Of Petroglyphs and other things

The rain continues in the Arizona desert while to the north at higher elevations winter storm warnings for heavy snow are out. It was a steady rain all night long but today there are heavy thunderstorm warnings out for the Phoenix area. Just like in Denver, the local weathermen and women promise it will clear up "just in time for the weekend!". There is a place in White Tank Regional Park that begs to be done in the pouring rain. Called Waterfall Canyon you can easily guess why the inclement weather is the time to see this particular area. Apparently it takes a lot of rain, more even than we've been getting, to turn this rocky outcropping into its namesake. Still, in the three years I've been coming to Spring Training there was more water flowing today as I visited than I've seen before.

Ancient rock art begging to be deciphered

Along the path to the waterfall (water trickle?) there are a number of petroglyphs carved by the ancient Arizonans known as the Hohokam. What exactly these rock carvings from 1,000 years ago mean no one on the planet today knows. While the Park brochure promises that the rock art was serious business to its maker and was not simply stone-age graffiti still I wondered if any of it was carved in fun, perhaps by young Hohokam lads acting out as young lads are known to do. While most of the glyphs I wandered by were probably carved to mark the presence of big game, signify the movement of the sun and stars, or for purely for religious activities, I caught my eye looking for the ones with simpler significance. You know - the stone-age equivalent of "Harry loves Sally", "For a good time call...", "Kilroy was here", or "Have a Coke and a smile!". Alas, I was to be disappointed as I could make no better sense of these relics of times gone by than the experts.

Of course, the makers of the rock art are long, long gone faded into the mists of time like the clouds that swirl around the mountain peaks on this rainy day. I've often thought that in whatever hereafter awaits us one of the things I hope to do is to get a chance to meet some of these ancient rock carvers and see if just perhaps there was a touch of whimsy to some of what they did. I'm sure that day to day survival was top of mind for these long-lost people but hopefully they had the presence of mind to recognize, appreciate, and enjoy simple things like love, happiness, and beauty, as fleeting as they sometimes can be.

Up close and personal with a 'Teddy Bear' Cholla Cactus

As then, the desert today remains a thing of beauty, even when seen through the veil of falling rain. As much as things change, much remains the same especially in a land where time seems to have no beginning and no end. The cycle of life goes on and it is the nature of Spring that there be rebirth. Next to giant cactus that have gone the way of the Hohokam are baby Cholla and Saguaro springing from what at first appears to be a barren land but is actually teeming with life. If they allowed it, which they definitely don't, it's in such a place that I'd carve my own rock art. "Have a nice day" or "Be Happy!" come to mind....

Here's a quick snapshot of the walk up Waterfall Canyon: