A Realization Of My Insignificance Upon The Ruins - Nankoweap Ruins On Colorado River

September 09, 2014 • Leave a Comment

A Realization Of My Insignificance Upon The Ruins - Nankoweap Ruins On Colorado River

While rafting 188 miles down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, we stopped on day two near here for camp, and hiked up to the famous Nankoweap cliff-ruins for sunset, situated high above the river and delta below. This was a wonderful opportunity that not all raft tours can afford to stop at, but this worked well into our itinerary. As much as they are historically treasured, they are equally treasured by me for their colored beauty against the landscape below me. This is when I finally knew that I was going to have a really great adventure and still had 6 days to go! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. If you do, let me please recommend them printed on metal, or else metallic paper.

A Realization Of My Insignificance

“If anybody is not blown away by the Grand Canyon, they won’t be blown away by Judgement Day, either. To spend the night on rocks that have been warmed to 120 degrees by the sun, to feel the incredibly insistent and very dangerous Colorado River rush by you, to be down in the depths of the Grand Canyon with no one around you but your own party, you begin to feel your own insignificance. At the same time, you are made larger by that realization.” ~ filmmaker Ken Burns, to Arizona Highways Magazine

While hiking from the bottom of the canyon to the Nankoweap cliff-ruins, I stopped to embrace my insignificance, and as usual felt larger for that realization, as I photographed the late afternoon reflections on the flowing Colorado River.

Life Awaits Man As The Sea Awaits The River

"All rivers, even the most dazzling, those that catch the sun in their course,

all rivers go down to the ocean and drown.

And life awaits man as the sea awaits the river." ~ Simone Schwarz-Bart

Despite the geologic mysteries surrounding its creation (or continued existence), archaeological findings show that the alluvial fan delta below these ruins clearly provided a habitat for historic inhabitants. In 1960, archaeologist Douglas W. Schwartz investigated the area, including the granaries nestled in the cliffs above the river. He found corncobs, a pumpkin shell, and pumpkin seeds inside the granaries. The people who inhabited the delta harvested these and other crops between 1050 and 1150 A.D. Schwartz gathered other evidence of habitation in the area including other ruins, a petroglyph site and thirty-four pueblo house structures, leading him to conclude as many as 900 people may have lived in the area at that time!

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A Realization Of My Insignificance Upon The Ruins - Nankoweap Ruins On Colorado River

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