Around 600 feet down the road is a row of wooden Navajo ramadas, this day not yet set up when we arrived. We were approached by a soft spoken guide who offered to show us the tracks in exchange for a small donation. Anticipation rising we agreed and set foot on the worn sandstone to see what was created 160 million years ago.
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| Navajo Ramada, Tuba City, AZ ©Marcia Mauskopf 2011 |
This area is a series of soft swells of red sandstone riddled with the prints of Dilophosaurus dinosaur tracks left in antediluvian mud. Camouflaged in the rock, a splash of water from our guide's bottle brought it to life. For you movie buffs. this is the dinosaur we fell in love with in Jurrasic Park, 3 toed lizards up to 20 feet in length and weighing half a ton, a footprint cast in stone only left to delight our imaginations.
Once shown the prints our guide shyly suggested we see the beadwork his wife makes. I was attracted to a string of brown wooden beads interspersed with green glass beads. "Tell me about these" I asked. "well, those are ghost beads...the wooden ones are cedar berries, they purify and protect from evil spirits." As I put my head through the string of beads and adjusted them around my neck I asked why they were called ghost beads. Our new Navajo friend chuckled and said that in the '60's hippies came through the area and hearing the story of the cedar berries proclaimed them Ghost Beads......
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| Souvenirs of a trip back in time. ©Marcia Mauskopf 2011 |
This is an easy hike around that is fascinating for young and old alike. Blink and you'll miss it, your opportunity to take a break from the Highway and walk back into ancient time.
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