Three Fingers
Three Fingers is an interesting site, a canyon emerging right at the eastern edge of the San Rafael Ridge.
It does have, aside from the numerous petroglyphs on the northern face, this little cave. As intriguing as it was, time was short and kept us from exploring it more closely.
But it was clear from the smoothness of the stone that this was an area that had been frequently accessed, and split off into not just one, but two chambers.
The northern edge of the canyon is an extension of the cliff face, with petroglyphs extending down along the floor from the face.
Looking out from the canyon the desert extends out, the Three Fingers canyon being one of the last cool bits of respite before venturing out off the plateau.
The petroglyphs are diverse, yet not unique.
But this interlinked double circle is an interesting variant, and seems to have been repecked a number of times. It also overrides several older images.
There are a number of anthropomorphs, this one of several found during our cursory examination of which could warrant being labeled as three fingered.
Here is another three fingered figure, this one with four fingers on the other hand. The pattern continues with the feet, three toes on one side and four on the other.
There is even at least one figure with more Fremont elements to it, here on the right. It is of interest that is is on a far older matrix of stone, as evidenced by the spalling of this darker material to reveal a lighter underlayer, which are earlier, simpler figures.
Many of the figures found are quite abstract, at least viewed though the lens of time.
The admixure of bizarre and unusual creatures gives the site an otherworldly feel in places. There are at least two "Caspar the friendly ghost" with tapered lower extremities here, while the older feature with two upward pointing tails filled with pecks induces a big questions mark right in the middle of my forehead.
The stone itself is also shot through with so many small natural fault lines it can be a little hard to tell what's going on. The clearest information included in this shot is that "JH" also visited this site at some point in the past before sans serif became the accepted font of contemporary commentators.
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