Grand Gulch, 11/24/2005

Four day Grand Gulch backpack trip, with Dianne, Judy and Mark

The area of the Turkey Pen Ruins. The night before, we had Thanksgiving dinner here.

Turkey Pen Ruins area

This is where grain was ground

Grand Gulch is full of shelves like these, and many have ruins on them

Here is the 'turkey pen' itself

Pot shards and corn cobs

Stimper Arch

More ruins

Petroglyphs

Ruins high up in Todie canyon. It took quite the climb to find these.

Many are not reachable due to severe exposure

Can you see the ruins?

Just more random ruins

Split Level Ruins, Cedar Mesa's largest ruins site.

Pot shards everywhere

More of the Split Level area

Nice pot shards

Further down canyon. This cliff face is covered with at least a dozen inaccessable ruins. Kinda like a condo.

Nice amphitheatre

The condo-like ruins. Look close!

Pictographs at the Green Mask site

Basketmaker pictographs at the green mask site

Just watching the pictographs

The green mask itself. The splotches are from mudballs thrown against the wall hundreds of years ago

Ruins at the bullet/grand gulch intersection

Up bullet canyon

Jailhouse ruins

The window that gives jailhouse its name

Inside of perfect kiva

Ray of sunlight inside of perfect kiva

More grain grounding stones at perfect kiva

Negative Hands, a rare form of pictograph

All of us at perfect kiva

Heading up bullet. Some nice climbable dryfalls here.

And very icy in late November!

The 'tower' ruin near the top of bullet canyon