More about the cave.

This is the entrance leading to the patio.

This is another entrance to the cave. This is the one from the patio. The floor was paved with stones just like the patio was. A lot of decomposed granite has fallen from the huge boulders up above and covers a lot of the paving stones. A couple of places in here have been excavated by some early pot hunters I'll bet.

Taken from outside the cave, this one of the windows that lets light into the cave.

This is the patio area. Phillip uncovered a couple of the paving stones so you can see. The Indians would have most likely had this area covered with agave stems and ocotilla branches woven together and covered with grass to make it dry for the most part when it rained or snowed. The roof has decomposed and along with the windblown dust, the accumulation has allowed the grass to grow in here now. It was probably pretty cozy in here at one time.

This was such an interesting place to visit. Just goes to show you the Indians were more civilized that one would think. Wonder if the men or the women thought of doing this?

This cave is about a half mile from the creek down below. and looking out from the cave down that way is a spectacular view. Phillip said he took pics but he must have forgot that he didn't, because when I processed them, there wasn't one of the view. He did take some toward the cave area from the other side of the canyon, when he went on a hike up there.

As you can tell this cave area is on a granite batholith. So much of it has cracked and then decomposed along the cracks to leave the huge boulders and holes for the caves. Towering for about 3000 feet above the creek floor is a very diverse composition geologically. Granite base overlaid with layers of limestone, ash, basalt and lava. One can look up and see the rim of the mesa high above. All around are chunks of rocks from the mesa that have fallen down . The Indians used the flat layers of limestone to floor the patio and cave. They also used it for some of the walls around one opening. The hearthstones were made from it as well. Limestone ash contained nodules of chert that the Indians used to make their arrowheads and tools. There are chips of it everywhere. There were blowouts of obsidian they used to make tools and arrowheads as well. We also found chips of rhyolite and agate here too. One blowout of a red tuff was not too far from where we parked. I dug in one fire pit that was lined with the red tuff. Didn't find anything but a few bones that were like petrified. we plan to go back to this area sometime before snake season.

Granny.