Sticks and stones at a sacred site

Yesterday my neighbor Mona introduced me and one of her B&B guests to a really special place. It's the archealogical site just up the road from us called Alta Vista. There are petroglyphs there which date back about 2,000 years. You find them all along a rocky path about a mile long which leads to a large amphitheater formed by basaltic columns. There is a stream alongside the walk, which flows (in the rainy season, which this is not) out of a series of pools at the head of the amphitheater. But scattered throughout the experience are altars and devotionals, put there by visitors to the site. I saw feathers, baskets, shells, candle stubs, heart shaped lollipops and a pair of sunglasses. (I wonder if someone dropped those by accident, and then everyone else was afraid to pick them up!)

The site is not officially open to the public, but there is a series of informational signs along the trail, and a large sign posted in the parking lot inviting whoever reads it to a celebration of the vernal equinox tomorrow. Can't make it. I'm meeting an airplane in PV. Too bad. I feel like beating a drum and howling at the moon these days. At least that's what I'd expect to do! Maybe it's just as well that I don't go.....

Anyway, I took a lot of photos yesterday, and I posted them in an album on shutterfly.com. Watch for the link when I get it ready. Some time. Maybe its a vernal equinoxical conversion or something, but the internet around here is working ... barely. It is s.....l......o.......w. Howling has NOT helped. If this keeps up, I may be offering this high speed internet do-hickey thing sitting here on my desk to the ancient spirits at an altar in Alta Vista. Anybody got a match?

OK -- the album re Alta Vista is done. Click on the link to the left: "Susan's Photo Albums." SO EASY!