The plan was to meet some photo friends for a new
adventure near Winslow AZ (that’s the ‘Standing on the Corner’ place) on
Monday. I was having some serious camper
withdrawal, so I decided to camp up there Sunday and Monday night.
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Homolovi II Ruins |
The first stop was Homolovi State Park, created in
1993 to protect some ancient Pueblo Indian sites. Apparently people were digging into the ruins
with a backhoe. The largest pueblo
contains 1200 rooms, though only a few have been excavated enough to
appreciate. I sat on the hill imagining
life there 1000 years ago, above the Little Colorado River. It’s a nice neighborhood.
That being said, the park is not so
photographer-friendly. The roads to the
two ruin sites are open only from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. I wish there had been an opportunity to
photograph there at dawn and dusk, as well as at night.
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Mr Baird |
Monday morning I met my friends at La Posada Hotel
in Winslow and we drove an hour or so through open country south of town to the
Rock Art Ranch. Brantley Baird and his
daughter do tours by reservation only on the Ranch. The barn has been converted into a museum
with everything from old tack to musical instruments. Mr. Baird dug ancient pots on the property as
a boy, and several of these as well as arrowheads and other artifacts are on
display. These days he has made
arrangements with archeologists to properly study the area.
After the ranch tour, we drove overland in a
caravan, stopping at a partially reconstructed demonstration village and a
petroglyph site which features a map.
This last feature is apparently quite unusual, and seems to have been
placed to direct travelers to a permanent source of water.
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Chevelon Canyon and the picnic deck |
Finally we reached the section of Chevelon canyon
famous for the density and well-preserved state of its petroglyphs. We spent several hours down in the canyon and
had picnic lunches on the (somewhat incongruous) cantilevered covered deck.
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Dense Petroglyphs |
The plan had been to go back to the State Park for
the night, but I was delighted that Mr. Baird gave me permission to camp there
on the edge of the canyon. There’s a
certain presence to this place which I didn’t fully appreciate until everyone
else had gone. Many times while watching
the afternoon light change on the rim of the canyon, I thought I heard voices below. It could have been the wind, or perhaps it
was something more mysterious.
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Under the Milky Way |
The moon went down at 3:30AM, so I was up at 4:00 shooting
the stars in my jammies, marveling at my good fortune camping in this
unparalleled place.
After I locked the gate on my way out and called Mr.
Baird as he had asked to let him know I was OK, I was on the road and wondering
which of my friends might enjoy a visit to this sacred site. The problem with camper addiction, of course,
is that it’s never satiated for long.