Saturday, March 14, 2009

McElmo Canyon

Utah and Colorado

Today was my first outing with the Archeology Club that I just joined.  While I waited for everyone to get organized, a woman named Pattie started talking to me.  When the group leader asked who needed a ride and I raised my hand, Pattie offered to let me ride with them.  So, I went there with Pattie, her husband, Ray, and a physician's assistant-in-training, Melissa.  Off we went.  It had snowed the day before, and from Durango to Mancos was a beautiful white, winter wonderland, with snow and frost making everything wonderfully scenic.  The place we were headed was out past Cortez, about an hour and a half from Durango.

First we stopped at a grocery store in Cortez to use the restroom (last one on the trip), and to buy some donuts.  Yes, I ate one.  I had to.  Peer pressure, ya know?

As we drive toward our final destination, I am amazed at what I see.  It is like a mini Largo Canyon.  It is not as beautiful as Largo, but it was a close second.  It all looked so "familiar!"  I loved the area . . . lots of horses, canyons, cattle . . . my kind of place.

Our first official archeology stop was at a place called Ismay Trading Post.  The guy that owned it, Robert, had the key to the gate for what we were about to see.  It's his land.  He's a quiet guy of few words, and his trading post matched.  There were a variety of items, a few cans of beans, a few cans of soup, a few mousetraps, some soft drinks and bottled water, some hand made Indian Jewelry, and a beautiful Navajo rug.  Not much else!

We drove off on a close by road and stopped on the dirt road.  We climbed up toward a large rock, and there on the face of it were some cool petroglyphs.  There were lines carved in, also.  I haven't seen them before.  They have some kind of meaning, but we don't know what.  Then, I climbed up quite a ways to see the ruins of a pueblito.  There wasn't much of it left.   After showing us some of the pottery shards in the area, we got back in our cars and moved on to the next spot.

This was deep into private land.  We had to go through a locked gate (with a key!)  Then we got out and walked around another rock with cool petroglyphs on it, including one of a pregnant woman!  Very cool.  If you want to see that, let me know and I'll email you a bigger copy.  If I put it on this blog, it would be too small to see.

Then, back in our cars again, out through the gate, and on to the next spot.  After parking, we climbed up a hillside, sat on rocks, and ate our lunch while a couple of the archeology/geology guru's told us interesting stuff.  Then we walked on over to the ruins.  I found a piece of pottery . . . took a picture of it . . . and left it so other people could see how cool it was.  It's illegal to collect pottery shards on public lands, and I signed an agreement when I joined the club that I wouldn't do that . . . even on private land.

After this, Ray wanted to take us to a place he had been last week when he went with the guys scoping out the trip.  He said that it was a cool ruin that wasn't all a pile of stones . . . which a lot of them are now.  He asked if I wanted to go, or if I wanted to go on with the group.  Yeah, I'll go!  Cannonball Ruin was very cool.  And he showed us where there water supply was, and that was beautiful, too.  It was a nice little detour.

Then, we went on to meet with the rest of the group at Sand Canyon, but they were just finishing the hike.  We did the hike ourselves, and it was pretty cool also.  After such a long day, I wasn't sure I could make this hike, because it was the longest walk so far, but I made it!  Besides the ruins in Sand Canyon, it's a very beautiful place with nice rock formations.

Pictures:  Ismay Trading Post; Petroglyphs - the things that look like upside down peace symbols in the middle are actually turkey tracks, a common petroglyph drawing; piece of pottery