Say what?

Please, can anyone tell me what this means?



Oh and here are some sheep hanging out in the road. A daily occurrence.

Desert Foraging

One of the Rangers here likes to call me "survivor girl"- haha, because if you know anything about me, you know I've become super interested in finding plants in the wild that are edible or useful in some way (hence the previous post on eating cactus). Please, let me share some of this useful knowledge with you, so in case you ever find yourself stranded in the high desert you might survive.

There is plant called Mormon tea that is all over the place here. The plant got its name from the fact that Mormon's don't drink caffeine and as a substitute they boil the stems of this plant to make a stimulating and refreshing tea which also serves a great medicine for colds or allergies. And it works wonders. I've tried it many times!



I had no problem finding some branches to cut off, which I promptly took home and placed in a pot of water and began to boil it. After a few minutes the tea was ready- just remove branches and drink! I find it really interesting that the tea is a sort of reddish color and it is tasty without anything added.

Mmm, so fresh!



You can also make a drink out of these berries, from the three leaf sumac tree (also called lemonade bush). I think I prefer the mormon tea though



Another exciting thing is our black currant bushes have been ripening and I've been picking the berries! They are tart and a bit biter when you eat them straight but I've found other uses for them as well. For starters, you can add them into muffins, oatmeal, yogurt, etc or bake them into pies or make a jam.



And if you are having problem with intestinal worms (ancestral puebloans fought this constantly) or are low in iron, try sagebrush leaves. But don't eat too many or they become poisonous!



Now this is the plant I will not touch. It is called sacred datura and is known for being a hallucinogen. Some say even the smell or touching of the leaves or flowers are enough to put children in a coma. If you try it, it might kill you. However, the plant is still used by skilled medicine men in Native tribes, but I wouldn't advise that you try it!

Good solstice to you (a day late)

As you all probably know, this week marked the summer solstice! Today I went out to our outlier site, Holly, where the solstice petroglyph is located. Only 3 people showed up for me today, so it was a nice, peaceful viewing. We aren't as popular as the Chaco ruins who probably got up to 200 people! I apologize that the petroglyphs can't be seen very well because of the shadows the rock created, but they are there I promise! What happens is the light comes in over the rock around 6:45am as a double dagger and joins two spirals from either side. Pretty neat!

Here you can see it for yourself...







Fun fact: Solstice comes from the Latin word "sol" and "stitium" meaning stoppage. What happens in the sun stays right around the same spot for 5 days, which marks the solstice. Same goes for winter. The ancestral Puebloans still have ceremonies following the solstices, thanking the spirits/ancestors and in preparation for planting and harvesting.

Solstice Wanderings

I had the day off and I was on a mission to find some rock art in the area. If you previously thought I lived in the middle of nowhere, then you should have seen where I drove to today! I fist starting driving up between the town very small Utah towns of Bluff and Blanding and then went down a dirt road for about 20 miles, with various turn-offs with trails. Confusing, but I didn't get lost at all! The GPS of course doesn't even work out here, but I had a book directing me. When I'm driving around here I feel like I'm on another planet or in a western movie or something.

Anyway, I was successful at finding some rock art. Didn't find procession panel (look it up!) like I orginally planned on seeing, but I did see some good stuff nonetheless. I will have to go exploring there again, but maybe when its not so crazy hot!



Look at all the hands!


A broken matte y mano, which was once used to grind corn. And check it out..ancient corn cobs!

Random odds and ends

We just got our counterbalanced telescope set last week, which we will be using for a night sky program eventually. In the meantime me and Neal decided to bring it out for the afternoon for visitors to look at the ruins more closely at our main overlook. It was a success! Caught some people off trail too...



This is the vehicle I get to drive to pick up our mail and to visit the outlier sites. Its fun to drive, especially four wheeling over those unimproved dirt roads, filled with jutting rocks, pot holes, tire ruts, etc.



And you wouldn't think, but there are a lot of farms around here mostly growing hay. I've found it very curious that they stack their hay bales into baby squares unlike at home where they are just rolled up. So cute!

Dig it up

One of our outlier sites is still being excavated. So far, it has taken 3 years to dig up this great kiva (a big round structure in the ground that served as a religious/ceremonial center and also a warm home in the winter) and they still haven't finished! I went there on my day off the other day and got to chat a bit with the archeologist. Very cool! I might note that he was wearing this awesome explorer hat caked in dirt. So fitting, haha! Anyway, I regret not getting a picture of this great hat but I did get some of the site. He showed me an arrowhead that he had just found as well as some other broken tools. Everything that has been dug up will be backfilled once it is all logged and mapped. I've just hope that one day they will let me join them on a big for a day. Such facinating stuff!

Foraging for Cactus

This is a tag along post for my last one about Sand Canyon. On my way back down the Mesa I was getting quite tired and sore. On top of that my water supply had been running low. It was then that I stumbled upon a beautiful cactus just sitting alongside of the trail(I believe it was a hedgehog cactus)! Sure there were thin, prickly pear everywhere- but they aren't ready to eat yet. I had been browsing youtube just the other day on how to eat cactus, so finding an edible one really made my day!

