Rocks near Natural Arch, CO

[rginn]

Did a lot of walking around in this area and located a couple of interesting spots. One, the road goes right through, and the other is on a slope and doesn't appear to have been disturbed. Both appear to be temporary camps and didn't spot any signs of long term occupation in the areas I checked. Water supply is a seasonal thing in that area. They brought in yellow and red jasper, and a type of fine grained gray chert I wasn't familiar with. They did use some of the crystal quartz that occurs naturally in the area in small nodules. These are not paleo but probably pre-historic Ute.

 

[tamrock]

Awesome finds You know the limited artifacts and materials I've found here on the front range are the same as what was used up there. Even a piece of clear chalcedony. I found a center section of a larger point made of the chalcedony down here in all this suburbia. One area, that won't ever be developed was a place of occupation that I believe was used for many seasons. Your post makes me eager to get up to the high country and get out looking.

 

[Kray Gelder]

Very nice!

 

[Hawks88]

Cool.

 

[rginn]

You should come over and check out that northern section of the SLV sometime, TR. Don't come on a weekend though.

 

[tamrock]

You should come over and check out that northern section of the SLV sometime, TR. Don't come on a weekend though.

That's good part of my job, I can be out for no reason on a week day up there. Did you ever take the road beyond La Garita ? It goes up to Moon Pass and comes out on the highway that goes up to Cochetopa. There was a nice camp ground up there I think is called Pogo or something like that. It was in the fall when the trees were turning the last time I went up there. Pretty up there and no tourist on the week days to deal with. I'm sorry that place your going in the past wasn't known for rock climbers and mountain bikes everyone else. I'm telling ya that facebook exposed everything to everybody.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congrats on the nice finds!

 

[rginn]

I haven't been there yet, TR. It is kinda getting to be like Ed Abbey said, industrialized tourism here in the west. That place I camp near Moab, Horse Thief Campground, put all these biking trails in and had to expand the camping area to deal with the traffic, when in the past you were cool if you got there early in the morning. In the evening it filled up with the overflow who couldn't camp in the National Parks, and they usually left out early in the morning. I'm glad they're enjoying the outdoors in some sort of way, but such is our future, I guess.

 

[tamrock]

I noticed a sign in Austin, Nevada promoting mountain bike trails. So far from what I see it doesn't seem to be catching on quite yet. The back country in much of central Nevada still remains rather peaceful and quiet. It's really beautiful out there and has a few interesting ancient site's to visit. Here in Colorado with the rush of people that have been moving in has really changed the state and I do what I can to deal with it. If anything I've got a lot of wonderful memories of what used to be like

 

[tamrock]

That camp site I was thinking of on the road out behind La Garita is called Poso. Looking back at the last time I was there it was Sep.24 2014. 7:15 AM ... Took these pics with the old Kodak I had. I thought it looked like a pretty peaceful little area up in there. I did run into some hunters up there and that was the only other folk I saw. Like you said things can sure change in 5 years in the mountains of Colorado, so who knows what it be like up there now?. My guess in September on a weekday things might still be a little settled down up in there.

 

[WannaDig3687]

Great finds and a very interesting read. Please, educate me. Why do you say this?

These are not paleo but probably pre-historic Ute.

How do you tell?

 

[rginn]

There's paleo sites in that area, Wrightdigger. I don't know a lot about paleos, but a lot of research I've seen suggests they weren't using bows yet, and all I saw were arrowheads or pieces of them.

 

[WannaDig3687]

Thanks.