My Wife and I Found an Oasis Hiding Ancient Life

there's a legend of a rugged and Sandstone covered region that conceals within its Canyons a stunning Desert Oasis whose beauty is so extreme that it's almost inconceivable it was no secret to the ancient ones and the evidence of their existence is abundant I've been waiting for the the perfect season to venture into this area and discover its secrets for [Music] myself I started early trying to find a way in from the top I don't know why but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being followed perhaps it was just in my mind but it sounded like there were footsteps behind me [Music] hey everybody it's Andrew from Desert Drifter thanks for tuning in all right all right all right whoa what are you doing here I think it's time we give your subscribers a true host do do you think they're tired of me or something I think they might be well clearly we have a special guest on this episode Mrs Drifter herself well you could just call me Evelyn well you heard it there from the boss let's do this thing I've Been Waiting On You parody aside I was fortunate to have my lovely wife along for this trip we set out from the top hoping to find a break in the cliff bands that would allow us to descend into our objective [Music] it's pretty chilly out here this morning we awoke to quite a bit of snow up in the High Country I mean we weren't there but you know we could see it still a little bit of winter holding on up there but we will happily take it I think it's supposed to be kind of low to mid-60s today which is perfect weather for a day out hiking the cacti are starting to bloom up here I love spring out here because you never realize how much color the desert can have till you see it in Spring Evelyn just lost her chapstick up there this is uh real life behind the scenes Evelyn did you find a ancient artifact just my lip gloss oh gosh Evelyn's doing a little slab down climb early this morning I think once we get down here we can kind of keep working our way into the canyon over there yeah we came down back over here I think for a second I thought we were cliffed out and we have to go back but pretty sure um I think we can make this work yeah that's it's not bad Evelyn we are in helyn's trying to little get a little camouflage here man this place is gorgeous and look at these big old cottonwoods [Music] wow all these yellow flowers it is an oasis down here so we just dropped down by the creek here and I spotted up there in the desert varnish some rock art right up there in the center Center I'm using a different lens today so it doesn't Zoom as much here we are right below it pretty typical for what you see in this area you've got I imagine some big horn sheep a snake in the upper right there some anthropomorphic figures I just looking you know kind of looks like an exclamation point doesn't it I'm sure that's not what it is but I had a imagine this is probably eroded away over time so I can't get too close to them but there's definitely a figure up there over here [Music] something so the rock art we just looked at sits up there this kind of a big bend in the creek and I would imagine possibly it's up there because there's this really nice kind of flat spot that would be great for camps I doubt the ancient ones would have built permanent structures down there because if you look you can see a bunch of flood debris so when this I mean it's a peaceful beautiful looking little creek but when that thing flash floods you would not want to be down there given the natural resources here it's no surprise this area has sheltered humans for Millennia Lush grass abundance of water plentiful game firewood natural shelters I mean you name it this area has it because of this the history is Rich here from the earliest hunter gatherers to the first White settlers in the 1800s mesmerized by the beauty and captivated by the human story We continued on Evelyn says I need to remember to tell you guys what it smells like how how would you say it smells Evelyn smells like Sage I don't know like flowers it's spelled as descriptive as I can get well there you have it it is very ear y lots of beaver activity in here been seeing their sign all day so this piece of chir caught our attention and we took a closer look it's definitely been worked it was it's hard to say I mean it's broken here so it's hard to tell what exactly it was but undoubtedly it was some kind of a tool or projectile point so there's this interesting side Canyon up here that cuts into the main Canyon so we're going to go see what's up that Andrew look at that how's that even possible huh it's like a teeny patch of soil it's growing out of yeah that is wild it's like a little tree just I mean gosh is there even soil there must be just a little crack that it put roots in it's amazing this place incited new Wonder with every turn of the canyon it truly felt like we were exploring a paradise we continued up the side Canyon eventually coming to a large overhang pausing we looked for signs of the ancient ones undoubtedly it's been used in the past I mean it's just too good of a natural shelter not to but I was really hoping we'd find some rock art or even an old Rune or something up in here but this alve isn't totally with without trace of the ancient ones I noticed there's this broken corn cob down here doesn't surprise me they were growing corn all up and down this Canyon with all the water that was available there's some really bizarre looking soil here as well it's like a massive sand castle the sound of the wind in the Cottonwood leaves is probably one of my favorite sounds out here so we walked back and eventually this Canyon comes to an end but it's uh Evelyn's up there checking out there's a big cave or something of that sorts right there in the center of the screen then there's a huge Al Cove up here we'll have to go check that out then on the other side of the canyon there's this huge natural Arch wow there's Evelyn the Explorer better be careful she's going to start her own channel called desert drif [Music] this wow that is cool pretty big arch I'd say uh maybe 80 ft tall to the lower bottom of it looks like dick Zu felt but I'm kind of confused it says says 1910 oh must be the old way of writing it so October 19th [Music] 1935 this setting with the natural Arch was truly a stunning area we looked around closely for Clues from the old ones once again we found numerous corn cops this time eroding out of a large Bank of dirt and sand did they store a surplus from their harvests here or were these cobs left here from a habitation site they had in the back of this Canyon I don't know but it's not hard to imagine why they were drawn here surely they recognize the same beauty that we do [Music] [Music] this [Music] Evelyn and I took advantage of the setting and paused to eat lunch and discuss what we had seen thus far after we ate Evelyn volunteered to take the Steep and loose climb to go explore the large Al Cove while I flew the Drone pretty good trade if you ask me her report just a bunch of bird poop that's real life exploring sometimes back on trail we headed to the main Canyon to continue our exploration there what do you see up there Evelyn I think there's I think there's two Ram Petri let's go check it out up under here yeah do you see that black p on the