Hidden Secrets, a Dangerous Climb & An Ancient Mystery: It Held Far More Than I Expected

Sometimes history hides from us in plain sight. Out here in the rugged canyons of southeast Utah, ancient secrets are locked in stone, waiting for the right light to show themselves. Very rarely do we get a true glimpse into the lives of the Proto-Kiowas from a thousand years ago, but this isolated site hasn't just opened the window into 900 AD, it has placed an ancient mystery right at our feet. They built a sophisticated network of fortified towers and a cliffside village spanning three levels, and right at the end, high up on a cliff, an ancient temple marked by a massive symbol visible from across the entire canyon. Today we dive deep into the final level. We are climbing the very edge of this abyss to uncover what they meant for us to find, and decode the hidden secrets of these canyon masters. All right guys, today I am super excited to do this explore, and it's something I've been wanting to do and especially to share with you guys. Man, very excited. Ah, let's see, I think I can get down right over there. I just came up here because you never know how fragile those overhangs are. If you don't have to walk up the edge, probably better you don't. Slow down our pace a little bit. I love these boots, they do grip well. All right, let's go. So there it is right in front of us, but we're on level with it until we get over there. Went quite a little scramble down, but nothing too horrible. Look at that. Check this out right here. This is pottery and more there. Interesting. So this, this is, this dwelling's unique. One, it's up above, so they needed some kind of system to access it up above it. Probably a rope or ladder or something like that. What's really interesting about this is this. I'm trying to keep it still for you. So that's a very unique symbol. It's not a typical petroglyph and I've gone through it, trying to research it. The best I can come up with is that it was some kind of a clan symbol that was meant to be seen. It's very large when you look at it compared to the building from the other side over here, probably. So it was very large, meant to be seen, and I'm thinking it was a clan symbol. That's the best theory I can come up with. Let me know what you guys think. It's very, very interesting. It actually reminds me of like the Greek shields. Of course, that doesn't apply here, but yeah, so kind of an interesting thing. So let's get on with the explore. I just wanted to point that out because it is so unique. I have not seen that anywhere else that I've explored. I'm going to pan up. Hopefully, people won't find this too boring, but it's important to do this so that later I can review the film because a lot of times out here, if the light's not right, you miss things. Going back through the film, I know I've had people tell me, wait, you spun by that too quickly. Go back. So sometimes it's a little longer than it should be, but I kind of do that on purpose because this isn't just for me. It's for you guys to explore and view with me, and if I'm just jerking the camera around from place to place, well, that doesn't help. Really extensive here. All right, so let's start here. It looks like this came out further at one time, so I'm kind of excited to dig into this. So we have the first, we're coming up on the first one here. You can see that it used to be all the way over to here at one time. I was just kind of looking for some mud tie-in there, but I don't see it, but this is clearly a door or a window. You can see the right angle on it, and then you can see the old wood in here where it would have come across as a support. Boy, there's no telling how much more construction was here because all this fallen, and you know, they just didn't have all these rocks randomly laying here. This was probably a wall or something like there. So this is probably all closed in and tied in together, maybe coming out like this. These were all roof beams, I am sure. So you have this, this is a T-shaped door. Look at that. Very nice, and you see the little mud that comes out right there. I've seen that before, and you can kind of see it goes all the way up on this side. That's where they fit the door in there, and you could just push it up against there, and then it closes up. And you can see the wood construction in the top of that there. We've got this here. This is a low entrance here. You got a kind of a window or ventilation over there. Got these areas here. I really like the T-shaped door, and again, you have another T-shaped door there. And when I see this here, well, it looks like this was probably all built in, and then this was the access on this side. So this was probably all closed off, and they came in from over here and here, so from the opposite side. Interesting. That's beautiful, and you kind of see the stones built up here. I'm thinking there was something here at one time. And it's since fallen down, because that looks like they built up the floor there to level it out. And even to this day, you've still got bits of pottery. So I'm thinking this was quite a large structure. You know, we've got it. It goes back pretty far. We've got two ways to access it here. Pretty interesting. Pretty interesting construction. You know, it's interesting. You think you've seen just about everything when I've explored dozens and dozens and dozens of these sites, but then you get to something like this, and it's all, you know, it's new stuff. So that's pretty interesting. So we're moving on. Now, this is pretty interesting, because this is very similar to the tower construction, which you can see it right up there, which was important for guarding the spring that's over there. They built seven towers. Let that sink in. Seven. So it must have been extremely important. So it wasn't just a single tower, signaling tower, or whatever else they say. They built seven interlocking towers. That, to me, says strategic. And if it was during the Great Drought, then it would have been very, very critical to guard those water sources. So that seems to be what they were attempting to do. So this is very interesting. You've got a dwelling here, and then you have this wall here. So this was all interlocking, which