Petroglyphs

Last Saturday we went on another 9+ hour motorcycle ride. The main attraction on this ride was the Jeffers Petroglyphs historic site. The site is littered with Sioux quartzite stone that was exposed when the glaciers rolled through Minnesota many moons ago. American Indians used the stone as their canvas for carving pictures of sacred images.

Here is one of the carvings. Most of the carvings didn't really jump out at me. This was one of the more distinct ones. (After I enhanced it greatly in Photoshop.) It's a picture of an upside-down hand. The field guide assured me that if the sun would make an appearance through the cloud cover, the shadows would make the images pop. I dunno. With each thing he pointed out, the phrase "cloud art" kept coming to mind.

It was a very nice day. Here is a view from the other side of the site. Hard to tell it's anything but a field from here.


I personally think the rocks are the star of the show. I've always loved rocks. This particular outcropping has been nicknamed "Buffalo Rub." Supposedly when the buffalo roamed here, they used this area as their scratching post and rubbed the stone smooth. We were kinda skeptical at first when the field guide talked about it, but when we finally got to the other side of the site and looked at it, the stone is only smooth in areas and heights where a buffalo would be interested in rubbing. It's extremely pretty, however it got that way.