Create A Story...The Petroglyphs

A few weeks ago, I ventured out into the Rinconada Canyon Trail to Petroglyph National Monument.  The geology was interesting; volcanic remnants from thousands of year ago.  The basalt from these volcanic eruptions provided the basis for the petroglyphs.  It has been estimated, according to the National Park Service that 90% of the petroglyphs were made by the ancestors of todays Pueblo Indians from 1300 A.D. to late 1680's.

As I was hiking around, I overheard a park ranger talking to a group of school kids on a field trip.  It was interesting to hear young kids ideas about what desert life is.  The ranger asked the group if anyone could tell him what makes a desert a desert.  After numerous attempts at answering the question with everything from ' the sand' to 'walking in the sand' the ranger redirected the question and asked about rainfall.  When asked how much rain the desert gets per year one child answered '3 centimeters' another said '30 feet.' While the answer is between these two responses, the ranger said due to the drought the rainfall has only been about a third of what it typically is this time of the year.