means you would probably be forced to go off this little ledge there. And look at the thickness of these walls. They weren't going to be pushed over or anything. Look at that. And that's pretty amazing. And then you had a big structure here, and I'm sure, like I said, this tied in. And then you have this. And it's still got lots of corn, lots of corn cobs in it still. So this is their food supply. Maybe, you know, this is their fall back area, and they needed a good food supply here. And something else here. I don't know if it tied in this way, or if it was in the outer wall. And then you have all this piled here. I can't help but wonder, was this a tower at one time that's collapsed down? It's a shame we lost that. But man, look at this construction here. That's just amazing. And this is what I'm talking about on the edge, where it would force you to come around a tight corner. And this may have continued that way, or something else. Then if you had to access it, you'd be attacking up, which would, of course, put the defenders up here at a superior advantage. So sorry, don't mean to get carried away on the tactical aspects of this thing. But when you see places like this, design like this, it wasn't just random living. They were thinking tactically and survivalist. All right. Well, I'll be. We actually can access this. Holy smokes. I didn't think it was accessible. All right. I'm going to go. I'm going to go hands free. All right. Here we go. We don't want to look down there. Wow. Look at this. And look at that. Oh, man. This is wonderful. Wow. Just wow. Okay, guys, I am in this construction that's up on a cliff face that I didn't even think was accessible. But I was able to make my way up here. And I'm starting to think now, because we have this symbol right above me here. And I speculated earlier, I thought it was a clan symbol. But now I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't some kind of a marker that this was some kind of a a ceremonial dwelling. And I'm going to show you why. Not only do we have this petroglyph above me, but all along the wall in here, there are just tons and tons of petroglyphs. But I'm really excited because there's so many that are on the wall here. We're going to have to go nice and slow and go over them all. In addition to the huge one that's right there. So all right, let's flip this around and go through it. All right. So let's start with the most obvious petroglyph. It's here. This one right here. This petroglyph is a massive riddle. And I want to hear your theories in the comments. I initially thought this was a clan crest, a boundary marker projecting authority over the drainage. But standing right under it, my interpretation is evolving. Look at the unique geometry, a crescent cradle, an inverted triangle and a solid object nestled inside. This perfectly matches a legendary cosmic event, the supernova of 1054 A.D. At that time, for weeks, an exploding star lit up the sky so violently it was visible in broad daylight, appearing right in the cradle of the crescent moon. Did the proto-Kiowas witness this celestial anomaly recorded here and build a temple to honor it? Whatever the truth is, they wanted the world to see it. And now, a thousand years later, it's being seen again. So starting at the the entryway where we came in here and the drop off there, you've got two petroglyphs here. It almost looks like, I'm not sure, I would say it looks like sandal prints of somebody walking. Because they're not footprints, but they do sort of have the shape of a sandal, but it could be anything. And then as we come in, we have this symbol. And bear with me because it's going to take a while to go through all of these. And you may see something that I miss because it depends on the light. And you have a slash there, you have a triangular figure there. I'm having to look up and down because they really are all over. We have, not sure what that is there, but look at those fine lines they made there. I'll bring it out a little bit so that'll give a better picture of the whole little panel there. And then right here, boy that sure looks like a duck. And it almost looks like at one time it was painted with a white kind of chalky stain. I'm just going to call them figures because I don't know that that's a duck. So I don't want to put my prejudice on what you guys are seeing and interpreting. So then next to these, we have these prints. And they're very well made. And this one actually, you have one there and one more faded below it. This one's interesting because you have a kind of a pad, the toes, and then it looks like even nail prints or claw prints on there, or just something there on the end. All right, I'm going to go up and then I'm going to come back down. So we have this. Again, it's the squiggly line. And then if we come over here, we have that same pattern again, right there. And then back to the prints. And we actually have, this is kind of like the same, but it's a little bit modified. Not sure what that is. And then we'll go back here. So I want to drop below these prints. And you've got this symbol. And you've got this symbol of a man, or a being, or something, a trapezoid kind of figure. And then off to his left are these squiggly lines coming down. That's actually pretty amazing. And I didn't really see that this clearly until I got down here. And then we have a mountain goat. And you have this line looking. And then when I see this little symbol and the line going down, that kind of looks like an atlatl to me. But I'm not sure. That's just kind of what it looks like. And the rest of this, I really can't tell. Oh, these are more, it looks like more of the herd there. And maybe again, this is telling a story like that first panel we saw. So then if we move on, still down here, we have this, which I'm not sure what that is. And then there's this. And it's a, it's a V that's been packed. You can see it clearly. You can actually better on camera than I can see with my eyes. And it looks like we have another one here and then something else there. Oh, so I call it a V, but it looks like it's a, it's the same squiggly line. Look here, down, up, down, up, down, up all the way, all the way across all the way to the end over there. So now