Playing with Petroglyphs
Sat June 3
Climbed rocks at McConkie Ranch and looked at petroglyphs . These are some really distinctive drawings on the sides of boulders that were featured in National Geographic years ago. They’re on a private ranch but the owners left them open to the public.
To get there you drive through Vernal, Utah, go up a side road for seven miles, turn right on a dirt road and park in a lot surrounded by wooden fences decorated with dozens of deer antlers. You leave a donation in a little shack that is covered with post-it notes from happy visitors. Then you begin climbing over the rocks and red boulders around juniper and strong smelling sage under an intense blue sky.
I’m not as interested in petroglyphs as Kim and Leigh. I keep thinking maybe we’re all way off base. Maybe they weren’t drawn to help with hunting, or battles, or fertility. They remind me a lot of graffiti that kids draw in places that seem to defy a human’s ability to get there.
Or maybe they were cartoons for rock dwelling kids.
I do have to admit, though, some of these petros are different that anything I’ve seen. These look distinctly Egyptian. Head dresses, square bodies. Maybe there was a Petroglyph Artist Exchange Program at one time. I can imagine the dialogue between the Middle Eastern artists with our natives who weren’t so advanced:
“Here, Hap-To, stop with the stick figures all the time. Draw a square body with skirt.”
“We’ve always done stick style, Rama.”
“You’re sooo behind, Hap-To. Stick figures are so, I don’t know, post-Neanderthal I’m telling you, 10,000 years from now people are going to chuckle at your backwardness.”
“They’re going to wonder why you wear skirts, Rama. Real men don’t wear skirts.”
“Ah! Speaking of skirts—I just have to etch the headdress that our rulers wear.” He makes some scratches into the rock. “Cool, huh?”
“Looks like a square bonnet to me.”
“Well, open your mind. That’s what this Petroglyph Artist Exchange is all about.”
“Can you etch — what did you call it– a camel?”
Rama shakes his head. “No. We have to think of the future. No camels in America. People are already going to wonder about square-bodied petros wearing headdresses. We’re making history here.”
Rama studies Hap-To’s work. “You know, Hap-To, the more I look at your work, the more I like it. It’s so, hmm, minimalist. Show me how you do the stick legs. . . “
As the sun sets, the two men from different cultures create art on rocks that will cause petro-maniacs to ask the questions over and over: “What does this art mean? Who were these guys?”
By the time we were done two hours later we were tired and dehydrated from the dry air, sun and wind.
Drove down to Rt. 70, had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Glenwood Springs and pushed on. Rt. 70 between Vail and Denver is winding and not much fun. Arrived at motel about 9 p.m. Kim is upset because Leigh and I hook up our computers and work for an hour or two every night.