Sometimes messages are loud and clear and easy to read. We especially try to do this with warnings.
Getting to McCarthy is not always easy.
Sometimes they need a little interpretation.
Residents of the Wrangells really like their guns.But are generally kind, loving people.
Sometimes we read messages from the past, but can no longer understand them.
These petroglyphs are nearly a thousand years old.What does this mean?
Sometimes what might seem like a message is just a coincidence.
Truth in advertising?
But sometimes we think a clear message is just a coincidence.
Melting permafrost due to climate change is trouble for Alaska roads.
Nature sends us lots of messages. Some are easy to read.
A Kangaroo Rat came by here last night.Termination dust (snow) means it’s time for snowbirds to fly.
This message I read loud and clear every autumn.
Leaves are falling all around It’s time I was on my way
Sometimes Nature’s messages need a little interpretation. For instance, when an animal turns its back to you like this, they’re saying, “I’m pretending you’re not there. Now go away and leave me alone!”
Leave me alone!
Or when the fireweed reaches the top of its stem, it means summer is over.
Summer is ending!
We ignore some of nature’s messages at our own peril.
Be bear aware!
Here’s another one we are ignoring at our own peril. Global climate change is real. Sea levels are rising. I awoke one day last month to find that the sea had invaded the yard and the ocean was throwing logs onto the lawn. The homeowners say this has never happened before, but I’m willing to bet it won’t be long before it happens again. Mother Nature is sending us clear messages. You might even call them warnings. We need to pay attention.
Sea levels are rising.
Thanks to Wind Kisses for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Messages.
When I saw that this week’s Lens-Artist’s Photography Challenge was geometry, I was at a bit of a loss at first. After all, I do primarily nature photography and although Mother Nature loves a circle or a sphere, she isn’t much into squares and cubes.
Trapezoids, circles and ovals
Then I happened to notice a similarity in the rock art of many of the ancestral peoples of the desert southwest. These folks were really into geometry! Even their sheep were made up of squares and rectangles.
Squares and circles on this petroglyph from Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in New Mexico.
Stylized, geometric depictions of people and animals can be found in rock art from the Fremont culture of northern Colorado and Utah to the Ancestral Puebloans of the Four Corners region to the Mogollon culture of southern New Mexico and Arizona.
Rectangles and squares – These ruins at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in southern New Mexico date back to the 1200s.
Most of the ruins and rock art date back 700 to 1100 years. There are thousands of sites throughout the canyons of the desert southwest, some in quite remote locations. It is so thrilling to walk around a bend in a canyon and discover these traces left behind by people who lived there a thousand years ago!
Rock art panel near Moab, Utah
My first backpacking trip into the desert was in Grand Gulch, Utah. Back then it was just BLM land, in the middle of nowhere. Now it is part of the disputed Bear’s Ears National Monument. After walking around many bends in the canyon and discovering rock art and ruins here, there and everywhere, I was hooked for life. Searching out Ancestral Puebloan sites on the Colorado Plateau became a hobby and a passion of mine every spring.
The trapezoidal body shape of this petroglyph is typical of Fremont Culture rock art.
By the end of the 1800s, many ruins were damaged and destroyed by pothunters, who would tear up the dwellings in their search for the buried treasure of the artifacts left behind. In 1906 the Antiquities Act was passed by Congress to protect these national treasures.
Agate House in Petrified Forest National Park was built out of petrified wood.
Since then, only 5 presidents have not used the Antiquities Act to protect additional lands (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Trump). Trump is the only president who has attempted to remove lands from Monument status.
Many rock art panels have been defaced by bullet holes and graffiti
Theft and vandalism are still major problems faced by those trying to preserve both ruins and rock art. When I worked at Death Valley, we were not allowed to publish any pictures of rock art in the park or disclose locations to visitors because people would literally chip the panels right off the cliffs!
Rectangles and circles on this rock art figure from Dinosaur National Monument
Graffiti and target practice deface many rock art panels. This damage is difficult and often impossible to repair. I can’t help but wonder why some people feel this need to destroy the work left behind by others. I just don’t understand it.
Triangles – Why would someone deface a painting that had lasted a thousand years?
Since enforcement is so difficult, the key may be education. If we can convince others of the value of these ancient artifacts, and how that value is enhanced by being left in place for future generations, perhaps we, and our grandchildren’s grandchildren, may enjoy the geometry of ages past for many more years to come.
