Day 3 Fall Break

Day 3:  There are a lot of photos.  We loaded up in the truck early in the morning and didn't get home until 11:00 PM.  The day was full and fun.  Can you see it?  Can you see what we were looking and searching for all day?  Look close in the rock.

South of where we live is a place called Nine Mile Canyon.  Why it is called that is beyond me because the canyon is more like, 40 miles long.  It is literally an art gallery left by the Fremont and Ute Indians.

An art gallery that was more like a scavenger hunt.  We had a map.  A sort of map.   A really lousy one actually but because it was lousy it made it more of an adventure for us.  Most of the sites where you find these petroglyphs aren't marked.  On the 'map', it would tell us to drive so many miles and then to look for such and such.

So, we'd set out odometer and when it reached approximately where we thought it should be, we'd get out and start clambering and climbing around searching for more art work.

Some of the petroglyphs were closer to the road while others were quite a climb and took a bit of searching.

We loved the texture.  The Sheep.  Look at the little dots on the sheep depicting the wool.

Head dresses on the figures.  Lots of scorpions.  Most of the petroglyphs had a scorpion somewhere on them.

We also noticed that the Indians would find rocks like these that had a darker background and this is where they would carve their pictures.  Not always, but often.

This Native climbed up to this ledge which makes your heart stop to get a closer look at some art work up on the ledge.  I gave him my camera and had him take photos as I don't seem to have the ability to climb like I did when I was younger and not get woozy when looking down.

Climbing to the ledge wasn't good enough.  He and Mr. M had to climb to the very top.

I wonder how long it took them to carve out these pictures.

A perfect little nook.

Why can't this punk smile like a normal child??

A sphinx.
 

The petroglyphs are fascinating but this 'village' was even more so to me.

Hard to see but The Scout Master is climbing around with The Natives looking at all of the rocks that had been dug into that were made into homes for the Indians.  They would use the rocks as walls for their shelters.

Care to grind some flour?

Or maybe you'd rather take a stick and play in the water.

Hard to see in this photo but these rocks were a foundation to an Indian home.  I wish I could get a better birds eye view so you could see the rooms and hall way.

One lone Indian Paintbrush.  Very fitting we thought.

This structure was SO fascinating.  There are two big rocks on top of each other that made up the roof.  Under has been dug out and chipped out to form rooms and passages.  You can't stand up in these rooms which makes you wonder at just how comfortable this could possibly be.

I don't imagine that the Indians spent much time inside of here except in the winter perhaps.  It would have been great for protecting from the elements though.

This is what it looks like from the outside.  Sitting outside looking out at the valley below, it is spectacular!  Just gorgeous.  Why did I not take a picture?  Who knows............

This is taken from the other side.  The first photos were taken from the east side.  This is from the west side.

And this is more from the south side.

And this is where I had a heart attack when I realized that just beyond the doors of this shelter was this drop off!  My little Natives were climbing and playing all over before I got to them and I shudder to think if they'd come near this drop off before I got to them.   It does give you an idea though of the view from this structure and how beautiful the valley is below.

We called this the biffy.  Out door bathroom facilities.

This is actually a famous piece of art.  People have put this on t-shirts, have painted this scene.....

As you can see, it is called, "The Great Hunt".

A lovely spot to stop and have a picnic lunch.

But not before asking some other adventurous folks to take a picture of us.  Sad....... I don't like having one of my Natives missing.  Darn college exams!!  Mr. B wasn't able to go on this adventure with us either...

Levi.  Gosh I love this kid!

Take notice of Native Mr. C who won't let me take his picture.  He knows I am trying to get a picture of my boys sitting on the fence so he does this.

And this:

And this:
(I told him I see monkeys acting just like him.  Letting their food hang out of their mouths..... crossing their eyes.........)

More crossing of the eyes.........

Trying to get a good wad of food to stick out again.........

Making scrunchy faces..........

Sticking more food out.........

Sticking food out even further............ Mr. T is getting disgusted with his brother.

Charming isn't he?  Mr. T is completely turned away and Mr. M is bailing off the fence.

Back to the rock house with the drop off on the side.  This is from across the valley.  You can see the rock house about 3/4 of the way up the photo.

When we saw this photo we busted up laughing.  Mr. J is depicting what he sees in the petroglyphs but Henny Penny's shadow!!!  SHE'S A WITCH!

Normal.  Can I please just have one normal smile out of this punk?

Snakes.  My Native who loves anything reptilian and creepy crawly.  Shudder.......

I thought this one was charming.......  A family.

Mr. T knows I hate snakes so he wanted us to be sure and find the petroglyph that was a huge snake.  For me.   This photo was taken just for me.  At this point I was all for sitting in the truck and giving my camera to The Scout Master.  This is a gift to me from Mr. T.  So thoughtful.........

Again.  I think at this point I don't have to point out the punk in the middle and his lack of ability to smile normal.  He's been taking lessons from Mr. C

Sadly, there are those who had to go and scratch their own initials and graffiti into the rocks.  We saw a lot of this.  They (who ever 'they' is) are thinking about closing down this canyon so it can be preserved because of people who are defacing.

These dots were another thing we would see a lot of.  I don't know anything about petroglyphs to know what they mean.......

On the 'map' we were given, it told us to look for the rock that looked like Porky Pig.  Found it!  Do you see it?  This was the last set of petroglyphs we went searching for before heading home.  We were told to look for Porky Pig and around the corner behind we would find another panel of rocks with petroglphys on it.

And that folks, wraps up our Fall break.  The Natives are all back in school.  I am looking at buckets of apples they've picked off our trees and trying to get up the energy/desire to cut up all of those apples and make them into apple sauce.  I think I second what Henny Penny said on her way out the door this morning for school.  "I wish Fall Break was all this week too"!

Yeah.  Me too............