The Hand, The Moon and The Sun

[BD]

Intentionally selected our campsite so that the rising sun would be coming in the front of the funmobile so as not to disturb our well established circadian rhythm of late rising.  However, nature's habit of thwarting human plans resulted in the reflection of the sunrise off of the of the red-rock cliffs appearing like lava flowing in through the back doors.  Incredibly beautiful, but WAY too early.  So just to prove man's dominion over nature, we watched the sunrise and went back to sleep.

Eventually (9 am) we were off for a desert bike ride and hike down the canyon.  I should add that we spend a lot of time in not going very far.  We tend to poke and prod the local flora, fauna and geology, and gawk at the sites.  This trail, with desert flowers, critter tracks, numerous lizards, (no snakes), pueblo ruins, petroglyphs, and horizon-to-horizon desert scenery made for a 6-mile, 4-hour walkabout.  We saw a total of 5 other people during the stroll.  Would have been a couple of miles longer except the combination of rain clouds, and us being on the wrong side of the arroyo made it prudent to turn back early.

 

To give an idea of what drives us on these trips, the highlight was three small but very vivid pictographs, (painted, not pecked), displaying a hand, a quarter moon and the sun painted on the underside of a rock overhang 30 or so feet over our heads.   Sitting there you could almost imagine the artist up there putting together his story that we could never fully comprehend.  This was the turnaround point and we were completely satisfied.

Good night from Chaco Canyon.