ANASAZI RUINS

We've spent some time exploring around Bluff Utah, visiting Ancient Puebloan ruins: dwellings and petroglyphs & pictographs.  The area was obviously highly populated, and there are ruins in almost all the cliffs and canyons.  It's quite fascinating!  Unfortunately, due to the horribly heavy rains of September (2nd wettest in history here) we haven't been able to access as many as we'd hoped--roads are impassible and washes have too much water & slimy mud to hike across. 

We did find this ruin in Lower Butler Wash, across the wash in the lee of the backside of Comb Ridge.  This is a fairly typical cliff dwelling.  (shot the pic from the ledge in the foreground; there's a sheer drop-off just in front of me)

The petroglyphs (carvings in stone walls) of Sand Island just outside the town of Bluff are large and very well-preserved.  The carvings date from 300 to 3,000 years ago. 

Some theories are that 'gods from outer space' populated the area with the ancient cliff dwellers -- can you see what appears to be two spaceships with people nearby?

space ships?

The carving below seems to illustrate a basketball player, dribbling the ball:

ancient basketball

 This is probably one of the more recent carvings as it appears to be a cowboy astride his horse.

recent carving of cowboy

 There are numerous Kokopelli carved in these panels.  The flute player deity symbolized happiness, fertility, and mystery.  Most carvings include a huge phallus, with the flute mimicking the phallic symbol -- we rarely see this in recent reproductions although it is believe to be one of the more important characteristics of the symbol.

anatomically-correct Kokopelli

 See the figure at the top of this panel?  The carving is high on a sheer rock wall; we think this figure is the artist's self-portrait as he surely must have been something of a monkey.

self-portrait of artist? (high on panel)