Hiking Around the Canyon

After a hearty breakfast we regrouped and went on a hike. On this hike we saw the coolest lizard that I have ever seen. I would totally wear his outfit! His head was yellow gold and his body was bright blue with green stripes. As we watched him I believe we made him nervous and his colors began to change. As we walked on we would duck under large overhanging rocks for shade from the sun. It was a beautiful blue-sky day. Although it was hot there was a breeze and life was good. We hiked beside waterfalls and rumbling streams. This area is especially neat because there is direct evidence of the Precambrian shift. Where the Grand Canyon is so deep this canyon had walls about 200 feet high, but the rock layers are similar. There are millions of years of missing rock here. This means we were able to stand on the black rock of the Precambrian era without hiking down the depth of the Grand Canyon. It was pretty neat to see the drastic changes in the color of the rocks. The guides pointed out a rock hut that was the house of a prospector at the turn of the 20th century. As we walked to the back of the prospectors sweet crib there was the most perfectly carved sentence. His rock carving is better than my handwriting. The letters looked like type and he carved his name and the date he built his house or rocks piled against a large overhanging rock. It was really neat to see this and to try and imagine how he must have lived here in that canyon against and with the elements. I suppose it was not always good because above his house on the cliff wall there were a few gunshot holes. Yikes. We speculated that seeing as how he was a cowboy whiskey was probably involved. Further on we were lucky enough to spot some big horn sheep on the cliff side. They are so well acclimated to there niche it is awesome. They can hop along steep cliffs as though it were flat ground. They stayed in groups and although they were very aware of our presence they did not seem incredibly bothered as they continued to graze on the scarce vegetation. Soon we reached the highlight of the trail, which were the petroglyphs. Brad and I were pumped to be able to finally see some petroglyphs since everywhere else we were supposed to see them so far something had happened and we were unable. The first wall we arrived at with Petroglyphs had a few markings that were soo neat. Again it was cool to imagine the lives of these ancient people that called this land their home long before it was divided up into homesteads and sold. The real treat however was the second wall of petroglyphs. There were so many markings that it was hard to decipher any story line of reason to them. All the same they were so awe inspiring just to gawk at. There was one Petroglyph that I am pretty sure is the marking to represent a swan constellation. There were large dots where the stars are in the sky and lines to connect them as constellations are still drawn today. I pointed this out and the astronomer that was on the trip and she got really excited by this. We looked at the particular constellation that evening and the dots were drawn in the correct place so this could be the root of that petroglyph. There were many drawings of the big horn sheep and some that looked like turtles, rivers, people, and even monster like sketches. This wall was quite the canvas for ancient Americans to leave their mark on. Further up the trail were more constellations one in particular that for the life of me I can not figure out what it represents. Maybe a spirit animal. I do not know. Brad and I both liked this one and looked at it for a while. There were also some drawings with men on animals, which were neat to see. On the other rock that was probably older there were no people on the animals. Later when they drew animals often a man drawing straddled them. Just a bit of food for thought. We had an interesting discussion while looking at the ancient art. Things of this nature often inspire interesting conversations. This is one of the things I love about the outdoors; you are likely to have worth while conversation. It is so easy to get caught up in the world with entertainment that the art of conversation and the act of inward thinking suffers. We turned around to start the return journey. It was just the two of us walking together at this point. We happened to look up at the rock formations at the site of the stone prospectors house and we saw the most magnificant desert bighorn. He was standing on a rock while the others graze. he was keeping an eye on us but did not seem to alarmed. He just stood there and looked stoic with his curling horns and steady face. This is the best shot we got of him -

We were good and hot by this point and Brad and I especially were in desperate need of a shower. Before we showered we thought it was a good idea to get a bit dirtier. We put on life jackets, one as a shirt and one as a diaper. This transformed us into effective floating devices. Look how sassy we are in these outfits -

We got in the river at a swift current that required swimming to maneuver around a rock with some serious undertow issues. Dean said we looked capable so away we went. It really was not difficult to swim once you got the hang of it. The water was really shallow so while I was trying in vain to swim forwards belly down in the water the current was taking me wherever it desired. The breast stroke was the only effective one in my opinion. Once we were past the rock I flipped over and realized the most effective method under these conditions was the backstroke. We held hand and floated together with the current. It was neat to have the current do most of the work for you. We just propped up our feet and chilled and we floated in the river. The ride was bumpy in the shallows with muddy rocks rubbing our butts but we managed. Once we got out we really needed a shower. We had not showered since Larry and kasie’s so you can do the math. We did soak in hot tubs in between but there was no soap involved?!? From here we headed toward the sound of falling water.