Recently in Native American Category
Hand prints from the needles district in Canyonlands NP.
Roughly 1000 years ago, the Anasazi indians inhabited the area that is now known as Canyonlands National Park. For the most part, they lived and spent their time around the Green River in the lower elevations below the mesa tops. To gather food, they would often make trips up to the higher elevations and store what they managed to find in granaries that they built into the edges of the cliffs and buttes. The granary above, was photographed in an alcove near the top of one of the Aztec Buttes in the "Island in the Sky" section of Canyonlands National Park.
What looks like a typical sheer walled canyon, actually contains some ruins from the ancestors of modern pueblo people. The dwellings are around 600 years old, and in the above photo are evident by several rows of viga holes seen at roughly 5 O' Clock at the bottom of the wall. These holes were used to hold wooden poles as part of the structure which also made use of cavates, or carved rooms, in the rock wall.
This kiva, is found in the alcove house. This is also known as the ceremonial cave, and is roughly 140 feet above the canyon floor. To reach this cave, one has to climb several long wooden ladders.