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.
I’ve always been a big fan of the petroglyphs and pictographs left behind by the ancient peoples of the Southwest. Religious rituals or prehistoric graffiti? Hard to say. I sometimes wonder what future archaeologists will make of the artwork found on railroad cars and inner-city walls.
There are over 21,000 petroglyphs at 3 Rivers.
I made it a mission many years ago, when I worked ski resorts in the winter, to spend a month each spring on the Colorado Plateau searching out ancient rock art sites, trying to see and photograph as many as possible before they were ruined or degraded by ignorant yahoos with shotguns and spray paint.
I’m still enthralled with these signs left from the people who came before us. That’s why I was so excited to find Three Rivers. Three Rivers Petroglyphs Site has a LOT of rock art. Over 21,000 individual petroglyphs can be found here, most accessible along a rough mile-long trail from the campground. The Jornada Mogollon people were the artists, decorating the rocks between 900 and 1400 AD. They also had a village nearby, which can be reached by another short trail.
Religious significance or graffiti? Who knows?
I planned to camp when I got there, but when I arrived I found the BLM campground quite unappealing. A gravel lot with a few mesquite trees planted for shade, the sites were too close together and afforded little to no privacy. But I learned that there was a much nicer Forest Service campground, also called Three Rivers, just 12 miles away. I decided to check it out.
The Forest Service Campground was beautiful. All day long, though, for some reason, I’d felt uneasy about camping. My instincts were sending me red flags, but I didn’t know why. The area was fairly remote. Was I too close to the border to be camping solo? I really wanted to stay, but the neon DANGER sign wouldn’t quit flashing in my mind. I equivocated with myself – if there were others camped there I would stay – safety in numbers – if not, I would have to leave.
From the Forest Service 3 Rivers Campground, a trail leads up the canyon deep into the heart of the White Mountain Wilderness.
The camping spots were spacious and inviting. I toured the campground. Someone was parked in the Host spot. I saw one other occupied campsite. The old gentleman relaxing in the sun there looked like Santa Claus. I got no danger vibes from him. I passed a campsite filled with a herd of mule deer. That’s my spot! I really wanted to stay there. I parked and walked down to the registration board to claim my campsite.
But the danger signals wouldn’t go away. Would a bear come and molest my camp? There were numerous bear warning signs, both in the campground and at the trailhead. I watched the heavy cloud of a winter snowstorm settle on the peak at the head of the canyon. Would the snow level drop and make it a cold and miserable night? Was it something else? I really wanted to stay and decided to ignore my uneasy feelings.
Deer at my campsite!
I set up my camp chair but didn’t set up my camp yet. I just soaked in the sunshine and reveled in the peace. Then I heard a horrifying scream, kind of a combination of a scream and a bray, immediately followed by the high-pitched singing of a pack of coyotes. The sound kept reverberating, incredibly loud, echoing throughout the canyon.
Wow. I think I had just heard a pack of coyotes kill a large animal. Were there wild burros here? The bray kind of sounded like a burro. Or was it a deer dying? It was one of the wildest sounds I’d ever heard. Now I REALLY wanted to stay. But I still felt so, so uneasy.
I reached into my truck to get out a bird guide to identify some of the songbirds fluttering around near my camp. As I turned around to close the door, I caught a glimpse of a coyote running up the hill, less than 20 yards away, He was a big mountain coyote, not a scrawny Wile E. desert coyote. This place was getting more awesome every minute! But, still… I learned a long time ago to listen to my instincts. But it was so wild and beautiful.
New Mexico is full of surprises!
It was almost sunset, and I needed to commit. Just then, a man walked by my campsite. I think he was the campground host. In a distinctly unfriendly tone of voice, he said, “Oh, there is somebody staying here.” I said “Hi, how’s it going”, and he morosely replied, “I’m alive.”
OK, the red flags are flying. My instincts are screaming at me now. Suddenly the barren BLM Three Rivers Petroglyphs campground is looking good.
I stayed until sunset because I really didn’t want to leave, then headed up the road. As soon as I pulled away from the canyon, the heavy, leaden uneasiness I’d felt all day evaporated like a puff of smoke. I’ll never know why I felt so uneasy, but I’m glad I visited and didn’t stay.
Back at the BLM campground, there was only one other camper, another solo woman. It turned out to be a fabulous place to spend the night.
I’ll be back to Three Petroglyphs one day. I want to stay at that wonderful Forest Service campground on a day when my red flags aren’t flying, and hike the trail into the canyon.
Petroglyphs everywhere!
I want to stay at the BLM campground again too, for another reason. I stopped at the Tularosa Basin Gallery of Photography in Carrizozo, a sleepy little town north of Three Rivers. It’s the largest photography gallery in the state of New Mexico, and I discovered a new favorite photographer, Wayne Suggs.
His night sky shots of the petroglyphs are some of the most incredible I’ve ever seen. After seeing his images, everything else in the gallery seemed inconsequential. His work is phenomenal. One day I would like to take a workshop and learn from this master, then go back to Three Rivers and photograph the night sky.
