Back to the canyon.

This a view from one rim across the canyon to the rim on the other side. Canyon is about 2 miles wide at this point.


Phillip found that there were bears and cougars down in the canyon. A bear was through here not long ago.

This juniper was torn to shreds by an elk rubbing the velvet off his antlers. A lot of small pinion pines have had all the limbs stripped from them by the elk.

When I was up on the rim I saw where the bears have tipped over a lot of old tree stumps from the long ago logging operations, in search of grubs. I see the tracks and hope to never see the animals.

Granny.

Thought for the day.

Beautiful red and gold sunrise. Windy and partly cloudy. Rain in the forcast for thr next 3 days, so that means I will have to sit and play puter games. Awww!!. Good thing we went out yesterday.

Granny

How tired I am!

And I mean really dragging. I drug it up wash, down wash,over the flats and across the washes. Must have put at least 2 miles a dragging it.

We went out to the same area where Phillip found the fossils. Found a few rocks but no arrowheads, either of us. Found the weirdest thing though. Somebody is drilling a well on forest service property. Couldn't figure out why. Anyway Phillip and I split up and went different directions. When I got back to the rig I found a couple of rigs parked by us and two guys setting up camp. They were hunters. Bow season for deer and pigs. They were pig hunters. I talked to them a bit and they have been camping and hunting this area every weekend since the first of Jan. They told me the well was being drilled for a mining process. Seems a guy was rockhunting and found a chunk of quartz with gold in it now he want's to mine for it. Phillip had found a wash down in the canyon that had been worked extensively. He had a gold pan and the metal locater with him the first day in. Didn't get a color or a locater reading. Hell of a lot of quartz up on the rim of the canyon. Massive outcropping' s must have eroded uphill somewhere. Most of all the rocks on the flats and in most washes is float. Agoodly portion is some excellent fine grain material that the Indians have chipped on. Most is white and light pimk. Beautiful stuff. I never saw any with gold. Rat's!!. Picked up some pink agate the Indians were working with. Wish I knew where they got it.

I'm tired as all get out and in an hour or so I'm hitting the sack.

Granny

Thought for the day.

Maybe I can add to it today. Who knows?

More from the canyon.

The Indians were living in the canyon many many years ago. Phillip found this half a matate partly buried in the dirt. There were lots of broken ones around. The only whole one he found was a monster one with 3 dips in it. He didn't take a picture of it because it was back in some bushes. Lots of chips and pottery shards around.


This is an ancient digging tool. Phillip should have laid his pick down by it so you could tell what the size was in comparison to it.

I guess I should have put the site of this fire pit picture in first. Anyway this old Indian fire pit was almost covered with rocks, roots and erosion. Phillip dug into it to see what might be in it. The charcoal was still perfectly preserved in the bentonite. Biggest portion of the silt in this canyon is bentonite. In the market, pure bentonite is silica gel. It is used to dry flowers in, and to put in oil wells to seal them. The less pure stuff is used to seal ditches and ponds.

This is what the pit looked like before he dug in it.

Lots of animals live down in the canyon now. Next time I will include pictures of the evidence.

Granny

" Veddy interestink"

This is a view Phillip took when he was down in the canyon. He has more pictures, but with my sloooow upload I will have to do them a few at a time.

Looking along at some of the deposits of silt. Phillip said the ground was pulverized with elk, deer and pig tracks. Lots of rubs in ths area because there are a couple of springs and a creek that runs a bit above ground in places. Indians were down here on some of the higher benches.

Here is just one of the bones sticking out of a wall of sediment. Who knows what kind it is. Looks like the bones were deposited in the silt after the animal had lost all flesh because they are not all together like a body would have been but wide spread. He found a part of a tooth yesterday.

I stayed up on the rim of the canyon and looked for arrowheads. Nada!! I did find two very nice scrapers, a matate and some broken matates, manos and jillions of chips.


Granny

What???

It better be. I plan to go out to where Phillp found the fossils today. I might find it there, or maybe I will find an arrowhead or two while Phillip goes down in the canyon to look at more fossils.