Red Monkey: Photo Safari

Photo Safari

June 26, 2011

When I started house-hunting here, I was determined we would get a pueblo-style house. I have loved those since I first saw one - when we moved into the ONLY non-pueblo style house. I was two and a half and I'm still pissed about that. Sadly, given both the housing market and the fact that I have to buy a house before my partner can even put the Indiana one on the market, we just can't afford the more expensive pueblo style. Well, I did look at one, but it was tiny and the neighborhood was squashed in on top of each other. Instead I put in an offer on this:

The offer was accepted, but we're not out of the woods yet. The current owner still has to finish the re-shingling project he started and then we have the inspections and appraisal hurdles to get over. I am sad that the gorgeous wagon wheels in the backyard are apparently going to be hauled off along with the unsightly pile of lumber. At least I got one good shot:

* * *

I've gone out to Rinconada Canyon several times now. The first time was when I was here to interview. I had to catch my flight, so I had to cut my hike short and never made it to the end of the petroglyphs. I went out twice more with Tieg, the fraidy-dog, and he would NOT walk into that park. He'll walk OUT, but I had to carry him in the second time we went.

Don't know what changed ...

He needed a little encouragement, but he walked in this time. Of course, he also knew how to stay in the shade ....

I had to be on the lookout for wildlife that might be dangerous because Tieg is oblivious. Can you find the lizard in this picture? Tieg couldn't even when it ran two foot in front of him. He also missed a rabbit.

Luckily the only one of these we ran into was carved into the stone instead of sunning itself on the stone.

Honestly, the rock is so dark and most of the petroglyphs are not carved very deeply, I was initially disappointed with Rinconada Canyon. We'd seen some more striking petroglyphs in Crow Canyon near Farmington. But then I finally made it to the end of the looping trail at Rinconada...

They just started jumping out - much more clear and easy to spot ... more detailed and crafted than some of the earlier ones.

I thought that one looked a bit like a family of anteaters. Of course, I'm pretty sure I'm WRONG, but that's what they looked like. They're probably antelope, I would guess. Anteater, antelope.

And then there's this dude doing the funky chicken:

And then I turned and saw this one. Now, when I snapped the shot, I could only see the center lightning figure with the head on it. You have to remember the sun is REALLY bright on the LCD screen and I'm also distracted by trying to look out for rattlers and such and make sure the tiny dog is all right.

Click this one to see it larger and more detail - there was a lot more going on in this drawing than I could see from the ground! In fact, it wasn't until I was choosing shots for this post that I realized just how much. Oh, and yes, those are freaking bullet holes in the petroglyphs here. :(

There were others that I couldn't really tell if they were yei, graffiti or monsters.

And while I'm of fair certainty that this is probably a coyote story ... it sure looks like a local dachshund petroglyph to me!

petroglyph of a coyote that looks dachshund-like

After that, Tieg let me know it was time to leave. We still had to hike a mile out of the canyon. I guess once he saw the petrodoxie, he was done for the day. The hike out goes through the center of the canyon so there's less small bits of climbing (less climbing and more a few rocks in the way and going up and down small hillish features). But, there was more underbrush to scan for snakes, so it was still a bit of a long walk.