DESERT HIKES

Author Jerry Ahnert told us about  two distinct features marking  the “real” Butterfield/Immigrant Trail.  A place where children played with stones and an obvious encampment farther on.  Wednesday afternoon, a couple of hours before sunset, I decided to try to find the place where children played while Jim finished a book he was reading.

The terrain is rough and desolate, but beautiful in its own way.

Signs of human activity were fairly abundant. A placement of rock pointing in four directions? Did it indicate something of importance?

An old metal can. Did it hold water?

A piece of metal?  From what era?  Jerry told me when the travelers camped, children play with whatever is available to them. In this case, they placed stones around a bush. He dates his site by finding other artifacts such as bits of metal, buttons, and so on to authenticate the site.

I zig-zagged back and fourth and decided to follow the deepest runnel figuring the stage  would follow water.  I found many campfire spots and stacked rocks before  locating the bush with rocks stacked around it “where children played.”  But, even then I questioned. How can one be sure when those rocks were placed?  Wouldn’t that bush be dead by now? Jerry stated that this area is very stable, and changes very little. He has been hiking these places for sixty years.  The right place or not, the walk was invigorating, made purposeful by trying to find a historic site,  and I returned to catch a nice sunset.

In the morning, Jim decided we should try to find the encampment, so we spread out and searched for signs in two different areas. We could see in a distance the saddle, or pass, the stages had to cross over to get to the Gila River behind the Petroglyphs.

Again, there were many campfire spots. This one, I kicked a rock out of place and noticed how deeply it was buried. Deep enough to convince me it was an older spot. But, how much older?  No ash, small plants had grown into it.

An unusual shaped object once was buried in this spot. Could it have been a part of a stage coach?  Or an old frisbee?

More evidence of what we thought might be water cans. Lots of them, mostly crushed.

We found a deep wash, and several narrower washes running into it that drained the nearby mountain as the elevation increased. We speculated, could these ruts have been made by a stage coach. Both of us are remembering some of those old western movies we’ve seen. But, would a stage have driven inside the deep channel of a wash? So, I walked the bank and Jim stayed in the wash.

Our find!  The obvious encampment. Cans strewn down the embankment to the wash.

Shards of broken dishes, and a piece of rusted metal.

A piece of a thick milk glass bottle.

I love rusty stuff, but Jerry entrusted us with information and we would not loot this site for anything and left it as it was for the next (hopefully respectful) visitor.

We enjoyed a more leisurely pace on our return and took more pictures of scenic stuff.  I uploaded the pictures from our desert hikes if you’d like to see them at the following link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/DesertHike

I also uploaded my petroglyphs pictures if you would like to cruise through them.
https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/PaintedRockPetroglhyphs

PETROGLYPHS AND BUTTERFIELD

In 2009 we hiked to Fort Bowie, near Chiriacahua National Monument and caught a glimpse of the Butterfield Trail. I knew it was a stagecoach line to deliver the mail out west. We hadn't even read the BLM information on the Painted Rock Petroglyphs when we say hello to a stranger who just happens to be an expert on the Butterfield Trail and this whole area in general. He just published a book,  The Butterfield Trail And Overland Mail Company In Arizona. Jerry Ahnert's  book was identified by the government as the definitive historical work on the subject.

The Butterfield Trail ran from Missouri to the Pacific, 3,000 miles, a transcontinental highway, that passes near the petroglyphs. In fact, Butterfield was a New Yorker with stage lines in the East. He hired two guys, named Wells and Fargo. They all drove stages at one time, according to Jerry.

Petroglyphs have ancient origins and these are typical of two Indian Tribes, the Hohokam and Patayan who peopled this area as long ago as 4,000 years. Various indicators date them  as late as the 1600s. If I were to interpret this drawing, it appears to me to be a pregnant woman with a round fat middle. The experts call the fat drawings like this one lizard men?

An upside down figure of a man or animal is said to be dead.

A glyph from 1912 giving directions, it appears. The Old Immigrant Trail, The Morman Trail and other major expeditions traveled the same or similar routes through the West and passed near this obvious outcropping in a terrain that is distinctively flat.

A donkey or horse with a rider dates the drawing after the Spanish brought horses to North America.

A fish above a river.

Lizards, snakes, scorpions, are common themes.

To me, this resembles a child sitting down, the way children do. The experts I'm sure disagree.

The spirals are typical of Hohokam drawings.

Impossible to tell if the drawing is  a dog or a coyote. It had significance to the artist.

To me the main figure here resembles an elephant?  Could it be an older glyph of a  mammoth?

The figure near the bottom is possibly a bearded goat?
It was fun. I took way to many pictures. More tomorrow. But, the following picture is of a sign placed by the Mormon boy scouts approximately 50 years ago. They ventured forth to mark the Morman Trail. On that spot you can stand and envision Kit Carson, Big Foot Wallace and Pomp, Sacajawea's son who grew up to be a scout.



I'll publish an album of the "ancient graffiti"  within a few days. I have some culling to do.

RED ROCK CANYON

Red Rock Canyon lies twenty miles west of Las Vegas. You drive through gray desert and suddenly this huge outcropping pops out of the desert floor. Its on BLM land and is preserved for all to enjoy. The way to see it best is stop at the visitors center first. Great paintings and a video of wild life, wild flowers shows and critters run on a continuous loop. You pay seven dollars a car load to get into the gate. Its a thirteen mile drive with many pullouts for photo opportunities and entrances to marked hiking trails. People come here to hike, bike, ride horses and rock climb. The other alternative is to take a Fifty-nine dollar tour bus into the site.

The first area, called calico, we hiked a bit. I have to be careful because my right arm is in a sling and I can't take a chance on falling. We enjoyed watching the climbers practice on an easy perpendicular wall.

Jim enjoys taking photos and he is very good at it. Here the rocks look like pudding has puddled into great flat pancakes.

Well, maybe that isn't such a good shot of the pancakes.

Just add syrup.

The colors are incredible. One moment you are looking at white or beige and immediately next to it is deep red rock.

It appears as though a giant paint brush swabbed on the red.

The drive takes you on a loop that rises to 4,447 feet where other formations appear.
 
 We only spent a couple hours here, but I could easily have spent the whole day and hiked in to some of the interesting canyon sights, like petroglyphs.

 

When I spotted this rock from a distance, I thought it was petroglyphs, but it wasn't. The natural coloring is interesting even so.

The textures etched by sand and wind; the plants that survive severe climate, amaze.
This land is occupied by a host of animals, most likely visible by chance when hiking in the wilderness. And, wild burros are common here, though obviously not native. Signs on the road warn you to watch for burros crossing. The visitor center warns you not to feed them and how to avoid encounters with them.

The day was windy and cold. We strained to see mountain goats where grazing plants were obvious.

The sky was a stunning blue, the rocks will stand for centuries, and we can return another day.