Pictograph of a mountain goat–or is it a deer?
Petroglyph or pictograph? Goat or deer?
Just an hour’s hike from Starhaven, at the base of the Santa Catalina mountains, we found a trove of petroglyphs and pictographs left behind by Native Americans. It was a hot, slow hike–but worth the effort. The images were startlingly beautiful renditions of goats, lizards, snakes, and other desert creatures. One image, of a group of dancers hand in hand, was particularly intriguing. What would life have been like in these mountains so many years ago? The gaiety of the scene suggests that life was more than just a struggle to survive.
Dancers
Dancers
See this website for the difference between petroglyphs and pictographs: http://geology.com/articles/petroglyphs/more-petroglyphs.shtml
Lizards
Man catching lizard?
Snakes?
Coyote and flower?
Mysterious images
A mature saguaro (suh-wah-roe) grows in the desert at the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
The Santa Catalina Mountains
To find out more about the Santa Catalina Mountains see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Catalina_Mountains
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