Petroglyphs and the Milky Way

 

After our slickrock hike in the Needles District we took the same way out of the park back to Highway 191 that we had been coming in - there is only this road in and out of the park. It's quite a long drive, but also a very exciting one. 

On our way in we had stopped at Newspaper Rock - a stop we always make when we're here. It's a rather large rock, larger than it appears in the above photo. It's a petroglyph panel etched in sandstone that records approx. 2000 years of early human activity. Prehistoric people etched in the rock from B.C. time to A.D. 1300. In historic time, Ute and Navajo people as well as European Americans made their contributions. Scholars are undecided in the meaning of the symbols and figures on the rock. It is not known whether the figures represent storytelling or clan symbols or hunting magic or... something else. In Navajo, the rock is called Tse' Hane' (Rock that tells a story) and I'm just going with the idea of storytelling.

See for yourself.

The next picture - well, you probably think that I am constantly taking pictures of bathrooms after I had shown you the signs in the Canyonlands bathrooms last week. No, I usually do NOT do that, but I had to here since I had never seen a bathroom with so much toilet paper. Please note that there is a lock at each bar - it's sad that you have to lock toilet paper so that it doesn't get stolen. 

And just a couple pictures from the road that I took in the morning when we were driving in the park. 

Isn't it amazing?

Then we left the park and drove South. We were slowly making our way back home. West of Bluff we took a dirt road to the Sand Island Petroglyphs - not quite as amazing as Newspaper Rock, but still worth the little detour.

The sun had already set when we arrived in Mexican Hat. On the way we had discussed whether we should visit Valley of the Gods again, but decided against it since it was getting late. (I noticed that I have never written about Valley of the Gods in this space - I certainly have to make good for that.) Sometime during the day we had booked a room in the Mexican Hat Lodge, the only open option to spend the night in this tiny place.

Years ago we had stayed here and at that time there was a "swinging steak" restaurant right next to the lodge. We were sitting outside (it was March and pretty chilly) and could watch how the steaks were cooked on the swinging grill. It was a very Wild West feeling. But alas! None of that was to be found in the dead of winter. However, our room was clean and warm, and there was a 7/11 across the street where we got some ramen and maccaroni salad. It was fine for one night.

It was such a quiet night, and since we were in the desert we headed out again to a dark spot off the highway. We got comfortable not quite on the hood of our car (but close enough) and watched the stars. What a show!

Yes, that is the Milky Way that you're seeing. It was so amazing. We think we saw Jupiter and tried to find some other constellations. We were only able to recognize Orion and the Big Dipper.

The Geek let the camera run for a while and got a 1-second result - I hope it plays.

Do you see the rock formation that gave Mexican Hat its name?

I will never forget this night. 

Signs from the Past (The Volcano Part 4)

Before I visited Kīlauea I had thought about volcanoes in terms of  lava, sulfur dioxide gas, eruptions, hot magma, bare land - devastation. I don't know why I didn't expect anybody living there after an eruption. If people lived there, where would they go?

When I learned in the visitor center about the Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs I knew that I wanted to see them. Petroglyphs have always fascinated me and I enjoyed the ones I saw in the American Southwest. The Pu'u Loa Petroglyph Trail is not a very long one but it runs over an old pāhoehoe lava flow and is marked with cairns. It is not a very long walk, just about 15 to 20 minutes to the petroglyphs.

Thousands of images were carved into the hardened lava representing everything from birth to death. And when I say birth I do mean birth.

Do you see the many small holes in this area of lava? They were created by parents who placed the umbilical cords from their newborns here for good luck. They were all over the place. 

I felt like taking a peek into the life of the ancient Hawai'ians who lived here. A few signs along the boardwalk that was leading through a part of the petroglyph field (so that no one would walk on them) described the life of the people who lived here. It was hard under harsh conditions. However, they didn't leave - and where should they have gone anyway? They probably only knew the area of the volcano.

You could never forget about the volcano here. Lava was everywhere, dark smooth pāhoehoe, it's omnipresent. There were bizarre shapes and forms.

The petroglyphs are only a short distance away from the end of the Chain of Craters Road. The present end. The lava end. The area where the lava of the current eruption from the Pu'u Ō'ō vent has overflown entire neighborhoods and wiped out a small town, including this road. Where the lava still flows and enters the ocean with a lot of sizzle and steam. Without any doubt it is the most fascinating part of the volcano.

Which will be written about in a future post...