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.

	Tower ruin		Bullet Canyon		Bullet Canyon slickrock

Some ruins are marked by the large circular pictographs depicting the clan symbol of the people who lived there.

	Jailhouse Ruin - There were three clan symbols here.		Kissing Rocks		Step Canyon ruin

	Birds		Painted hands		Polly's Canyon ruin

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.

	Unnamed ruin - there are a lot of these		Big Man Panel		Unnamed kiva

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.

	Easy trail		Step Canyon - there IS a ruin up there -- look for the wood beams		Step Canyon ruin

The Green Mask site includes some of everything - petroglyphs, pictographs, ruins, a kiva, potsherds - even the remains of a 1,000 year-old granary.

	Green Mask site kiva		Green Mask site pictograph panel		Green Mask site potsherds

	Split level ruin		1000 year-old corn		Split level ruin

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.

	A pour off - the trail is not always easy to find		An unexcavated buried wall		Mano and broken metate

	Stimper Arch Navajo National Monument		Unnamed ruin		Unnamed ruin

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.

	Junction ruins		Junction kiva		Kane Gulch

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Created: 10 Dec 2007 Copyright © 2007 Spirit Eagle