Essence of the American West
Utah, USA 2013: Monument Valley as seen from the highway to Bluff, Utah
We noticed a tour bus and several cars parked along the highway as we drove north to Bluff. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw this beautiful landscape. Soon, I was among the photographers who had climbed the rocks to get a last iconic shot of Monument Valley. It was nearly noon. The sun was high and blue haze obscured the gorgeous reds and oranges of the rock formations. Photoshop takes care of that in short order. How you post-process is up to you. It is your vision.
Artifact: Anasazi Rope
A snippet of rope made by Anasazi hands maybe a thousand years ago. Vaughn Hadenfeldt, my guide from Far Out Expeditions, noticed it when we were hiking in Cedar Mesa.
Anasazi Man with Design Element
This petroglyph reminds me of a Kewpie Doll, because it is round and has the characteristics of a baby: large head in proportion to the body and a rather enlarged abdomen. The other drawings we saw were line drawings.
“I was here”
This artist was very careful to get the number of toes correct. And he or she was into fashion as the figure is wearing a print gown or one decorated with beads. These are my ideas and not worth much from a historic point of view.
The petroglyphs were often hand prints. They varied in color, red being the most common, but there were green ones, too. Where did they get the green color? And sometimes they were ‘negative” hand prints. These looked as if the hand were placed on the wall and then spray painted leaving a blank hand print surrounded by color. How did they do that? I’m sorry to say, I didn’t ask. That means I must go to Utah and the Navajo Lands again!
Contact Vaughn Hadenfeldt at www.faroutexpeditions.com for your own adventure, a one day hike or a week or more backpacking trip into the wild, wild west.