12/8/18 Project 2: Draw Your Own Pictograph Exhibit

Draw Your Own Pictograph Exhibit

The Draw Your Own Pictograph Exhibit is going to be in the Cliff Dwellings Visitor Center Museum.

The exhibit invites visitors to look at pictographs that can be found in the Cliff Dwellings National Monument and then draw their own.

These pictographs can be found on the Trail to the Past. They are red because the artists who painted them used red hematite rocks for pigment. The age of pictographs are very difficult to determine.

This pictographs along with several others can be found in the cliff dwellings. No one knows whether they were painted by people who lived in the caves before the cliff dwellers came, or if the cliff dwellers painted them.

These pictographs are found on a rock outcrop next to the road to the trailhead.

Unlike the pictograph artists of the past, visitors are invited to draw their pictographs on paper using with crayons. The artists of the past made their own paint and drew the pictographs with yucca brushes.

I enjoyed taking the photographs and creating this exhibit to show visitors where they can find pictographs in the Cliff Dwellings National Monument. It also invites visitors to think about the pictograph artists who lived at least 700 years ago!

12/8/18 Project 1: Wall Building Exhibit

Wall Building Exhibit

I decided that I wanted to create an exhibit that would invite visitors to try and build a wall like one of the walls in the cliff dwellings. The first thing I needed to do was find some rocks for my exhibit. Collecting rocks in the Cliff Dwellings Monument is not allowed, so I hiked up the TJ Trail until I was at around 5,900 feet in elevation and collected rocks there. (The walls of the cliff dwellings are made of a sandstone conglomerate rock which can be found at that elevation.)

Jay, another volunteer hiked up the trail with me, so he could help carry down the rocks.

I couldn't help noticing how the seedheads on the grasses along the trail curled around and reflected the sunlight.

I also noticed barrel cactuses growing along the trail.

And then I saw this amazing Earthstar which is about 3 inches in diameter!

But, we were there to collect rocks for the wall building exhibit, so both Jay and I filled our backpacks with rocks and started down the trail.

We piled the rocks on the picnic table next to my camper.

The Wall-Building Exhibit is going to be housed in the Trailhead museum

We put it below this poster of the Cliff Dwellings.

I took close-up photographs of the cliff dwelling walls and taped them on the wall under the poster.

Since the exhibit has been in place, many visitors have built walls.

Here's another wall built by a visitor.

The museum houses other exhibits.

Jay recently added these Mimbres bowls.

What do you think the image in this bowl represents?

The image in this bowl represents a bat which is the symbol of the Cliff Dwellings.

This model of the Cliff Dwellings is for for blind people, so they can feel the layout of the cliff dwellings.
I enjoyed creating the wall building exhibit and am glad that it is in the Trailhead Museum with these exhibits.

12/1/18 Vinny's Photographs

This is my brother-in-law, Vinny. He took the photographs in this blog entry when he and my sister, June, came to visit me at the end of October.

The view of the cliff dwellings from the trail.

Looking at the 2-story building from inside Cave 3.

The view from inside the cliff dwellings.

Vinny and one of the resident mules in the campground.

June petting one of the horses that roams around the campground.

The bluffs and mountains in the valley near the campground.

The view of the night sky from the campground.

The Milky Way Galaxy from the campground.

A male tarantula on the path to the Trail to the Past.

The Gila River.

Storm clouds in the valley.

Me in my volunteer uniform in front of my camper and June and Vinny's tent.

Lake Roberts

11/22/18 Thanksgiving Day at Bosque del Apache

On Thanksgiving Day, I drove around the refuge.  The driving 'tour' covers only a small portion of the 57,000+ acres of the refuge. The refuge is managed like a 'farm' for birds. The section above is for ducks. Can you see them swimming beneath the tree?

This is what the ducks look like up close. There were about 50 of them feeding here.

Each white dot in the photo is a snow goose! This is the 'snow goose' section of the refuge.

Here's a close-up of part of the flock.Can you guess how many are in all? Luckily, the refuge keeps a count and then they know how many acres of food they need to grow for the birds to survive the winter.

Of course the birds are not in cages, so they are free to fly wherever they want!

Imagine this roadrunner on the side of the road in the refuge!

When I drove by, it ran into the bushes and I could see what great camouflage it has! Happy Thanksgiving!

11/20-21/18 Bosque del Apache: Cranes and Geese

On Tuesday and Wednesday around dawn I went back to the wetland and was greeted by the sight of thousands of birds!

There were sandhill cranes, snow geese and several different species of ducks!

The gray birds are sandhill cranes. The white birds are snow geese.

You can see them better here! 

Soon the sandhill cranes started flying away to their feeding grounds.

See how big the cranes are compared to the geese! The cranes walked carefully through the flock of snow geese until they had enough room to take off.

They flew off in groups of two or three.

While some cranes flew off, others stretched their wings in preparation for flight.

What a beautiful morning!