wall am I making that up or there's like one on the left and then one on the right see what you mean gosh that's hard to tell so it does look a lot like a big horn sheep yeah Petroglyph but it's also huh I don't know it's hard to tell is it just the way the the rock is crumbled off what do you guys think Beauty mixed with pain kind of like life sometimes huh so we came up on this bench overlooking the creek and we started to see just all these chir flakes kind of scattered all throughout the soil here and although sometimes it might seem random in my experience it it never really is if you do a little sleuthing you can maybe figure out why this stuff's here let me walk over to the edge here and show you guys the creek down below so you're up above the creek here and if you were along this Edge I mean you'd be pretty well concealed from anything below you so my guess is this was probably a a popular spot to Ambush prey walking down in the canyon below by the creek you could easily have a hunter you know stationed along this ledge uh concealed watching for game below meanwhile you got your buddy just up the Hilla ways you know making arroe heads and and whatnot or it could have been a popular spot where they just sat during the daytime when game's not likely to be moving and then as say dust came move to the edge watch for prey I don't know my theory anyways so here's the bench out here I noticed up against The Cliff face there's a little piece of desert varnish and that's definitely you know some kind of a snake or geometric design it gets a lot of weather exposure so I mean it's definitely not in the best of shape but okay we found something pretty cool over here we were working our way back down towards the creek and Evelyn spotted this kind of glimmering in the sun definitely a point broken again like the one we found earlier so then I started looking close and a few feet away found this other chunk you want to grab that we're just trying to put them back where they were and you put them together together they're definitely not a perfect match it's almost like there's a a middle piece missing but uh that would be probably a spear Point given the size of it so they were here no surprise though really continuing on we eventually spotted another intriguing looking overhang having to turn it into a competition I took a different wash than the one Evelyn pointed out Evelyn went a different wash so we'll see who gets there the quickest dang she had a head start I promise so we came back in what I'd kind of call like a large Amphitheater there's some pools of water main Canyon it'ss back over that way once again this Al Cove had a significant scatter of lithic flakes whether they dwell permanently back here or it was just a popular place to sit in the shade and make tools I'm not sure look at this Cottonwood log that has been lifted up there by flood at some point in time that's a good I don't know 12 to 15 ft from the creek bottom just goes to show when the water's raging through here you do not want to be down here if possible the setting seemed to get even more beautiful as the day wore on the sounds of nature mixed with the smells of wild roses sage and Juniper topped off with the colors of the rocks and fresh spring Greenery made the afternoon a true sensory overload e all right so we were about to turn back cuz Shadows are kind of starting to grow long and we've come in decent ways you know we got way hike back sure do but we were like let's go just a little bit further you know you can always go a little bit further I look up there and I'm like well it's not a very big al Cove but there's something and I don't think the camera is picking it up very well it could be a pile of rocks honestly I have no idea but we are going to go and see if we can scramble up there and see what that is looks scrambly so we're just going to drop packs here I think and see if we can find a way up I gave Evelyn a head start I stashed the camera gear she's blazing the trail over there she's going to be happy to get there before me I think I'm going to go an easier way right over there [Music] sorry for the wind noise according to Evelyn there's something pretty fascinating up here what is it what holy cow there's like a bird in it wow this is got to be honest never seen anything like this out here makes you feel like you're in South America or some ancient place doesn't it it's incredible it's like a tree sprouting out of his head some kind of a bird I don't know what type of bird that's supposed to represent it's really ornate the way you know these roots of been done the tree trunk yeah look at these branches that's pretty crazy yeah huh wow well it's definitely not uh what I expected when I saw something down below and there is actually a structure over here um I mean this I would say is clearly been done by somebody modern day uh when you know no idea I don't think that this is ancient if it was it would be quite a discovery um but it's still I mean wow like really impressive impressive artwork you know whoever whoever came out here and had the vision for that Evelyn was the first one up here and uh what' you think Evelyn you saw it she saw it from down below yeah I caught a glimpse of it down there and it just like blew me away and I it honestly kind of gave me this haunting feeling when I first saw it it's just kind of looking down at you it's pretty crazy so here's the back side of the block I mean there's nothing there but it's uh kind of cool he's looking out over the canyon here so here's the cave and honestly what I first saw from down there I'm pretty sure was this you know and I was like is that just a pile of rocks or you know is that a ruin so we were down we were across the canyon like down over here now whether or not this is completely a modern day construction or you know there was some other ruin here it's hard to say so there's a little almost uh alter of sorts up here piece of metal here maybe um I don't know maybe from minor days see some you know old Ash and charcoal from campfires and yeah you can see some blackening up on this ceiling would say it's safe to say that this cave has probably sheltered people for Generations up until more modern day I'm a big advocate for leave no Trace ethics I think there are already enough unintentional ways we're making an impact upon on the land that we don't need to go out and intentionally leave our Mark in the natural environment that being said I had to admit the sculpture was pretty amazing in many ways it enriched our experience rather than detracted from it a discussion on outdoor ethics is a topic for another day and undoubtedly there will always be different opinions but as we took in the view and the impressive artwork I had to imagine that even the ancient ones would have been impressed thanks for tuning in thanks for tuning in yeah I guess she I guess she's grateful too hit subscribe if you want to keep exploring the Southwest with me and me we'll see about that well let us know what you guys think hope you guys enjoyed the video if you like Mrs Drifter along maybe she'll make another guest appearance at some point

Channel: Desert Drifter

Views: 542,358

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Id: tgPyF2eBzxM

Length: 26min 2sec (1562 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2024