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Red Canyon – a very strange and beautiful place

    Red Canyon, 2011

    The ground moved some sixty million years ago an so the Wind River mountain range and Red Canyon was formed.

    If you want to see it, drive 24 miles south of Lander, Wyoming. The area is bordering Wind river indian reservation where Shoshones and Arapahoes live today.

    Some places in the world are nice , some even beautiful.  But some places has magic and they make you feel wonder and awe. A feeling of  joy to be part of it all.  Red Canyon is just such a place for me.

    It is a desolate place with dirt roads, ghost towns and memories of once booming goldmines.

    There is evidence of over 10 000 years of human presence here. Nearby you can see prehistoric pictographs and petroglyphs almost 6 000 years old. Messages from ancient times and ancient peoples. The meaning of these strange artworks is lost to us now. It was a wonderful sight for us , when we visited. And perhaps also for the rattlesnakes who had made this site their home.

    From Red Canyon the Red Canyon creek feeds into the Popo Agie river. This river is a mystery. The waters rush down to suddenly disappear right in front of your eyes into a dark cave at the bottom of a cliff. So- the river disappears only to reappear again some hundred meters down in to a big dark pool. The river is, apparently, inside the mountain, rushing through invisible channels for miles and miles. If you would put a big red ball in the river as it enters the cave, you would have to wait for two hours before it can be seen again as the waters reach the cave exit.

    Strange place…