of snakes is programmed into our brains. It’s an instinctual reaction that suggests we vacate the premises— a trait that we share with other members of the animal kingdom. I was playing with my cat Rasputin in Africa once when I rolled a spring from our screen door at him. I thought he would view the spring as a toy and pounce on it. Instead he jumped four feet into the air and ended up six feet away. Liberians view all snakes as poisonous and Rasputin was 100% Liberian when it came to snakes. He had quickly determined that the spring was a snake and leapt into action— literally.

I’ve pulled a Rasputin myself a few times— especially when I am out in the woods and hear the distinctive buzz of a rattlesnake that I can’t see. It’s guaranteed to increase your heart rate. Once I stepped on a log and it started buzzing. I ended up 30 feet down the trail in one prodigious leap. (Slight exaggeration.) Rasputin would have been proud of me. Had a track coach seen me, I would have been entered in the Olympics.

Our Christian heritage in the West added to our instinctual dislike of our slithery brethren. Everyone knows the Biblical tale of how Eve was seduced into sneaking a snack from a snake and ended up being banned from Eden forever along with her significant other, Adam. The snake has had a bad rap ever since. Eve and Adam didn’t come out all that well either, especially Eve. I’ve always thought that God overacted when they broke his commandment that ignorance is bliss. A little knowledge and out came the fig leaf, okay, but was the flaming sword really necessary.

Ancient cultures have had a different perspective on snakes. The fact that they shed their skin annually suggested immortality. Your old body isn’t working quite the way it should? Fine. Get a new one. (This is particularly attractive to newly-turned 77-year olds.) As a result, snakes were considered sacred. If you’ve visited ancient sites in Mexico and Central America, the odds are you are familiar with Quetzalcóatl, the plumed serpent, the Toltec/Aztec/Mayan god of the wind and lots of other things.

Here’s an early representation of Quetzalcoatl blowing up a storm.

Given his importance to these cultures, it isn’t surprising that Quetzalcoatl made his way north and became part of the mythology of early people living in the Southwest. We found a number of petroglyph serpents crawling over the rocks of Three Rivers. I should point out here that the snakes weren’t just any old snakes. They were rattlesnakes! I’d also like to report that Peggy was quite pleased that we didn’t find any live representatives of the clan among the rocks.

This rattlesnake didn’t let a crack in the rock slow him down. He just slithered right through it. Apparently the guy to the left of the snake’s head is quite excited. As he should be, given the relative size.

We probably don’t want to know what this snake had for lunch. Snakes eat their meals whole. Once, when I was leading a backpack trip, a highway patrolman who was along shot a large timber rattler. While I was irritated that he killed the snake, we slit it open and found a whole ground squirrel inside. We then cut the snake up, cooked it in butter, and ate it. Waste not want not. Right?

This was a particularly large rattler. It reminded me of the one that Peggy and I had found in Death Valley.

And check out this guy! Had I met up with this fellow in real life, I wouldn’t have hung around to photograph it! (Yes, you would have, Peggy says.)

I liked the way this plumed serpent had been outlined.

This snake climbed right up the rock. A dog or coyote seems to be checking it out on the right while a bird, probably a turkey, follows along on the left. But maybe it is a roadrunner looking for a free lunch.

And here, a very long plumed serpent makes its way down a rock and is also checked out.

If one snake crawling down a rock is good, are two better?

In this petroglyph a snake with bright eyes crawls up a rock under a crook, which is another sacred symbol, toward what is probably a shaman. This rock was around 15 feet tall to give you a perspective. I’ll conclude here for the day before I give you snake nightmares…

NEXT POSTS: Not exactly sure what I will focus on, but it will be petroglyphs for another week.

Sego Canyon… Do Petroglyphs Get Any Stranger?

March 4, 2020March 3, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 26 Comments

I am still off celebrating my birthday week. Since I am in my seventh decade, I get seven days. I started the practice way back when I was a youngster of 50. I took five days off each year during that decade and made darn sure they were work days. Being retired, I have more flexibility. (Grin) What this means now is that I am reposting another blog from my past. This one is from 2017 so several of you may have already seen it. Not to worry. These petroglyphs are alien enough they are worth visiting again. Looking at them again, I thought of the post I just did on shamans of Three Rivers. Check out the photo below. Does it get stranger than this? Enjoy.

These larger-than-life pictographs at Sego Canyon in Utah are among the strangest I have ever seen. Now add in the fact that they are several thousand years old. And what’s with the pictograph on the right? Also, check out this guy’s spiky hairdo.Are they antennae?

Zipping along Interstate 70 in Utah, you might very well decide to take a detour and visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. It is a decision you will never regret. The odds are, however, that you will miss the small road that extends north of the Arches turnoff heading toward the town of Thompson Springs. In so doing so, you will miss the opportunity to visit one of the most magical and mysterious rock art sites in the Western United States: Sego Canyon.

Quivera the Van waits patiently in Sego Canon as Peggy and I wander around looking for rock art. Most of it is located on the two rock faces below. Peggy watches as I work my way up closer to the petroglyphs.

Most of the rock art at Sego Canyon is found on the two faces of this large rock. I am hidden in front of the brush.

This is another rock face that Peggy and I checked for petroglyphs in Sego Canyon. We didn’t find any rock art but the rock itself was quite unusual. I could see why early Americans might have considered the area sacred. Can you find the alien Roswell skull? Or is that Indiana Jones?

