Catching up... Sedona - 9. V BAR V RANCH PETROGLYPHS

If you like Petroglyphs, this is the place for you!  It has more than anywhere else in the Verde Valley.  It's easy to drive to, and an easy walk to the site.

Down a little path on the way to the visitor's center, there was a very large fireplace/chimney fenced off that must have been from the original V Bar B Ranch.  I can imagine it in a huge living room heating the area.  Here it is from the front:

And the back of the chimney -  which was probably outside the house.  There was a vine growing up the bricks.  The outside of the chimney of the house I grew up in had the same thing.  Our vines were from a beautiful climbing bougainvillea plant. This one was dry, so I don't know if it was dormant or dead.

Along the path to the petroglyph site, I saw this informational sign showing what the area probably used to look like, and explaining how the hillside in the distance was probably used.  For now, it's just a hillside, covered with grasses and bushes and the terraces can hardly be seen.

There were beautiful small fields of grasses blowing in the breeze along the way:

We walked up to the site right at the beginning of the volunteer's talk.

He was very interesting and informative, and answered our questions.  I was most interested in his vest, and want one!  I have a small collection of vests, and I loved this one.  I asked back at the Visitor's center if I could buy one, but she said they were only for the volunteers from Sedona's Friends of the Forest.  Super nice looking vest!

Okay, after that totally unrelated vest envy, here are best photos I took of the rock art carvings.  The volunteer explained many of the carvings.  Most are self explanatory.

This first one, though, has a planting calendar carved into the rock that isn't obvious.  See the two smaller rocks wedged into the top of the crack?

From Stories in Stone near Sedona, Arizona: The V-Bar-V Petroglyphs:  -- Marking the passage of time across what is now believed to be a solar calendar or panel­—one of very few worldwide—shadow stones naturally wedged in a rock crevice play light and shadow across the cliff face. The precise times of the vernal equinox and summer solstice, important events for planting and harvesting, are tracked by light and the sun’s transition across the southwestern sky.

For more information on this site, click on this link:   V BAR V HERITAGE SITE.

From me and Katie, have a great day, everyone!