Something that has long intrigued me in the Southwest is the presence of petroglyphs and pictographs left by The Ancient Ones. In fact they were one of the first things I asked about when I stopped at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Visitor Center. So, yesterday I began the day with a short hike into Catstair Canyon west of Kanab and shoot some images of the Rock Art to be found there. This first one is of a man and is a petroglyph - it was etched or chipped into the rock.

This image of a man with outstretched limbs is a pictograph - the difference being it was painted to the surface of the rock. This type of Rock Art is much easier to pick out when scanning the wall to see what all is there; many of the petroglyphs are definitely a little tougher to find. Sometimes I look at things and have a hard time deciding if they are just water stains or just patterns in the grain of the sandstone. Of course it doesn't help that over the years some loonies have chosen to vandalize the area and leave graffiti around the place (though it is said that some of the graffiti was left by "cowboys" in the 1800's).

This one I can only guess is a pictograph since the petroglyphs were all lighter in color than the stone's surface. My best guess is that it is a deer but could also be an elk - though in this day an age they are found 30-40 miles away. According to the information I received from the BLM the oldest art on this wall is thought to be at least 6,000 years old.

As we were making our way from the canyon back to the truck I stopped to make an image of the small cactus (3 - 31/2 inches tall). Since I plan to be in areas where cactus is pretty common stuff I guess I will have to start checking around for a field guide to Southwestern plants - one more reference for the old bookshelf (which is starting to get overfilled in this trailer). The other thing I have decided to do is keep notes about how big different plants are since it seems I keep running into similar plants that are different sizes. (Sheesh, birds and mammals now seem easy compared to bugs and plants.)

A late morning search for some birds came up empty, while later I tried to wait out a Desert Cottontail (it won). Plans for the afternoon were scuttled when I got in a long chat with a neighbor about places to visit in the area. When that conversation finally ended I was back and forth about whether or not to go find a place to shoot the sunset since it looked like it might be too cloudy for the sky to light up much (and it was long past the time I would have needed to leave to get to the place I had originally planned to go). Finally I decided to head out and, if I found a suitable setting, I would hope for a good light show. I learned a month or two ago to just go for it and if it happens, it happens - that was after missing a couple of great sunrises or sunsets. I chose this lone Utah Juniper with a small mesa in the background for the location, the setting Sun did the rest.