travel – Page 43 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

The Ancient Doors to Mesa Verde

Two Ancient Cliff Swellings

February 24, 2023February 25, 2023 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

The Anasazi (“ancient ones”) constructed 15 rooms on a 10 foot deep cliff alcove and used a toe-trail (literally a series of depressions in the rock used to gain traction) to climb to the mesa top (shown in this photograph) and the canyon.

A toe-trail security feature is the necessity to start using the correct hand/foot combination, otherwise there will be a point from which it is impossible to proceed. There are 15 rooms here: a kiva, on the far left, a multi-story building, on the right, with 4 upper rooms and 10 ground floor spaces. They probably blocked the openings in cold weather to conserve heat.

Click me for more Mesa Verde work s in my Fine Art Gallery

The Anasazi had gardens on the mesa top or the canyon, plus they hunted and gathered wild foods. In the gardens, they planted corn, bean, squash and watermelon in the rich soil. They also gathered wild plants and herbs such as bee-weed, ground cherry, milkweed, cattail, wolf berry and sedge grass Cliff dwelling alcoves include a seep spring, a seam in the rock through which a small amount of water flowed. Imagine the difficulty of hauling water every day if there was not a water source in the alcove.

Can you find the unnamed ruin also in this canyon, we call it “Cliff Canyon”? These ruins are outside the national park boundary, inside the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation.

The “window” of this cliff dwelling (ruin) was actually a door!! The Anasazi (“ancient ones”) constructed two rooms in this narrow cliff alcove.

The two rooms here are what seems to be a round wall, possibly a kiva ruin, on the left and a single story building, on the right, being the single wall with an opening for access. They probably blocked the opening in cold weather to conserve heat. It is possible this site had a special use and was occupied for a limited period of time each season/year.

Cliff dwelling alcoves include a seep spring, a seam in the rock through which a small amount of water flowed. Imagine the difficulty of hauling water every day if there was not a water source in the alcove. The large juniper to the left attests to a water source, since it grows from a shared crevice.

The protective alcove was deeper in the past. The desert varnish (the dark marking) above the alcove marks a place where water seeps from the cliff and, in cold weather, expands under the overlying rock, causing it to fall. Can you see where the cliff face has fallen above the ruin? The lack of desert varnish shows the rock fall was relatively recent.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Point Lookout at Dawn, Mesa Verde

Dramatic Entrance

February 23, 2023February 25, 2023 MichaelStephenWills9 Comments

This dramatic butte at the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park, golden in the first light of a July morning. My wife, Pam, and I were on this road in the pre-dawn hours. Our delight with this surprise view was worth it.

Click me for more Mesa Verde works in my Fine Art Gallery

In this Point Lookout area, near the park’s entrance, the Mancos Shale is about 2,000 ft thick, and this is what this butte is composed of. Mancos Shale is the lowest formation of the park and is a thick sequence of gray to black marine shale containing minor tan siltstone and fine sandstone beds. On steep slopes, such as those near the northern and eastern boundaries of the park, this formation is prone to landslides and debris flows. This is the base of the butte. The lovely golden rock is Point Lookout Sandstone of the Mesaverde Group, a predominantly yellowish-gray or pale-orange, fine- to medium-grained marine sandstone, approximately 300-400 ft thick. The Point Lookout Sandstone forms much of the cap rock in the northern park area.

I reworked the above image into this Fine Art image of Point Lookout.

Reference: http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/info/meve/

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Pam Wills at Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland

February 22, 2023February 20, 2023 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Pam and I were lucky enough to plan our tour of Ireland for May and June when the Hawthorne trees are in bloom. Named sceach gheal in Gaelic, the white clusters of blossoms symbolize hope. Hawthorns are plentiful throughout the island. The Irish revere the tree and associate each Hawthorn with the Little People. There are roads in Ireland that curve around a Hawthorn tree because the local people convinced the engineers to do so, to save the tree.

This specimen, covered with offerings (to the Little People?), is on the trail to Loughcrew. Even with her knee trouble, Pam made it to the top of the Hag’s Mountain to visit Cairn T of the Loughcrew Passage tombs.

The steep path to Loughcrew passes a hawthorn covered with flowers and may offerings.

Pam loves to capture images and returned from Ireland with a large collection. Most of the photos of me at work are by Pam. Here Pam is capturing the summit view of Hag’s Mountain with the Cairn T entrance gate in the background. Lucky for us, a fellow visitor made the trip to Loughcrew Gardens and picked up the gate key from the café. In a later post I will share my work from inside this passage tomb.

Pam makes friends wherever we go. She started down the mountain before me to take it easy on her knees. When I caught up, Pam and a young Irish family were deep in conversation. I took the opportunity to capture Pam with that gorgeous view to the northwest, Irish countryside with Lake of the Branches in the far distance.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Sipapu Bridge Up Close

February 20, 2023February 19, 2023 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

This post continues my story of Sipapu Bridge.

I created a series of fine art prints from a visit my wife Pam and I made to Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah. Here are a few of these prints which grace fine homes around the world. Click any of the photographs to visit the gallery.

We walked a narrow cliff patch climbed a series of weathered pine ladders to achieve these views of Sipapu Bridges National Monument.

