Ranger Tours

The other day I shadowed my boss on a castle walk tour, which he gave to a group of 6th grade students. Soon I will giving tours like this to groups all by myself and eventually an evening program (currently in the works)!



I've also been able to shadow other rangers. The Petroglyph walk is our most common where we take a small group of people down into the canyon for a tour and to see the lone petroglyph and pictograph in Little Ruin Canyon. Curiously, in Hovenweep's main group of ruins, which housed probably the largest number of people (maybe 200), there is only one petroglyph and one pictograph. Why aren't there more? Maybe they weren't an artistic bunch? Maybe they were too busy building structures to bother? Or maybe they only had one main message to give...








Do you know the difference between a pictograph and petroglyph? A pictograph is painted on a rock like the hand print. Here the hand is being used as a stencil and the paint blown on through a reed. A petroglyph is actually carved into the rock. The symbols of the "T" doorway, bird and spirals are very common in this area. Unfortunately, this particular petroglyph has faded quite a bit over the last 700 years.