Today we began our short river expedition. We travelled down the San Juan river on motorized rafts with a single guide. We floated for a while observing the wildlife and beauty of the area surrounding the river, seeing things we would not be able to see any other way. As the day continued we took our first stop to see some ancient petroglyphs. The petroglyphs were intricately chiseled into the rock. These pictures truly amazed me, the way they withstood all of the elements over thousands of years and continue to maintain meaning within the American Indian culture.
As we continued down the river we saw a blue heron, wild turkey, horses, desert big horn sheep, among other animals. At our second stop we took a short hike to the River House Ruin. These ruins have been supported in order to be preserved and continue standing for an increasingly longer period of time. Because of this preservation we were allowed to walk in the ruins and experience them from the inside. Many of the other ruins we saw from the river and on other hikes we could only look at and take pictures of from afar. It is unbelievable to think about how people could build and live in rock such small rock dwellings.
As I recall, one of our guides taught us that for every one Hogan there were about 30 people. A Hogan is generally round or eight sided traditional Navajo building that has a door facing the East to welcome the rising sun. In these buildings are where native ceremonies, healing, and other rituals are held. In the River House Dwelling there was one Hogan therefore they could estimate about thirty people living there. Some ruins have been found to have eight or nine Hogans meaning potentially over 200 people were living there at one time. These particular ruins appear to be an ideal location, where more panels of fascinating petroglyphs can be found, along with a beautiful overlook of the surrounding land the native people once thrived off of. There were some remnants of what could have been a pot or vase at one time that had intricate patterning and reminded me of the petroglyph panels.
As our adventure began to wind down, we rode down some class two rapids and played in the water during the heat of the day before stopping one last time. At this stop we examined some rocks with fascinating fossils of sea worm-like plants. We floated to our final destination where we took the rafts out and headed back to the motel. It was sad to see such a fulfilling day come to an end, but spending the day exploring these native lands was unforgettable.