Three different historical periods are represented in the rock art here dating back over a period of 6,000 years. The most fascinating to me are the pictographs left behind during the Archaic period by nomads who roamed the area from 8,000 to 2,000 years ago. The large, anthropomorphic forms that are painted on the rock normally lack eyes, arms and legs but may come with antennae, snakes and earrings. Known as the Barrier Canyon Style, it’s hard not to think of these pictographs as alien, or at least imagine a shaman encountering these creatures on a drug induced journey into an alien world.

Dave Kingsbury, one of my followers from England, and I were discussing cults where people run around with rattlesnakes in their hands. We both agreed that such sport wasn’t for us. This horned pictograph from the Archaic period seems to have a thing for snakes. Possibly he belonged to such a cult. Or possibly he was a very powerful shaman.

Or maybe something else. I see this and I want to say, “Take me to your leader.”

I find these jellyfish-like pictographs even more mysterious than the anthropomorphs. UFO fans might describe it as a space ship taking off, but hey, maybe it is a jellyfish. Or likely something else.

This shot provides a view of how some of the pictographs fit together on the right side of snake man.

A final shot from the Archaic period. I found these pictographs a bit ghostly.

The Fremont Culture took over from the Archaic period and lasted from 600 CE to 1200 CE. Unlike the nomadic Archaic peoples, the natives of the Fremont period grew corn, lived in permanent stone buildings, and had a complex social structure. Most of the rock art they left behind is in petroglyph form, pecked into rather than painted on the rock.

The Fremont era had its own strange figures, but these were loaded down with jewelry. I found the hand interesting. I wonder if it is holding Datura seeds. It looks a bit like a foot walking in the circle. And there is a Big Horn sheep. It is rare to find petroglyph sites in the west that don’t include them.

A close up of the two figures with another ghostly one to the right. There is also another hand and another sheep, a fat fellow. The tiny figure on the left looks more like a deer to me.

And finally, we have the more modern Ute Culture that populated the area from 1300 to 1880 CE, when the Utes were forced out of their homes and onto Indian Reservations so pioneers could grab their land. One way to distinguish petroglyphs from this period is the presence of horses, which the Spaniards brought to North America in the Sixteenth Century. In fact, horses are a major tool used in dating rock art.

This Ute rock art featured what is thought to be a shield. I’d say that the horse is about to become horse meat. But wait, is that a small man on the back of the horse? Maybe he is the enemy.

Ute Indians seem to hunt buffalo in this scene, which will be my last for Sego Canyon. If you ever find yourself in the area, don’t miss the opportunity to explore this fascinating site.

NEXT POST: It’s all about snakes. I hope you like creepy crawlies. I do.

Dinosaur National Monument Petroglyphs

March 3, 2020 / Curt Mekemson / 24 Comments

It’s my 77th birthday today, and, since this is petroglyph week, I decided to repost a couple of older blogs although I may be a tad sensitive about the ‘older’ designation. (Grin) Actually Peggy bought me a new light weight sleeping bag. She wants us to do Oregon next year following the PCT from the Oregon border to the Washington border. We are still thinking ‘younger’ around here. Anyway, enjoy the petroglyphs of Dinosaur National Monument today and Sego Canyon tomorrow. On Friday, I’ll be back on schedule, maybe, with the Snakes of Three Rivers petroglyph site! Also, I will hold on responding to comments and checking in on your blogs, but I will get there on Friday and the weekend. Now it is time to go play! We are on the Oregon Coast again, this time in Florence.

Like much Indian rock-art, Cub Creek petroglyphs in Dinosaur National Monument raise intriguing questions. It would be fascinating to know the story behind this unique anthropomorphic figure. What do the lines stretching toward the sky represent?

Peggy and I crossed over the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument and followed the road toward the cabin of Josie Basset Morris, a tough old pioneer woman who had worked her way through five husbands and finally discovered she preferred living alone.

The river, mountains and distant vistas entertained us along the way. Two prominent landmarks, Elephant Toes and Turtle Rock, lived up to the names the early settlers had bestowed on them. I found the big toes particularly amusing.

Elephant Toes Rock in Dinosaur National Monument along the Cub Creek Road.

While not as humorous as Elephant Toes, the turtle of Turtle Rock is easy to see. Both Native Americans and pioneers were quick to see and name familiar figures in the landscape.

The true surprise on our way to Josie’s, however, was the Indian rock-art. Huge six-foot lizards had been pecked into the cliff faces high above the Cub Creek Valley. One can only wonder if the Native Americans of the Fremont Culture had somehow made the correlation between dinosaur bones found throughout Dinosaur National Monument and really big lizards. Or did small lizards so prominent in desert environment serve as the models?

Our van, Quivera, provides perspective on how high up in the cliffs the Cub Creek petroglyphs are.

Giant, six-foot long, rock-art lizards work their way up the rock face at Cub Creek. Are they representative of the dinosaur bones Native Americans found at Dinosaur National Monument?

Or did the giant petroglyph lizards represent the small lizards so prominent in the arid regions of the West? This guy was curious about my camera.

Numerous other petroglyphs also demanded our attention. We even found a partial image of Kokopelli, the hunch backed flute player found in ancient rock-art from Mexico to Canada and whose image has been applied on everything from jewelry, to blankets, to pottery in today’s gift shops throughout the West. Kokopelli was both a musician and trickster god, but mainly he was a fertility deity known for his bad behavior. Watch out fair maidens one and all.