ROCKS have attracted visitors to Arches NP (Utah) for thousands of years. However, sightseeing has not been the activity for very long.

Hunter-gatherers migrated into the area about 10,000 years ago at the end of
the Ice Age.

As they explored Courthouse Wash and other areas in what is now Arches,
they found pockets of chert and chalcedony, micro-crystalline quartz perfect
for making stone tools.

The arch in this photo, (to the lower right of the towers), was just being formed when the first human inhabitants were chipping rocks into dart points, knives, and scrapers used for hunting and eking out an existence in the sparse desert landscape of southern Utah.

The shadow in the foreground was being cast by The Organ, but I haven't decided if it was the heart or the spleen.

April 26, 2009