Mom's Day at Weaver's Cave

Mother's Day is my favorite day. I love seeing my little boys grow up into sturdy, adventurous big boys. I am so lucky that they share my love of exploring (MOST TIMES). Today I got to choose the adventure -- and I had read about Weaver's Cave a while back -- and we tried to hike here in the fall. But it was a cold day, and there was a water hole that we just didn't think we'd get past. So today was the day we'd figure it out.

Hiking into the unknown amazingness that is planet Earth

Cave 1: Spirals

Posers

Called Weaver's Cave because of the unique pictographs inside a series of caves that depict a weaver's art, tools, and designs.

I like this weird thing behind me.

My hearts

So so rad. blankets? shawls?

cool

Not another human soul in sight. My perfect kinda day.

I love these people. They made my day 👌💓

Never stop exploring xoxo

The Clamshell: A local fav

Sometimes I just need to get outside for an hour or two -- after work -- as the sun is setting. JJ and I first tried to find an  elusive waterglyph nearby (FAIL) so instead I headed to a local favorite called The Clamshell.

My adventure buddy for the evening.

Concentric circles (my fav!) and footprint. RAD.

I love this particular glyph -- bc it's a mini waterglyph!!

Do you see the footprint?? :)

Man -- I forgot how cool this place is. If you're in Fredonia, AZ or Kanab, UT -- send me an email and I'll take ya here. LATER dudes. xoxo

Cup and Channel Glyph overlooking the Grand Canyon

This one took a little research to find. On my quest to find every cup and channel glyph (aka waterglyph), I came across a blog post showing this spectacular specimen and was suddenly obsessed with finding it (shocking, huh.)

Navigating to the particular spot was long and sandy. Mile and miles of long stretches over desert terrain, heading towards marble canyon in the Vermillion Cliffs. Basically the drive consisted of many wrong turns, stops to take pics of cows and wild flowers, and then scanning the landscape for anything that looked like the pic I saw online. Yeh, we were gone all day :)

Miles of this. Not bad :)

The area where this particular glyph was located turned out to be very close to the start of the Grand to Grand Ultra. I was getting all kinds of weird, nostalgic feelings.

We stopped a few places to get out and search for the glyph. Not a bad view anywhere once you get to the rim.

No glyph here --- but THAT VIEW

When plants are bigger than you

Taking a break with the Swags

Finally we saw another "finger" of the canyon that looked promising. So we decided to drive down one more dirt road. SUCCCCCCEESSSS!

This was such an awesome day with my favorite people. HIGH FIVE!

A steep climb to a RAD glyph

Another day, another glyph.  "Encouraged" the kids to help me find this one. We hiked way up to the top of a mesa overlooking Kanab Creek to the west. And we had success :)

So tired 😂

New Obsession: Waterglyphs

Double glyph that I found in Kanab, UT

There's a new type of petroglyph that I'm currently obsessed with 😁. These very distinct rock carvings are seen around the Arizona Strip region of the northern Southwest. And here in Kanab where I live, there's a whole bunch of them -- and I'm on a quest to find them all. ALL

So what ARE these glyphs, exactly? The locals call them water glyphs, because often they are found on rock outcroppings at the tops of mesas either pointing to or overlooking a water source. But, after finding a bunch of them, I'm not so sure that they have anything to do with water. I mean, why would Native Americans (research by Michael Louis Terlep in a 2012 thesis concluded that these petroglyphs date between the Basketmaker II and Pueblo II periods - 500 BC-1150 AD) need to carve into a rock to indicate water? Water is either seen easily from the glyph, or nearby and not hard to find.

Stumbled on this one during one of my trail runs 👍

The more proper name for these glyphs are "cup and channel". As noted in Terlep's thesis, "Cup and channel petroglyphs generally consist of several deeply pecked elements: a large circular or oval element measuring 35 cm to 75 cm in diameter; a narrow linear element, measuring from 2 to 5 cm wide, that spans the diameter of the circle; a wider exterior linear element, measuring from 10 cm to 150 cm long, by 6 cm to 10 cm wide, and up to 6 cm deep, continuing from the end of the interior line and circle; and one to four cupules measuring 3 cm to 7 cm in diameter."

Another cool one hangin' off the side of a rock - found on a trail run

The kiddos helped me find this RAD rad rock

I'm excited to find more of these fascinating petroglyphs. Keep following me to how I do :) And, what do YOU think they mean?

Sand Hill Crack: Steep and sandy and rock-arty

Human centipede weirdness

Finding new rock art sites makes me happy. Today my friend Jen (who's just as obsessed w/ rock art -- maybe more -- than me) said she knew of a place that had some amazing panels and thought we could easily hike to them in a winter's day. The sun was shining and getting to the start of the hike took some off-roading (right off highway 89A in AZ) but the trusty jeep easily got us to the remains of an old ranch which is where we started our trek.

Looking through

Starting point

The first mile was pretty chill -- we had loose directions but knew that our ultimate goal was getting to the top of the Vermilion Cliffs -- and by foot there is pretty much only one way directly up: via the sand hill crack. We also knew it would get steep and sandy -- so we looked for an obvious sandy uphill route. Burning glutes. BURN!

trail pooch, andy :)

On the trail (I think?)

We saw the sand hill looming in front of us --- and the crack. The petroglyphs are on the left and right of the crack, inside the crack as you go up, and I think there's probably even some more going down the other side (we didn't get to those on this day --- but I'll be back!)

So enjoy this collection of super rad rock art -- :)

walk like an Egyptian guy

Lizard dude

There were so many different types of drawings here. Many were super faded but totally awesome. Check this out:

These dudes might have been my favorite (besides human centipede :)

Alright -- that's all for now. Onward to the next adventure!
xoxo