Death Valley 2022/23

[Beardilocks]

It took me quite a while to find these alignments. And the first thing I want to do is thank Kauri and Ski3pin for their help. I'm a bit less concerned with showing the skyline in these because they're a bit more well known, they're damn near impossible to spot unless you're right on top of them, and they are a helluva long rough hike up the fan from the road. That should keep what I call the “no-gooders” out (opposite of do-gooders, cousin to the ne-er-do-well).

As I said, these alignments are shockingly hard to see from ground level until you practically walk on top of them. (And that's my excuse for the poor quality of the photos, so warm up your imagination). Even then, trying to envision the whole picture is completely impossible. You can get a glimpse of parts of it, but never the whole all at once. And I had to wonder if that was their maker's intent? ‘The maker's intent’... That thought was ever present while viewing these and on the walk back. I never expected them to be draped over the landscape in the way that they are, over ridges and seemingly not at all in line with the natural landscape. That was the most befuddling part for me. If the design had been rotated slightly it would sit in a much more 'sensible' way on the bench/ridge. Which makes you ask the question of what was more important: the placement within the landscape or the placement to something else, like perhaps the heavens. Or perhaps there was no “design” in the first place, and the makers simply laid out something pleasing to them as their own artform.

Second thing that surprised me was the seeming lack of effort that went into rock choices to make up the lines. In a lot of cases it seemed more like the rocks were picked up almost where they lay and simply turned over, so the slightly pink-ish, less varnished side was left up. Rather than collecting larger rocks to make the design really stand out. This is with a few exceptions within the designs of course, especially the wildly chaotic third one below. Which begs the question of the level of planning (or lack there of) involved in these seemingly complex alignments. The third alignment kind of gives us a hint to that: one of the lines (an oddly wiggly, inconsistent line) crosses an imbedded boulder of white quartz. The pieces of this white quartz are spread out down this line, but don't seem to be chosen to highlight anything, even though the white rocks stands out powerfully on the dark desert pavement. But more that they were just using the rocks closest to the line being made. Especially interesting with the huge cairns that also run down one side of this alignment that are obviously supposed to stand out

These are also very similar in design and construction to the one I had seen in Greenwater Valley. They are definitely related in one way or the other. The seeming randomness of combinations of dead straight parallel lines, wiggly lines, loops, cairns, etc. They almost feel like more than one personality designed different parts of each.

I was lucky enough to be able to have Ski3pin send me the maps of the alignments from his library. I have been trying to track down a copy of Alice Hunt's book with no success, it’s completely out of print (if you want to lend me a copy I will pay you handsomely!). It was IMMENSELY helpful in even being able to orientate myself around these alignments to avoid inadvertently walking on them.

First alignment:














Second Alignment.  This one was described as “poorly preserved” so who knows what’s missing from it.  











Third Alignment.  This one has so many elements.  At ground level it’s pure chaos, draped over several ridges and down a slope.  Also with very little contrast to its background surface making it nearly impossible to pick out large parts of the design. 












Here are the white rocks mentioned above.  It’s hard to discern a line even with the added contrast.  




This was about 700ft away on its own.  Sleeping circle?  It’s definitely more substantial than the other alignments.