Lover's Leap (El Dorado, California)

As I write these words, I am sitting on the summit of a shear granite face, known as Lover’s Leap; quite an obvious name for a point such as this. Leaning over the rock I’m sitting on, the objects in the valley below, some 700 ft down appear as ants on the pavement. This area provides breathtaking views of the American River Valley and a bird’s eye view of the charming little hamlet of Strawberry.

I can certainly see why the local signs speak of a rock climber’s paradise. While I took a relatively easy trail to get here, I felt a bit squeamish as I ventured along the crumbling granite overhangs. The steepness of these faces would be enough to induce a heart attack in those so prone. Add to that, the sudden gusts of wind, which suddenly seem to be at home up here and I too feel the need to constantly double-check my footing.

One can’t help but feel a bit divine up here. Looking down on the lowlands, must be something like looking down from Heaven.

Lagomarsno Canyon Petroglyphs (Storey County, Nevada)

When I first heard of the existence of prehistoric rock art so close to my home, I instantly wanted to visit and see this small window into the past. Lagomarsino Canyon is about thirty miles East of Reno and about twelve miles North-East of Virginia City, but that is not to say it is easy to get to. Some of the roughest roads I have ever encountered must be traversed to reach this canyon. Only through my friend Jason’s skilled driving and his fiancée’s 4X4 were we able to reach this location.

While there are a number of stone walls scattered along the hills here, the petroglyphs themselves are scratched into the large basalt boulders of a cliff on the North side of the canyon. From what I am told this short, but jagged cliff was used by Native Americans to run game to their deaths. It seems perfect for that purpose.

According to a sign at the base of the cliff, many of the primitive motifs appear to be 4,000-5,000 years old, but some may be as old as 10,000 years. There are many recurring themes: wavy lines, geometric patterns, and wild life. By doing some very basic rock climbing, we are able to see nearly one hundred images.

As with anything of this nature, the explorer cannot help but ask some basic questions: Why were these drawn? By who? And what were the artists like? Perhaps, they were drawn by mere children, trying to express themselves or perhaps, by a group of men who had not yet found their place in the world and were simply trying to tell future generations that they had existed. We may never know for sure, but I suspect their purpose for creating such marks in time may not be much different than our own.