Seminole Canyon - Pictographs and Trails

It took all day to get to Seminole Canyon. When I arrived, I was road weary. I was looking forward to getting my site, and maybe going for a bike ride.

As I thanked the ranger for her time, I asked about the pictograph tour, maybe I'd go on one tomorrow. She said, "Well, we have one leaving in 10 minutes..."

Perfect timing. I postponed my campground landing, and took the tour instead.

I love pictographs and petroglyphs. I just looked up the difference: In this case, the cave art is a pictograph, as it is paint being applied to the rock, and not carving of stone, which would be a petroglyph.

I'm fascinated by both.

There are many theories. It could be religious. It could be mundane. It could be someone memorializing a damn fine day. It could be as simple as someone saying, "I was here." It might just be art.

I kind of want to find a cave somewhere and make my own cave art. Just to mess with future generations of historians. Put up a few flying saucers flown by sasquatch and octopus. Ha!

I guess that's what I'm doing here with written word and my pictures, drawings, building design or sculptures..  "Thom was here." To which the universe in all its wonderful indifference replies, "So what?"

That kind of indifference could crush some people, but not me. I'm going to do my thing as long as I am able. It's as necessary as breathing. So If I haven't mentioned it before, thank you unknown readers for dropping by and experiencing my art. It's better in person, but this will have to do for now.

I digress.

I took the tour. I enjoyed seeing the paintings and learning their ways. I was struck by how colorful the paint is. Most cave art doesn't use much more than one color, but these scenes had three to four pigments.

As the ranger said, "This artist had a plan, and knew what they wanted to paint before they began." This was no experiment.

So my question is, where did they experiment? Where did they practice? One just doesn't randomly make paint from natural materials and put up a varitable masterpiece.

It was very cool.

After the tour, I went to my campsite and got set up. Which for me means: I turned my front seats facing towards each other, and I ran an extension cord from the electrical post through my window to a space heater. That's it. It takes about 5 minutes. "Build your van wisely," I always say.

My chores done, I got my mountain bike off the rack and hit the trail going full throttle. I was racing the sunset, and wanted to see the confluence of Seminole canyon and the Rio Grande.

What a great trail! The Canyon Overlook trail hugs the edge for five miles out to Rio Grande. I was pumping hard, and grinning like a mad man. I was loving the effort and views. I saw the river from on high, and took in the silence of the place. So beautiful.

I stayed as long as I could, but the sun was winning with each minute I stayed. I took up the chase and made it home with about 20 minutes to spare.

My van was warm. The shower hot. The beer cold. The dinner flavorful.  May every day be so good.