This article first appeared in the First Quarter 1995 SNRAE Newsletter and has been altered slightly to appear on the the world wide web.
I slept restlessly and at about 2 realized I'd caught a cold. I woke up in Reno to find 4 or 5 inches of new snow outside. Too hard to cancel this late. Landing in San Jose I thought my ears would burst. Not so wise to fly with a head cold. Landed in Vegas with a couple hours to kill before Potashin would arrive. Ears plugged bad- noises sound odd- a guy in a mopping vehicle passes by every so often barely missing my feet and looks at me like he can't understand why I don't move my feet out of the way quicker- on the floor above the ticketing counter some guy jogs around in about a 20 yard loop- he never stops- hope Potashin isn't slowed down in his drive from Bishop by the snowstorm too much- take another cold and sinus Advil- guy stops and asks for a cigarette- time passing slowly. Boom! Richard "Alkali Flat" Potashin pops out of his amazingly bumper-stickered truck, jogs into the terminal, and pleads; lets get out of here- he's irritated by the drive to airport and wants to get moving- I'm just a little ready to go- preferably to bed for about 36 hours; but this is a glyphin' trip and it's still daylight.
One step at a time, we don't make it out of the airport loop the first time. Towards the Apex on I-15 East- it begins to rain- or is that sleet. We continue silently, I've got all the clothing with me on and I still feel cold. Leave the pavement in Logandale and it's still raining. The vibrant soft glow of the Aztec sandstone soon comes into view and then presto we're driving amidst fantastical fins and towers similar to those along the main road through Valley of Fire State Park, but here it's a dirt road and there aren't any signs. The road gets rougher (the rain makes the sandy road a little bit less treacherous for Alkali's two wheel drive truck) and it looks like it's just about time park- the only problem is it's hard to tell whether one (or any) of the slot canyons will go through the spine of Aztec towers much less take us to the mysterious mark on my topo map that allegedly indicates a rock art site. I'd found this info. in an obscure report on the rock art in the Valley of Fire area at a small town museum in California.
The storm lifted and far to the north a K-2 lookin' snow capped peak is sandwhiched between cloud layers- wow! that's Moapa Peak. The day's gettin' late and we decide on a canyon. The going is wet. We emerge at the top of the canyon in an intermediate valley surrounded by fiery orangeish towers. It seems doubtful we'll find the site as it's getting late. We find our way off of the high valley into a wash that at first appears to be going back the direction we've come from but then swings east. As the wash angles more to the south it gains size. Just before it opens up we see a small panel of glyphs on the left and then dead ahead bing bang boom we're astride beautiful panels of Virgin Kayenta Anasazi Style rock art.
The site conjures memories of the writings of Carlos Castaneda; the 'godfather' of the shamanic interpretation of rock art, with several panels having striking images of transformation. In a hidden corner stands an anthropomorph, just to the right of it is a figure spreading its wings and taking flight and to the right of that, another figure flaps its wings again completely transformed. Another panel displays a bighorn figure in an unlikely vertical stance with two vultures or eagles flapping their wings in flight to the left of it. The birds are done in such a way where their flapping wings almost resemble a frontal view of a bighorn sheep's head and the tail feathers look like the four legs of a bighorn. Both panels have a flow in design from element to element as if they record a shamans transformation in a series of snapshots.
The centerpiece panel has an array of cluttered images at the bottom with the elements becoming more distinctive toward the top. A prominent horned serpent with legs sits above a bighorn sheep next to a wistful bighorn portrayed simply with a wavy line moving downward from the horns. The serpent looks up toward a 'beer bottle' anthropomorph. Upwards to the right are two horned anthropomorphs. The upper right corner of the glyph has an image which would look like a prediction for scattered showers in the newspaper; this time the prediction is inspired by the power of the serpent, not the satellite photo. Above the centerpiece were several panels, the highest (only accessible from above) crisply displays a triangular bodied anthropomorph with its power animal, the bighorn next to it.
To the left of the mantelpiece, a large boulder has a cleanly pecked complex panel on top of it which faces outward and skyward. It can't be seen from below, only from higher up the slope or on top of the boulder. On the side of this boulder is a faded panel with a six legged bighorn. The front two pairs appear to represent the animal, while the back pair look to be those of another animal which is being fused with the sheep. The animal has a tortured expression on its face and has a scattering of dots above it which give the event an intoxicated and other worldly feel (transformation, coitus, or birth?). I hope I didn't look quite that dazed in the airport. To the right of this figure is a most beautiful representation of a sheep (its open jaw angles beautifully upward through the head into the horns). The rear of this sheep has an unusual cluster of elements resembling birth imagery. Below its tail is a circle attached to its body with a coiled image inside this. To the left of this is a separate squiggle and then a dumbbell shaped figure that has a possible head at the bottom of the top circle. Above the tail is another dumbbell looking element. If this is a representation of a birth sequence the result is more human looking than sheep like. As in the sheep to bird transformation snapshots, the sheep appear to represent the shaman. This all seems likely to be some sort of imagery symbolic of a shamans transformation into the spirit world. Before we could smoke out the area for any other sites darkness began to lower and we had to hustle back through the maze of spires to get back to the truck just as total darkness fell. On the drive back we could see stars and agreed we'd have to return the next day.