First, you slice off the top and then cut off the sides, like you were peeling a cucumber. Once the needles are cut off you can slice off a piece of the inside for yourself. It was actually really good, sort of a mix between a cucumber and a melon. I was expecting it to be slimy but it wasn't. MMmmm Guess from now on anytime I go hiking I will be simultaneously cactus hunting. :-)


BEFORE


AFTER


The perfect, tasty, trail side treat!

Sand Canyon Part 2

I just had the chance to get back to Sand Canyon and do some more hiking. AND this time I remembered my camera! It was a great day for a 11 mile hike and only took me about 5.5 hours.



There were a lot of ruins along the way, undisturbed and unadvertised.


How would you like this (above) as your bedroom?

Gorgeous view though...

By the time I was finishing up on the trail, it was getting dark and the sun was hitting both the mesa tops and the mountains so perfectly. The full moon was beginning to rise above them. Pictures certainly don't do it justice but it was the perfect ending to my day

Please welcome your new Junior Ranger!

At most National Parks there is a junior ranger program. Its a booklet filled with activities for children to fill out facts about the park. Its checked by a ranger for completeness and then the kids are sworn in and given a junior ranger badge.

Do you even have to ask if I did it too? :-)

Vicious biting gnats!

Its official. These gnats have arrived in full force now and will hang around for the next few weeks. Lucky me.

The little devils just swarm you as soon as you step outside or linger for only a moment. You don't feel them bite, but the after effects are very real. Some people react badly and welt up, but I just get little red bumps that itch like crazy. They are like misquotes, but I think worse. Lately, I've been going outside as little as possible during the days here unless I'm running off to the Durango mountains where there are no gnats. It is my new favorite town because it has everything- cool small city, good beer, awesome people and unlimited potential for wilderness and adventure.




These were taken on a mountain in the backyard of the guy I couchsurf with. Anyone want to move here with me? How can you pass up such incredible hiking right in your backyard? And this was just the tip of the iceberg. There are National Forests, excellent climbing, awesome rafting/kayaking and even hot springs (going there next week..stay tuned for updates). I love it here :-)

Fire!

This past week there have been wildfires in Arizona. Actually they are still going on and have covered almost 400,000 acres. A few of the days we were getting smoke at the park, couldn't see the mountains anymore and you could actually smell the fire, which was over 400 miles away.

Two of the other rangers here have their firefighting licenses and are itching to get called in and fight it. That is certainly something I've always wanted to do. Maybe one day...

A day in the life..

Here is a little photo story of a typical day in my shoes.



Welcome to Hovenweep! That is our law enforcement officer, Neal and me working the desk.



Our tiny gift shop.



Time for roving the trails. Here is our demonstration garden. It was just planted last week. We have the three sisters (corn, bean and squash) growing as well as red dye amaranth. We use all traditional seeds. Can't wait for it to start sprouting!

Below is the coolest spot along the trail, nice and shady.



Taking a break down in the canyon, near our petroglyph wall. Check out those brightly colored cottonwood trees! That means there is water nearby.

Sand Canyon Trail

Yesterday I was off for the day so I went through what is becoming my normal day off routine: breakfast outside as the sun starts to warm up the day, reading for a bit, and a trip to Cortez for groceries. On the way back, I always pass this canyon with some good hiking that I had been meaning to check out. Finally I got around to it.

The parking lot is all rough, exposed sandstone and is right in front of this big sandstone formation which is really cool looking. There are several trails leading off of it, one in particular that leads to an ancient pueblo ruin, 6 miles up. I did not have time for that but I did end up doing a wonderful 3 hour lone hiking trip. Actually, I ended up leaving my camera in the car so unfortunately for you there are no pictures to document this except from images left in my mind.

On the way, I stumbled upon a few ruins and even a petroglyph wall. The best part was that it was so unexpected and I had no expectations. It was neat to be just walking a long and all of the sudden spot a pueblo ruin tucked away in a cliff side. So much better than any hyped up tourist site., like mentioned previously in my post on Mesa Verde.

The entire hike I didn't see a soul and it was really peaceful. I'm really appreciating the desert silence and it was actually a blessing not to have my camera because I just existed. There was no worrying about documenting and putting my experience into a tangible box. I'm learning to just throw myself completely into this world and at the same trying really hard to get away from my addiction to my computer (cleansing myself of technology if you will). So if there are happen to be days where there are few and far between posts on here you know why!

Don't bust the crust!

One part of my job is educating visitors about Cryptobiotic soil. I never heard of it before coming out here but its very common in the southwest. The soil looks like black and crusty stuff on top of the regular soil. It takes up to 100 years to grow and is a collection of microorganisms such as fungus, bacteria and lichen that are living and protecting the soil by acting as a barrier against erosion, giving essentials nutrients to the plants around it and retaining water in the soil after rainfail. The stuff is crazy delicate. One footprint could cause damage to the soil for years. This is why you must stay on the trails :-)