In April 2007, we did a 3-day, 42-mile backpack trip into Grand Gulch, starting at the Bullet Canyon trailhead, turning around at Polly's Canyon and exiting at Kane Gulch. We knew about some of the ruins - but there were far more of them than we'd been told. And far more petroghlyphs and pictographs than we'd imagined.
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Tower ruin |
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Bullet Canyon |
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Bullet Canyon slickrock |
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Some ruins are marked by the large circular pictographs depicting the clan symbol of the people who lived there.
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Jailhouse Ruin - There were three clan symbols here. |
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Kissing Rocks |
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Green Mask |
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Birds |
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Painted hands |
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Polly's Canyon ruin |
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The maps and literature indicate a small number of ruins and petroglyph sites. What they don't tell you is that there are far more sites than indicated on the map. We found over 40 sites in less than three days. We undoubtedly missed some.
The Big Man panel is marked by a small cairn by the side of the "trail" (the stream). As big as it is, it would have hard to find without that cairn.
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Unnamed ruin - there are a lot of these |
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Big Man Panel |
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Unnamed kiva |
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Easy trail |
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Step Canyon - there IS a ruin up there -- look for the wood beams |
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Step Canyon ruin |
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The Green Mask site includes some of everything - petroglyphs, pictographs, ruins, a kiva, potsherds - even the remains of a 1,000 year-old granary.
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Green Mask site kiva |
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Green Mask pictograph panel |
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Green Mask site potsherds |
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Split level ruin |
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1000 year-old corn |
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Split level ruin |
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A mano/metate combination is a form of mortar and pestle used to grind corn. Of course, the corn also became mixed with the rock dust that resulted from the grinding. This made for a very short lifespan for human teeth. And therefore, for the humans as well. Many of the manos and metates found today have been broken.
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A pour off - the trail is not always easy to find |
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An unexcavated buried wall |
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Mano and broken metate |
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Stimper Arch |
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Unnamed ruin |
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Unnamed ruin |
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One of the clues to ruin sites is the presence of wood beams in places that it would be impossible for them to be naturally.
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Junction ruins |
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Junction kiva |
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Kane Gulch |
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