How it all started

I suppose I should have made this entry first. You know, I didn't just wake up one morning and decide to become a glyph hunter. I found my first glyph quite by accident.
It all started back in September of 2004. I promised myself and the kids that we'd start being a little more physical, and with the proximity of mountains and hills to my home, hiking seemed like a good start. We shut off the TV, climbed out of the customized butt grooves we had formed in the couch, and hiked the small hill behind where I live.
It wasn't too bad, I was glad to see that we were able to climb the rocky hill without needing oxygen, and we didn't need a rescue chopper to bring us down from the "summit." Looked like we weren't in as bad shape as I feared.
Heading back down after enjoying the view, I came across the glyphs shown in the picture. I got really excited, called the kids over and said, "Look guys, petroglyphs!"
To this day, I'm a little impressed with myself because I knew what they were actually called. I could just as easily called them stone carving do-hickies.
I thought I had made a huge archaeological find, and was already picking out the shirt and tie I would wear for my cover photo of Time magazine. But as I did a little research, I learned that petroglyphs are pretty common around here. I showed pictures of the glyphs to people I work with, and they were pretty unimpressed except for one girl who was an ASU student. She told me about the Deer Valley Rock Art Center.
My interest has pretty much snowballed from that point. This new activity of mine serves lots of purposes. It gets me and the kids outside doing something physical, and it helps satisfy my technical gadget sweet tooth in the form of digital cameras, GPS, and the like. It's also introduced me to a new community of people. I'm now a member of the Arizona Archaeological Society and the American Rock Art Research Association. I'm all about preservation, and am reluctant to divulge the location of a couple of sites that I believe were previously unknown.
I'm really glad I found those first glyphs, this new interest of mine has given me a really positive outlet for my energy.

Solstice Marker

Ok, since this Blog is about Petroglyphs, I wanted to show this off. In north Phoenix there's a group of small mountains known as the Hedgepeth Hills. On the north east face of one of the mountains there are about 1500 petroglyphs and the site is maintained by ASU. This cool little place is called the Deer Valley Rock Art Center. Anyway, the southernmost little hill seemed like a good place to look for petroglyphs.
Up the mountain I went, looking for whatever there I might find. I found a couple US Geoditic Survey markers, and a grouping of large rocks in the formation of a large rectangle. Seems like that wouldn't form naturally, so I'm half inclined to go back up with a shovel and do a little digging! Probably millions of dollars worth of Aztec gold, the Spear of Destiny, or maybe even the Ark of the Covenant!
Seriously, I'll leave the gold, spear, and Ark right where they are lest they fall into the wrong hands.
But I did find something cool. A petroglyph unlike anything I'd seen in the area. The style was not consistent with the Hohokam glyphs one typically finds around here. I doubted that it was authentic, but took some pics anyway. Later I contacted the city archaeologist, sent him a copy of the pics I took, and got a reply from his assistant. According to him, it looks like a late Hohokam or early Pima solstice marker! It's widely accepted that the Hohokam were good stellar observers, and were able to determine the longest and shortest day of the year.
This information came to me just days before the summer solstice, so I had some time to prepare. I went back up the mountain at sunrise and sunset. Unfortunately I didn't see any interaction between shadows and the glpyh. Maybe it's a winter solstice marker!

First Post

Well, here's my first post on my first blog. Feel kinda stoopid because I'd heard about blogs for some time, but had no idea what they were. Googled it a while back, found this neat-o site, and here I am!
Glyphs and Other Cool Stuff. Cool title, huh? Glyphs, specifically petroglyphs are one of my main interests. Photography, hiking, etc. Oh, and saving lives. I'm a telemetry RN here in Phoenix, AZ. Kick-butt job, I improve lives, make the sick healthy, and I've even pulled a couple people back that were heading into the light! It's a rush, like I said, it's a kick-butt job.
So...let's talk about glyphs and cool stuff. Today I took the kids on a little road trip to a little spot on the map just north of Wickenberg. It's called Congress, so small it didn't even have a traffic light. Just north of Congress is this road that follows the train tracks a few miles to a boulder field. Get this, there's this huge boulder shaped like a skull, and some artistic soul even painted the boulder white. You know, for my money, this is really entertaining stuff!
Well, that's all for now. Drop me a line if you like.