Happy Trails.

In the East the forest is more open though generally higher, and there is enough leaf litter to make blazing trails the best method of marking them.

Here it is different, there is no leaf litter so a trail does not get disguised and is easier to follow, except across bare rock where there are often cairns to guide the way.  There is the issue of herd paths where one person's off trail excursion invites another until it's hard to say which is the 'real' trail.  The kicker is that many of these herd paths are false starts, perhaps going to a place to take a photo or a pee or simply a wandering.

Today I am going to try something different, for the most part the photos herein will be pictures of the trail, usually with a bit of scenery visible in the distance or off to the side.

 

Layers of trails

I keep thinking we are going to run out of trails, but given the fractal shapes of the canyons, it isn't going to be too soon - especially as I am not up to steep ascents and more controlled descents and need save them for later.

Today we took the "chuck wagon trail" more or less across the outskirts of long canyon stopping before the steep climb to devils bridge which I hope to do when my knee is stronger.

 There was water on the trail and Harley made the most of it.

 In some places the trail cut through moderately dense woods  which often had scenic tastes visible through the gaps.

 More water - more splashes

 

This time it wasn't me.

As we were nearing the end our hike, a young woman fell off her bike into some cactus and earned the name "porcupine woman".  She accepted moniker with some good humor especially since Shelley was carrying our de-cactus tweezers and spent some time plucking barbed slivers our of her until her riding

companion noticed she was missing and returned to complete the job. 

So it's not just me having issues with gravity. 

Before that - the dog park where a swell time was had by all.  There were two dogs having a tug of war with a rope at full gallop and Harley did his usual jumping.

 

And then a slightly more ambitions hike (my knee is getting better) at a trailhead we had not been to before.   The trail lead closer to the cliffs and formations at the edge of the rim and offered opportunities we will probably go back and explore.

 some of the first wild flowers

 

 A close up of one of the pillars

 Even more magnification

Petroglyphs

Though we have been before, the petroglyph site at V bar V ranch is always worth a visit.  The glyphs (craved or pecked into the stone as opposed to painted or petrographs) are from a variety of eras "the ancients" - a period from 2000 years ago to 700 years ago and after then the ancestral Hopi - or so it guessed.

It's all pretty much a guess, which is what adds to the cool.  We don't know who they were exactly, or what they were doing though it appears there may have been a calendar as a part of the wall.

 

 There are also a number of cracks which are said to be regarded as spiritual paths to the dark or other world - and some of them have what may be shaman figures guarding them.

 

On what is said to be a much older section  there are less obvious glyphs some covered by a lichen which will eventually erase much of the whole work.

detail of the above.

The comparison of this and  an aerial photo of the Verde river shows  this  below could have been a map