While the sky is unchanged, below the canyon rim is another world. The black stripes of the cliffs is desert varnish, a thin deposit of clay, iron and manganese oxides. The rock supporting the varnish is resistant to wear and protected from direct precipitation (in this case by the overhanging cliff).

Eventually we came to a ledge with a view of Sipapu Bridge. Pam took the opportunity to capture this amazing experience.

A Utah Juniper (Juniperus osteosperma). Historically, across the west, Native Americans used the wood in building their houses. They ate the berries; smoked the bark; made shoes, clothing, and rope from it.

Sipapu is a Hopi word for the small hole or indentation in the floor of kivas used by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples and modern-day Puebloans. It symbolizes the portal through which their ancient ancestors first emerged to enter the present world. A natural bridge is formed through erosion by water flowing in the stream bed of the canyon. Sipapu Bridge is 268 feet across and, standing in the stream bed, it is 220 feet above your head.

Here is a close up of the white Permian sandstone of the bridge arch. The entire canyon is carved from this stone and named after it.

World Portal

February 19, 2023February 19, 2023 MichaelStephenWills15 Comments

Sipapu is one of the largest natural bridges known.

Part of the Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah, a place inaccessible until the “uranium boom” of the 1950’s and the road was only paved in 1976.

We visited on a July day of thunderstorms, which you see building here. If you look closely at the base of the bridge, you can see the railings my wife and I used to climbed the steep sides of White Canyon.

We hiked a few miles along an unmaintained trail. On the way we passed ancient cliff dwellings. The area is a maze of canyons throughout which these ruins are scattered.

A natural bridge is formed through erosion by water flowing in the stream bed of the canyon.

Sipapu Bridge is 268 feet across and, standing in the stream bed, it is 220 feet above your head. That is white Permian sandstone, after which White Canyon is named.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Valentines Day Greetings

February 14, 2023February 23, 2025 MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

1959 through today

Theresa (2), Michael (5), Christine (4) in the livingroom of 107 Deepdale Parkway, Albertson, New York on Valentines Day 1959

Chocolate Valentines Day cake by Pamela Wills

Pam and I aboard the Oceania Regatta sailing the Pacific Ocean off Chile. The following day we reached Puerto Montt.

Copyright 2025 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Treman Gallery Footbridge II

Looking back after crossing the Gallery Footbridge we are rewarded with this view, providing a better understanding of the site. It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

February 13, 2023December 14, 2022 MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Looking back after crossing the Gallery Footbridge we are rewarded with this view, providing a better understanding of the site.

This is the footbridge at east side of gorge gallery entrance, seen from the east where the trail descends.

It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Treman Gallery Footbridge I

Here we are on the Gorge Trail of Treman State Park. My readers have seen this marvelous stone bridge from a distance. Here it is on the west side, facing east/northeast and looking down into the gorge. It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York Copyright 2023 […]

February 12, 2023December 14, 2022 MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Spanning the eastern side of the gallery entrance of the gorge.

It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

19th Century Enfield Falls

A Bit of History

February 11, 2023December 14, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

“Enfield Falls, like many other towns, grew around its grist and sawmills. Farmers coming to this mill about the middle of the 19th century could do errands while waiting for their grain to be ground. In Enfield Falls at that time, there were two sawmills, a shingle mill, cooperage, tannery, carding factory, store and hotel. By the late 19th century there was also a post office.”

“As farmers turned asway from growing wheat, Enfield Falls evolved from a busy milling center to a place appreciated for scenery and a quality hotel. Robert and Henrietta Wickham build and ran the hotel for many years during the middle of the 19th century. The hotel hosted popular dances in its ballroom. Guests could also dine and rest at the hotel.”

This placard from the Mill Museum at Treman Park is the source of much of today’s information. I used italics and quotes to attribute this source.

The sign in the heading of this post “hung near the hotel at least as early as 1883. In that year, D. Morris Kurtz mentioned it in his “Ithaca and Its Resources”: “At the foot of the hill is the Enfield Falls Hotel, but you look around in vain for the falls or even any sign of them. Upon the side of the stable into which our horses are driven is nailed a small board, on which is painted ‘Admission to the Falls, 10 cents.’ In reply to our inquiry the bright little urchin that takes charge of the team says, ‘Down there they are,’ pointing to the rocky wall which apparently forms the eastern and an unsurmountable boundary to the valley. And to ‘down there’ we proceed……“

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. This was the control point in the 19th century for collecting the ten cent admission fee. Here are some photographs of the entrance as it exists today. The retaining wall, footpath and stone bridge were constructed in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The site was far rougher for those earlier visitors.

The Gorge Trail next to Enfield Creek on a midsummer morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Photograph captured on a midsummer morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Devil’s Kitchen

A small difference

February 10, 2023February 10, 2023 MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

Can you see the small difference between yesterday and today’s take on Devil’s Kitchen? Is the change and improvement, degradation or no difference? User Response Requested: respond in comments.

Aptly named Devil’s Kitchen is where Enfield Creek passes over these 20 foot falls before the Lucifer Falls 115 foot rock face cascade. Captured on a Memorial Day morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York.

Here they are side by side.

It is 9:00am on a Memorial Daty morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,