#76 She Wolf
Most photographers will tell you that good light occurs within the first half hour of sunrise and approximately the last hour before sundown. Since I believe this to be true, I photograph during these hours and the rest of my day is used for scouting landscape compositions which I feel would enhance my portfolio.
My latest trip into Arches National Park was not much different than many others except I was photographing in a National Park which I generally stay clear of. After shooting in early morning light in Arches I decided to venture deep into the back country, so I filled my water bottle to the brim and packed some trail mix bars along with fruit for an afternoon snack.
Let me start this story by saying that I am a God fearing man and would place my hand on the Bible that the following story is indeed truth. I was approximately three miles from the main road that goes through the park when I found a ledge that went along the side of a huge rock formation. Instead of walking down into the valley below, I decided to go along this ledge which in places was only a foot wide and about one hundred fifty yards in length. As I got to the end of what I could see, the ledge made a sharp bend and opened up into an area that was about sixty feet wide and I would guess approximately one hundred yards in length.
Immediately after rounding the bend I spotted a Border Collie that ran ahead of me. Being a dog lover I was afraid the dog was lost, so as I started to follow it I looked ahead and spotted a naked figure running about sixty yards ahead. I stopped in disbelief, and as the figure run up a small sand dune and turned around to look at me, I could tell it was a Navajo Indian and a female.
I turned my head looking upward at the cliffs as if I never saw her, and as I turned around to backtrack the way I came, I then saw a young Navajo Indian girl sitting on the edge of the cliff looking out over the valley and chanting which I presumed was some kind of religious chant.
I looked back around to see if the older lady was still standing on the sand dune, but she was now gone. My thoughts were now that I had better leave immediately and as I turned around and looked back towards the young girl, I saw her squeeze between two large boulders that were on the edge of the cliff. She now knew that I was there as I started to retrace my steps along the ridge.
The thought went through my mind that nobody would believe this story, so as I started back out I noticed what I considered a ceremonial pit of some kind with trinkets of civilization scattered in the bottom along with these footprints in the sand. I set my tripod up quickly and photographed them before departing the area.
Before leaving Arches I stopped at the visitors center and spoke to a ranger, but did not tell him what I saw. I only inquired if he knew of any Navajo Indians living in the back country as they do in Monument Valley. His response was that the Hovenweep people lived throughout the valley more than seven hundred years ago and to his knowledge no people lived in the valley at this time. He thought however it would be neat if people did in fact still remain in the valley and had somehow been overlooked.
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