Traveling around the Sedona area this week

The Zaki Gordon Film Institute in Sedona held a Short Film Festival this weekend.  Our group attended because we knew that one particular film was a Must See!  "Bullied to Silence" 

The Sedona Center for Arts & Technology is a wonderful learning institute for creative young people and adults that have courses on Film making, Writing, Acting and more.

We enjoyed many of the short films - but the movie that moved us the most was a very powerful film called "Bullied to Silence".  This film covers the epidemic problem of Bullying that is going on in this country - to watch a 'trailer' of the film go to:  http://vimeo.com/28750301  or http://bulliedtosilence.com/trailer.html 

Today we visited the V Bar V Heritage Site near Sedona, AZ.  This original beautiful fieldstone fireplace which stands about 20ft high is almost all that's left of the original ranch that stood here.

This is one of the few gates and fences that are still on the site that was originally a ranch. But now this site is the largest known Petroglyph Rock Art Site in the Verde Valley, as well as one of the best preserved. 

From the original ranch site we walked along well marked paths .

The path to the Petroglyphs was very pleasant with many beautiful trees and flowers.

The walk was a little less than a mile into the Rock Art site.

The first wall we saw had more than 1000 beautiful petroglyphs.
The Sinagua people created these images between A.D. 900-1300.

We were very fortunate to have a wonderful guide who was part of the Verde Valley Archaeological Society at this site.  The interpretive tour was so important in understanding what the art may have meant and the traditions of the people of that time.   Here he tells us about how important the 'cracks' in the rocks were to all Native Americans.

They believed that spirits used the cracks to travel from other worlds to their world.

Here you see Cheryl viewing the side of the wall that had most of the art about women, birthing and families.

Here our guide points out the petroglyphs that represented cranes. He said that there were over 400 Petroglyph sites in the Verde Valley area and he has visited about 100 of them - and this was the only site that had the cranes.

The yellow that you see is lichen a form of mold that is growing on the walls of this rock art.  Because of the many trees planted close to the rocks providing shade and moisture to the area.

The guide told us that this 'figure' that seemed wedged between two rock areas was carved to resemble a person with the body representing the 7 peaks of the San Francisco mountains.  And the crack in these rocks providing the avenue for the energy of the mountains to come to the people here.

Here is a frontal view of this same crack and carving among the petroglyphs.

Here is a closer view of a portion of the rock art.

And an even closer view of the rock art.

Here is a good view of the cranes as well as the Shaman on the left.  If you double click on it you can make out more of the carvings.  Identify dogs, horses, plantings and vegetation. 

This rock art represents migration - look at the circular pattern to the rock art.

Here is a closer look at the circular rock art representing migration.

And of course sadly - with all this beautiful art - among the petroglyphs are some graffiti that was added by some idiots....