Let me say once again…Don’t spend your money traveling overseas…this great Nation has more to see then any 10 countries on our fair planet..
The Maker Of Peace Statue by Bill Worrell
Ok, I got that off my chest….got up this morning about 0500..made my coffee and sat outside to catch the first sights and sounds of a new day…Today was the day Barney and I had committed to do the Pictographs of the Lower Pecos River..located on cave walls…it was about a 90 minute tour…I think today a little longer…there were only 4 of us…and I will say our tour guide Randy was very personable and extremely knowledgeable of the history…so first a history lesson thanks to copy and paste from the brochure…
Pictographs in cave
“The past inhabitants of Seminole Canyon left their mark in
several ways, most notably through rock paintings called
pictographs. The park contains some of the most outstanding
examples not only in Texas, but in the world. Extensive
pictographs of the Lower Pecos River Style, attributed to
the Middle Archaic period of 4,000 years ago, adorn rock shelters
throughout its canyons. These and pictographs
from other periods give park visitors a visual link to the
canyon dwellers of the past.
Of course, art supply stores did not exist hundreds or thousands
of years ago. Early artisans obtained everything they
needed from nature – variously colored minerals for paint
pigments, animal fats and urine for binders, shells or flat
rocks for palettes, and fibrous plant leaves for brushes. The
canyon walls themselves served as blank canvas.
Why did the canyons’ past inhabitants produce pictographs?
Scientists do not always agree. Recent research into the
meaning of Lower Pecos River Style murals suggests that
the images may communicate important elements of the
culture’s belief system, such as shamanic journeys to the
land of the dead and a symbolic relationship between deer
and peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus.
Pictographs of the Lower Pecos River Style adorn the canyon.
The park’s semiarid landscape represents a mixture of
species from the Edwards Plateau, the Chihuahuan Desert
and the South Texas Plains.”
The hike was not that strenuous, for me however it became a matter balance..since I have very little feelings in my feet..and I should have worn tennis shoes vs. my hiking boots, the terrain got a little dicey …so I did not go the last 50 feet or so…nothing a person with normal feelings in their feet couldn’t do….just something I have to deal with sometimes…Tetons and Glacier hikes didn’t present that problem…it was still a great experience…one which I recommend to everybody..
The day was also spent picking Barneys brain about camping, boondocking…and also various camping places in the wilderness…the man has more maps then National Geographic…with all kinds of info..this afternoon we took a trip to Del Rio…had lunch and later this evening while watching the sun disappear I got the “advanced course” in traveling, camping and hitching…I super and productive day to say the least…tomorrow is a travel day to Big Bend…sparse internet so posts will probably be hit or miss
…Happy Trails…Horst
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