I see it. And then up above it, you have kind of the, a smaller version of that. And then interestingly enough, you have these lines straight up and down marked in these almost like sharpening grooves, but not really. And then you have a bunch more above the squiggly line there, but some really beautiful and extensive, just extensive petroglyphs. So guys, I wanted to show you this while I was taking the pictures I noticed. So the, um, the squiggly lines actually, let me back this out just a hair, go from here. Actually they go all the way here. So the whole length of the room, you can see these, and even out there, I can, I can still see it out here. You can see it there against the wall. So these squiggly lines up and down, up and down, up and down, as you can see, you can see really clear there. It continues on the whole length of the wall. You know, I saw this symbol here and I wasn't quite sure what it was, but now that looking at it from this angle, it looks to be a continuation of the footprints from over there to here. Wow. This is just amazing. All right, let's go check out what that symbol is over there. It almost looks like a faint version of that, but we'll see once we get over there. Just for reference, you guys, that is probably two feet tall by three feet wide. Yeah. So that gives you a little bit of reference to how big that is. And this structure, it's just plain, nothing really here. There are some pieces of pottery right there, and it is built right on, right on the cliff edge here. You can see that. All right, let's head down. And you can see they've carved steps into this. That's pretty nice. Makes it easy to get up and down. So even down here, so you have these squiggly lines, like I was saying, and then you have your classic proto-Kiowa trapezoid figure. Man, and there's, I'm coming down here and I'm seeing tons more petroglyphs. Of course, this is really worn in here because it's exposed, so it's kind of hard to see, but maybe you guys can see it on the camera a lot better than I can. Boy, that looks like a panther track there. Wow. Yeah, there's so much more here. I can't step back. So, all right, let me get as far back as I can so that we can see this. And I'm going to, again, I'm going to snap pictures, but look, you've got this, other stuff here, and then I'm looking and there's stuff down below. We'll have to, we'll have to look at that too. Here you have another kind of figurine. There's so much here. You got bird prints. I love the, I love the panther print. That's beautiful. I mean, look how, look how well they did that. There's another one there. Wow. That's really, it's so amazing to me. Look at this. Hey, if you guys are enjoying this content, give it a thumbs up. I hope you are. I hope this isn't dragging on too much and that you enjoy seeing this kind of stuff. I know I do. It's, it's pretty amazing. There's so much here. I had no idea, but yeah, we're going to keep looking. Cause it's, uh, obviously there's more here that I missed coming up. I wanted you guys to see this because, uh, when you, when you get the light changes, you can see the, uh, the panther prints there, there, there, you know, like it's, they, they wanted to depict, it was moving just like the, the bear or whatever those other kinds of prints where they were up in there. Very interesting. Yeah. All right. I think I've snapped all the pictures that I can. Let's get down further and see what else we have down here. All right. So now that I'm down here, so we had all the petroglyphs are up in there. We just went over this panel. All right. Where you had the panther tracks and the guy and all kinds of things, bird tracks. And then we have these design here. Of course, it's a continuation of the, uh, the triangular or zigzag line that goes all the way in, but we're just getting started. You guys look, there's so much more. It's, it's, it's almost like, this is again, a separate, a separate panel and these look more faded, but they are exposed more. So that's only natural. And again, you got the zigzag line up there. You got the track there, and then it continues on here. Just like we saw right up over there where I'm, I'm wondering if they haven't faded out and it actually went the whole way, all the way up to the top. And there must've been symbolic or something. I mean, of course it was. Now, now that I'm looking at it, I see one here. I see one here. I see one there. And we have this panel and all this is chipped into the rock. So it's a, it's a definitely a petroglyph and not a pictograph. And here again, we have these symbols and the, uh, zigzag continues here. We have the classic, uh, circles here, and then it looks like we have, um, sharpening grooves right here, right below that, uh, the last zigzag. And on this zigzag, you see, you've got another one crossing it or several, actually. You guys are actually going to get a better view of than what I'm seeing because of the light in the camera. It shows up so much, so much better. And again, a lot of these sharpening grooves in here, or maybe not sharpening grooves. I mean, it almost looks like, corn stalks, right? And we have something else here. Can't really make that out. We got more marks here. We actually have some marks up here too. I've seen this, the round circle. We've seen that on petroglyphs everywhere. Um, look at this. Just amazing. Just amazing. We got to still climb all the way up to get out. I don't know if I'm going to get over there or not today, because it's getting a little bit late. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed today's video. Uh, I know we covered a lot. We went over a lot. This amazing, uh, petroglyph panels, uh, and symbols that we've seen and all the, uh, all the dwellings that we've come across. It's been a great explore. I really enjoyed it. Um, if you've liked it and you haven't already, please give it a thumbs up. Leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what you guys think about all this. And, uh, if you really want to support the channel, uh, click the link in the description of buy me a cup of coffee that helps me out and keeps me out here. Thanks so much for coming along. Love having you guys along for the journey and, uh, we'll see on the next explore.