El Malpais Summer Solstice

June 19, 2010 -- Following our epic hike to Keet Seel, we jumped back into the car and cruised our way from Kayenta, Arizona across the Navajo Nation to the BLM campground at El Malpais, NM. The goal was simply to catch a few hours of sleep and then awake for a solstice observing party at an unpublicized petroglyph at the crest of a mesa top at the south end of El Malpais.

Meeting our group at 4:30AM we hiked to the spot where we thought we had the best chance of observing the sun making shadows across petroglyphs at sunrise. Summer solstice is actually Monday June 20th but there is a window of a couple of days which the same effects can be seen.

To our observation there wasn't a shadow on the petroglyphs we had originally thought but around the corner my dad was first to witness the shadow illuminating the corner of a spiral glyph and in tandem with marking another glyph in sync.

It was exciting to see just how the ancients could mark time and dream of their technologies and purposes.

After the morning sunrise we ascended to the top of the mesa to an undisclosed ruin of a large Pueblo ruin.

While many supposed that this ruin with as many as 80 rooms was never occupied my dad and I found a number of artifacts and pottery shards which raises evidence that this was occupied.

Following our exploration of the ruins we traveled with our new friends across the canyon to another impressive petroglyph site with more impressive petroglyphs or pictographs.

There was a small cemetery which welcomed us to the site and we all thought we were dead too when our friend placed his backpack next to rattlesnake which coiled and hissed.

Another excellent way to great the day in the Southwest!

Along the banks of the Rio Puerco

I have some favorite places along the eroding banks of the Rio Puerco. For most of the year the small tributary river is a dry bed of sand and eroding banks, but for a few brief weeks during the spring the Rio Puerco carries water from the north to the Rio Grande to the south.

Getting to the Rio Puerco is almost as much of an enjoyment for me as the destination itself. Not far from the dry river banks where I've spent time in the past rock hounding for Agate, Jasper and Petrified wood is access to the river and the incredible vistas of a barren desert.

As I spend more time escaping the world in this desolate and barren landscape my eyes have better trained themselves to notice the beauty and treasures others most assuredly overlook. I now can spot out countless pottery shards washed up on the desolate banks- hollow echoes that this was once a place of economy and life.

There is a peace and calmness only per solitude can give. Of course, my tranquility is quickly shattered when I nearly step into a hole and encourage the desert to come alive in anger as the rattling of a serpent reminds me that while from a distance the desert is empty, the reality is that this land is "occupied"!