We tried to make it back into Hammond Canyon agian last week but got snowed out so we ended up going further south to escape the storm.

Above is the satellite photo of where we rode, the color and form are pretty amazing so I thought I would post it.

Any guesses on where this is?

Life on a Ledge

This sky city is the most amazing setting of any Ancestral Puebloan structure I have ever visited. It was rarely visited but is becoming more popular with people publishing its location on websites, which I will not be doing. If you do find it treat it with respect, do not walk on the roof of the kiva, I am afraid it will not take many more people standing on it.

This is an ideal spot, it has only one way in and a fairly permanent water source on the ledge. The site is so exposed that it makes you a little uncomfortable even being there, but people lived thier lives out there in this little village on the edge of the great abyss.

Beautiful intact kiva, all pilasters and roof in place and much of the stucco still sticking to the walls. One wall has fallen into the canyon.I hope the Ancients don't mind me taking a picture of their sacred places, or maybe we just project our ideas of sacred onto these places and they were much more utilitarian to those that spent cold winters on this ledge.

The view out the kiva, which is perched right on the edge of an amazing cliff

Ty walking the sidewalk


Hanging out on the front porch

The kiva site

Cottonwoods and Kivas

We made it back down to Cedar Mesa for a fall trip. We went down Shieks Canyon and hiked up Grand Gulch to the Kane Gulch Ranger Station. This part of the Colorado Plateau continues to amaze me.

Toad hanging out on the front porch of the Lion Track House, so named for its pair of mountain lion track petroglyphs

Kiva and Cottonwoods at Junction House

Junction House, an original ladder is hanging out on the far left. I cannot imagine how they were able to haul tons of rock, mortar and timber up these faces to make thier homes.

4 hour old Bear tracks

Seems a bear wandered about 20 feet from our camp Sunday night

800 hundred year old bear track at Turkey Pen House. Seems that the Corn Eaters had bear on their minds as well.

Communing with the Basketmakers and Corn Eaters

First view of the inaccesible portion of Turkey Pen Ruin
Two anthropomorphs hanging out in an overhang

Tyler looking for a way down from the Thumb Ruins

Sunset in the canyons

The famous Green Mask. This site is significant for a number of reasons. The first being that a full face scalp painted exactly like this pictograph was found in northeast Arizona, second Wetherill found the "Princess" here beneath this mask. The Princess was a female Basketmaker burial, her body was painted red and her face yellow, hair intact, buried with two turkey feather blankets (one containing bluebird feathers the other yellow feathers) and several large baskets on her head. Evidence of cannibalism was also found at this site. It is details of everyday life and the rituals of these people that intrigue me. I really want to know what life was like living in these alcoves.

Ghosts of Horses

On Prarie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor was describing his memories of fall and what things he associated with the season. As usual he was right on.

He said something to the effect that "Fall smells like wet grass, woodsmoke, apples and horses. Even when horses aren't around you can smell them in the Fall. The ghosts of horses from your youth"

Me and Padre smelling like horses in the Fall

Fall Light

It is not only the leaves that change this time of year, the lighting changes pretty dramatically as well. It is not so harsh and direct, much more slanted and richer.

Today as I was driving off the mountain through Castle Valley I timed it perfectly and was able to experience some incredible fall light on Castleton Tower and the Preist and the Nuns. The light was coming in underneath an approaching storm and just over the Porcupine Rim. It took me awhile to get home as I had to keep stopping and taking pictures.