View allAll Photos Tagged mokisteps
Hold on to what is good,
Even if it's a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe,
Even if it's a tree that stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do,
Even if it's a long way from here.
Hold on to your life,
Even if it's easier to let go.
Hold on to my hand,
Even if someday I'll be gone away from you.
~ A Pueblo Indian Prayer
Moki steps, sometimes spelled alternately as Moqui steps, are a recurring feature found in areas of the American southwest previously inhabited by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples and other related cultures. The steps consist of alternating hand and toe holds carved into vertical or near-vertical sandstone surfaces. The steps are usually two to three inches deep, and three to four inches in width and height. Moki steps are often found near cliff-dwellings and water sources. They may have allowed relatively quick access to difficult-to-reach areas such as slot canyons, look-out positions, and granaries. In some cases, Moki steps are thought to have provided access to fertile canyon bottoms from more defensible dwellings on or above surrounding cliffs. The steps may have been used in conjunction with handmade ropes. (source: wikipedia)
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Carved into smooth sandstone and permitting someone to more easily climb up and down to or from a cliff dwelling or a granary. The ancient Puebloans carved these in many locations in the southwest.
Title from a Miles Davis tune and album. Scanned 35mm transparency, from years ago.
Moki steps, made by pre-pebloan cultures throughout the colorado plateau. Could be thousands of years old, as the culture was reduced and dispersed during a period of climatic change about a thousand years ago.
The access is from a campground in the Red Ciiffs Recreation Area outside of St. George, Utah.
My only goal was to find a decent campground between Valley of Fire in Nevada, and the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park, as that section was day use only. The kindly campground host directed me to the trail, for an evening walk after setting up camp.
The human origin of the steps stand out strikingly against the natural form and structure of a red rock desert canyon. The pool at the base of the small pour-off, at the center of the photo, is over your head deep even as flow had stopped in early summer, explaining the stairway.
Crow Canyon group on the trail to rock art. Jonathan Till pointing out footholds cut in rock by the ancient Anasazi.
I am standing atop a pour-off about eight feet (2.4m) tall, having climbed there from below. When I first saw this from below, I thought it was the end of my forward progress. But then I noticed that someone had chiseled tiny hand/foot holds in the sandstone on the wall to my left. These holds (within the "circle") were just barely adequate to allow me to get high enough to make a dicey traverse to the top of the pour-off. They might be "moki steps," holes created by Indians hundreds of years ago.
Getting up the rock was the most difficult part of the day's exploration and it taxed my resolve. My plan all along was to make a loop trip through the fins; I hoped like hell I did not have to return this way. [I completed the loop as planned.]
Taken during an exploration of the fins of Poison Spider Mesa (near Moab, Utah).
Photos uploaded in chronological order.
Seen while backpacking to Keet Seel cliff dwellings in Navajo National Monument, Arizona.
Follow the link to see all of our photos taken in Arizona
Follow the link to read about our dayhikes and backpack trips in Arizona
To see more photos of the great places we have been check out our photo collections
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Seen while backpacking to Keet Seel cliff dwellings in Navajo National Monument, Arizona.
Follow the link to see all of our photos taken in Arizona
Follow the link to read about our dayhikes and backpack trips in Arizona
To see more photos of the great places we have been check out our photo collections
To read about the other great places we have been go to www.panafoot.com
Seen while backpacking to Keet Seel cliff dwellings in Navajo National Monument, Arizona.
Follow the link to see all of our photos taken in Arizona
Follow the link to read about our dayhikes and backpack trips in Arizona
To see more photos of the great places we have been check out our photo collections
To read about the other great places we have been go to www.panafoot.com
Seen while backpacking to Keet Seel cliff dwellings in Navajo National Monument, Arizona.
Follow the link to see all of our photos taken in Arizona
Follow the link to read about our dayhikes and backpack trips in Arizona
To see more photos of the great places we have been check out our photo collections
To read about the other great places we have been go to www.panafoot.com