19 - ROCK ART RANCH

When we were in Sedona, Arizona, a couple weeks ago, we were asked if we had ever been to Rock Art Ranch. No, we hadn't even heard of it. "Oh, you gotta go!" was the response.


So here we are about an hour east of our RV park near Winslow, waaay back in the boonies. You have to have a reservation to go to the ranch and you don't get the directions till you call...and you definitely need the directions.

Arriving at the Ranch we saw several of these arches with various pieces of old farm equipment attached to the top.

Rock Art Ranch is owned by Brantley Baird and his wife (who we never saw) and his always-beside-him cocker spaniel-poodle mix, Brandy. Brandy has a cocker spaniel head and a poodle body.


Brantley Baird is an old cowboy-rancher. He has been on this 500 acre ranch since 1945 when he was 11 years old.  


There is actually a great article about him and the ranch with pictures in Sunset Magazine, October, 2014.

This is from the article in Sunset Magazine. When we were there he was still wearing the same jacket and hat and had a bandanna around his neck. He has tremendous character in his face. 


He is now 81 years old but you wouldn't know it by following him around. He moves pretty fast and easily. He is a great and continual storyteller.


This ranch has not only been owned by Mr. Baird for many years, before that it was inhabited by Anasazi Indians as long as 4000 years ago. 


As a result, Mr. Baird has found an amazing amount of artifacts on his property over the years he has lived there.


He has a sort of museum in an old barn-like building where he houses all these priceless items. By the way, did I mention that we spent almost all day there? 

He had this picture of himself at about 14 with the first Indian pot found on the ranch...and it was huge! This too, is in his museum. The pot was totally intact as were many others that were found there. (He has a lot of pictures framed with hand written notes on them.)

These and the following pictures are of some of the pots found on the ranch.

The bright white spots are reflections on the glass that all these items are locked behind.

In addition to pottery, there was jewelry and beads...(Glass reflections again. Sorry.)

...and lots of arrowheads and hatchet heads, one that he found just two weeks ago.

In his museum was a huge assortment of things, including this old pump organ (still working, by the way), and lots of taxidermy...

An old guitar and bass guitar hung on a wall. Goodness knows where he found those.

This was a wonderful painting of an old Navajo woman whom he knew. She is 108 years old and still living.

Lining his property everywhere was more petrified wood than I have seen even in the Petrified Forest. It was everywhere and in all sizes, from small to very large.


There were so many other things here that I couldn't begin to tell them to you. You really need to go there and see for yourself.

 

There was no end of the stories we heard from Mr. Baird, all told in a matter-of-fact, down to earth manner.

Here is a bit of story-telling between an old cowboy and, well, another old boy.


The Baird's raise cattle and buffalo on their ranch.This gives them an Agricultural designation with the IRS. As a result, his 5,000 acres costs him only $380 a year in taxes. His sons help him run the ranch.

Brandy tried to challenge the buffalo, but when they got too close he turned tail and headed for the car. Not a stupid dog.


Then Mr. Baird drove us about four miles on a dirt ranch road to the Canyon. 


Along the way, he stopped a couple places, one where there was a petroglyph "map." It was very faint, meaning extremely old, on a flat horizontal surface. That is very unusual as petroglyphs are almost always on a vertical service.


Every year archaeologists come to the ranch to research the things found there. They recently found this and were very excited about finding this petroglyph map.

Near there was also the remains of an Indian Village, with a pit house, kiva, and other things. 

Lots of pottery shards were found around there. 

Our next stop was at a "puddle." There is a tree growing in the middle of it now that obviously was not there originally. Mr. Baird has also erected a fence around it to keep his cattle out.

There is a ledge all around the puddle (from recent rains) where apparently the Indians sat around making arrowheads..

...and pottery. There were lots of these broken arrowheads and many pot shards in the sand and water. These are just a few of them.

The two old cowboys discussed it all.


The next stop was THE CANYON! This was what we came for but were pleasantly surprised by the last two and a half hours of the things we saw and heard. No one else had come to the ranch that day so we had a day long private tour.


Due to recent rain, the canyon is running with a lot more water than usual. There are more than a thousand petroglyphs on the walls of the canyon, so we are anxious to see them.

 I read in the reviews that there were 50 steps down to the bottom of the canyon and I envisioned a stairway. Well...not exactly...

Mr. Baird has installed four steps, the rest are a matter of negotiating the rocks, some hand holds carved into the rocks, others a matter of stepping VERY CAREFULLY down toward the water. 

There is a hand railing to hang on to which helped tremendously. Then there is a narrow bridge across the water in order to traverse across the fast moving stream.

The bridge was covered with weeds that had been deposited in the last couple days when the river ran faster and higher. We kicked some of it off as we crossed.

There's a show-off in every crowd.


On the opposite side was where the petroglyphs were located. More were back across the river and basically almost everyplace you looked. 

 This one is called "The Birthing Scene."

 They call this one Cinderella. 

There were a lot of panels covered with animals and human figures.

There were lots of animals here, probably deer, parading across the rocks with a hunter in the midst of them.


As I said, there are reportedly more than a thousand petroglyphs here so of course I am not showing you all of them. If the river was lower we may have found more of them. 

High above the river, next to the stairway was a canopied area with picnic tables and a BBQ built by Mr.Brantley. We had brought a lunch and sat up there where we could look down on the river. It was very peaceful and relaxing.


By mid afternoon we were ready to call it a day, one we hope to repeat at another time.


If you find yourself in the area of Winslow or Holbrook, Arizona, go to Rock Art Ranch. It is a once in a lifetime experience, one you should not miss.

Next posting, Homolovi State Park and Navajo land.