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+\- 12,000 yr old petroglyphs Snake River Idaho Is surrounded by invasive cow grasses and weeds
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Ancestral Puebloan Ruins Utah
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Snake River site
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Cliff Dwelling Utah
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Extraordinary Ancestral Puebloan Masonry +\- 800 yr ago. Utah
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Ancestral Puebloan place of wonder and glory. Canyon de Chelly. Just a jaw-dropping sight/site.
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Newspaper Rock is unfortunately easily accessible thus prone to vandalism. The glyphs span centuries into the colonial era. It’s a wonder to behold.
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Food processing room in building of 400 rooms. This floor was likely below grade originally with 2 or 3 floors above. Ancestral Puebloan. New Mexico
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Various age petroglyphs perhaps some older than 2000 yrs @ site. New Mexico.
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Towers built around year 1200. Not leaning…just camera angle. Utah, US.
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Cedar Mesa/Bears Ears Utah. With untold 1000’s of archeological and sacred cultural sites and pristine wilderness in the region….a coal mine? Really? You’re joking, right? You gotta be…
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3 and 4 story apartments complete with custom carved food pantries. Domesticated turkeys with clipped wings were penned on rooftops 700-900 years ago in New Mexico.
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Tower with staircase windows. Utah.
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One of my favorite panels. Easy to access in Escalante Utah. Graffiti minimized or removed!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Cliff dwellings with thatched roof in place. Last occupied 900 yrs ago. Utah.
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I actually met the person who lives in that tiny green house down there on the right. She met Chevy Chase when they filmed Vacation here. Other things have happened here also
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Below the snowmelt of looming Ute mountain, these prairies and canyons hosted all manner of game and sophisticated agriculture when this site was fully occupied until 700 yrs ago
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Ruins among the fallen rock in the serpentine wonder that is Canyon de Chelly
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One of millions of boulders deposited along the Snake River by the Lake Bonneville flood 13,000 years ago. Here, over 700 petroglyphs decorate the rocks at a one acre site.
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The Bonneville flood provides the date these boulders were exposed making them excellent candidates for studying the accumulation of patina on the rocks. In turn, this data helps determine the age of the petroglyphs. Older petroglyphs have more patina.
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Data suggests these petroglyphs range from 2000 to 12,000 yrs old (In layer ages) making them some of the oldest petroglyphs in the Americas. A nearby site may be the oldest petroglyphs perhaps 14,000 years old or more.
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Huge tower adjacent to the seasonal creek and an ancient stone walled reservoir system. 800 years ago and earlier this was much more fertile agricultural and hunting ground.
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This ceremonial kiva is perched in an alcove 300 ft up hand carved stone and timber framed ladders. The effort getting here can make an exhausted photographer not really get a proper exposure.
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The graphic quality of these New Mexico petroglyphs is superb
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Many sites like this hilltop in Colorado were mostly or completely buried using differentiated soils by early archaeologists to preserve and protect ancient treasures like this.
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Cliffside in Utah
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The entrance basalt stone leading to many more intricate illustrations that cover a boulder strewn hillside near Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Hi-res panorama. The climate likely provided double the precipitation when this was occupied as late as the 1300’s. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to live in the Wizard’s Lair house?
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The skills, scale and scope of these structures causes stupefaction for a sunrise observer. Ancestral Pueblo site Utah. Last occupied 800 yrs ago