The next day was brilliant. The colors all the more vivid. Along with our special guest, Nancy Weir (who comments we should have used the road which comes right up to the sight from the opposite direction), we had more time to explore the area. While I'm rambling around, Alkali and Nancy relax, kick it around and begin to see an assortment of creatures in the rock (something about an Egyptian dog). I roust them out of their reverie with news I'd found another site. These panels, located at the north side of the entrance into the cove, is just to the right of a small arch and is composed of several panels, one of which is located improbably far off the ground. That trip we didn't locate all the panels in the area, but we sure had a pleasant glyph day. It didn't hurt that the weather was willing to make such a pleasant transformation.
I slept restlessly and at about 2 realized I'd caught a cold. I woke up in Reno to find 4 or 5 inches of new snow outside. Too hard to cancel this late. Landing in San Jose I thought my ears would burst. Not so wise to fly with a head cold. Landed in Vegas with a couple hours to kill before Potashin would arrive. Ears plugged bad- noises sound odd- a guy in a mopping vehicle passes by every so often barely missing my feet and looks at me like he can't understand why I don't move my feet out of the way quicker- on the floor above the ticketing counter some guy jogs around in about a 20 yard loop- he never stops- hope Potashin isn't slowed down in his drive from Bishop by the snowstorm too much- take another cold and sinus Advil- guy stops and asks for a cigarette- time passing slowly. Boom! Richard "Alkali Flat" Potashin pops out of his amazingly bumper-stickered truck, jogs into the terminal, and pleads; lets get out of here- he's irritated by the drive to airport and wants to get moving- I'm just a little ready to go- preferably to bed for about 36 hours; but this is a glyphin' trip and it's still daylight.
The storm lifted and far to the north a K-2 lookin' snow capped peak is sandwhiched between cloud layers- wow! that's Moapa Peak. The day's gettin' late and we decide on a canyon. The going is wet. We emerge at the top of the canyon in an intermediate valley surrounded by fiery orangeish towers. It seems doubtful we'll find the site as it's getting late. We find our way off of the high valley into a wash that at first appears to be going back the direction we've come from but then swings east. As the wash angles more to the south it gains size. Just before it opens up we see a small panel of glyphs on the left and then dead ahead bing bang boom we're astride beautiful panels of Virgin Kayenta Anasazi Style rock art.
The site conjures memories of the writings of Carlos Castaneda; the 'godfather' of the shamanic interpretation of rock art, with several panels having striking images of transformation. In a hidden corner stands an anthropomorph, just to the right of it is a figure spreading its wings and taking flight and to the right of that, another figure flaps its wings again completely transformed. Another panel displays a bighorn figure in an unlikely vertical stance with two vultures or eagles flapping their wings in flight to the left of it. The birds are done in such a way where their flapping wings almost resemble a frontal view of a bighorn sheep's head and the tail feathers look like the four legs of a bighorn. Both panels have a flow in design from element to element as if they record a shamans transformation in a series of snapshots.
To the left of the mantelpiece, a large boulder has a cleanly pecked complex panel on top of it which faces outward and skyward. It can't be seen from below, only from higher up the slope or on top of the boulder. On the side of this boulder is a faded panel with a six legged bighorn. The front two pairs appear to represent the animal, while the back pair look to be those of another animal which is being fused with the sheep. The animal has a tortured expression on its face and has a scattering of dots above it which give the event an intoxicated and other worldly feel (transformation, coitus, or birth?). I hope I didn't look quite that dazed in the airport. To the right of this figure is a most beautiful representation of a sheep (its open jaw angles beautifully upward through the head into the horns). The rear of this sheep has an unusual cluster of elements resembling birth imagery. Below its tail is a circle attached to its body with a coiled image inside this. To the left of this is a separate squiggle and then a dumbbell shaped figure that has a possible head at the bottom of the top circle. Above the tail is another dumbbell looking element. If this is a representation of a birth sequence the result is more human looking than sheep like. As in the sheep to bird transformation snapshots, the sheep appear to represent the shaman. This all seems likely to be some sort of imagery symbolic of a shamans transformation into the spirit world. Before we could smoke out the area for any other sites darkness began to lower and we had to hustle back through the maze of spires to get back to the truck just as total darkness fell. On the drive back we could see stars and agreed we'd have to return the next day.