First day on the preserve 6-16-10

Today we spent the day at the preserve. It is a very beautiful place. Pictures just cannot relate the beauty. Hills and mountains seem to roll like waves across the landscape. With the grasses already turned to gold, and the foxtails waiting for a host, we wound our way along a dirt road to our first site: where we all became full blown hosts to the foxtails. We first went to a site that Julie excavated, Tashlipun. This site is historic and prehistoric. We explored for awhile and identified quite a bit of artifacts that had been dug up by the ground squirrels. Some examples are shell, bones, charcoal, ceramics, and flakes, among other things. We ate lunch at a covered picnic area while plucking foxtails from every place possible. We were then off to the next site: Lizard Cave. This rock art site functioned as a solstice calendar. It is quite colorful and has many paintings. The birds also love this site and have made it their home by building nests all around it. In order to actually get inside the cave, we had to climb a bit. It was rather challenging but pretty fun at the same time. Julie and Dave helped us climb in and out; otherwise I probably never would have made it up! We moved onto the next site (of which Julie has also excavated) after everyone explored the cave. At Three Springs there is a little wetland/marsh area with lots and lots of birds chirping away. It was rather peaceful listening to them while they played and dashed throughout the marsh. As for the squirrels residing at Three Springs, they apparently are not archaeologists as at Tashlipun, for there were few artifacts that they had found. Around the corner a bit, there is a very small cave that required a one at a time sequence for everyone to see it. It took quite some time. The cave was certainly worth the wait. With Dave’s help in identifying the designs, it really came alive. It would have been nice to be able to sit there and analyze it for awhile.

Throughout the day, everyone enjoyed our opportunities to see the wildlife. We were lucky and witnessed a herd of mother and baby Tule Elk running up a hillside. There were over or around 50, according to Jessica who was able to count them in the picture she took. There were so many, but I think the highlights were the coyote, Tule Elk, the deer, and all the cute rabbits. We left later than planned; I believe just a bit after 5pm. It was nice to be back and be able to shower!