Spring

Anasazi handprint (pictograph, red rock canyon national conservation area, nv)

This is a detail from a pictograph panel near the back (west) end of the Calico Basin near Willow Springs (on this panel, there is a series of five handprints along a short sandstone ridge). Of all the different pictographs found throughout the southwest, I’m really fascinated by the ubiquitous handprint that shows up across the Colorado Plateau. I saw handprints just like this near House on Fire in Mule Canyon hundreds of miles east of here in SE Utah–and there are countless occurrences of them at various points inbetween. What does the handprint mean? Was it a message of some sort, or an ancient equivalent of the stick figure decal we see on minivan windows? The Anasazi still hold great mystery for scientists, and we’ll probably never know what the pictographs mean–but they’re pretty cool to see and photograph, in any event.