Some effigies

Of the effigies I've noticed in the woods since I've been looking at rock structures, all have been of animals and, until now, all have been 2-D. Two of the rocks, I've posted pictures of already. The animal head on the cairn at the Logan site (maybe a deer or maybe it's just a coincidence that it has this shape), and another animal head, not far from the Logan site, that also may be just a coincidence.





The rock that is on the ground, I think looks like a wolf head, but my friend's 6 year old son looked at it and said "that's a turtle!". He thought the part that looks like a dog ear was the turtle tail and the part that looks like a dog nose looks like the turtle's head. So, that stone, too, is probably just a coincidence, especially since it is on the ground - not next to or on any other rocks - but I still like the stone.

This next stone is a rock on rock formation very close to a logging road. I thought it looked like an eagle when I first found it. This one, too, may be coincidence.



This one is a rock on rock, and, I believe, is much less of a coincidence than the other rocks in the pictures above. I thought it was a duck, but I've had other people say it could be a bird sitting on a nest or egg:



The eagle and bird rocks are in Delaware State Forest, not far from the large cairn site.

This next rock is the one that made me want to post about effigy rocks. It is, finally, a 3-D rock, but only if viewed from a very certain angle, much like the chalk drawings on sidewalks, done by professionals.

The location of this rock is, dare I say, prophetic. You can see the flat area just below the tree line in the background. This is an area of silt, covered with young grass and weeds which have just sprouted from the receding reservoir. The area is full of waterfowl dung.



I didn't notice it was an effigy of a duck until I got home and loaded the pictures on the computer. My first reaction was "Whoa". When I was at the site, I was getting close up pictures of this rock because I did notice that it was placed on the boulder, and that has a different color than the boulder. But, I thought it was placed in a spot to give the front view of the boulder a look like a bear's head - at the nostrils. I also hadn't noticed that the duck head was propped by two small stones. You can see it better in the photo here, especially if you click on it to enlarge it:



There is a reason why I wanted to look for stones at the reservoir, and I will post more on that tomorrow. This rock is on NY City owned land, but it is connected to Delaware State Forest on the East and Northeast sides. The name of the town? Rock Royal, NY.

5 rock piles

Here are some photos of the last 5 rock piles in this area. The first two are just stone piles with no obvious form:





This pile had a side with interesting stacking:



One seemed to form more of a wall than a stone pile, and made me think it could be a seat because of the very slight curve to the stacked stones. I also read something recently that said a structure like this could be a decorative garden wall (colonial), but I question if that could be the case with this structure:



One pile had really nice form to it - definitely a cairn:



This is the same cairn, where you can see one of the open L or boat rudder shaped rocks in the pile. You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it:



That pile also had what appears to be a niche, and possibly even a see through niche, in it. This is the entire niche structure:



This is one side of the niche:



This is the other side - not as pronounced as the other side:



I have more exploring to do in this area, and I know I will be back around these stones again, now that the leaves are coming off the trees. Hopefully, I will find some more stone piles here.

My next post is going to be about effigies I have found. I was going to wait to post anything about effigies, but I just found something really spectacular (at least I think it's spectacular!), so I'm going to post that next.

The last boulder here

I am posting pictures of the last boulder on the steep bank today, and one picture of stacked stone that is also in this area. Here is the stacked stone:



This is the boulder that is the farthest to the southwest of the large cairns, on the steep bank. The propped rock, that appears to be pointing, almost looks staged. It has memorable quality. Before I started rock hunting, I was only familiar with the woods for its small game or large game qualities. However, I can manage to think back on certain areas and remember something unusual about the area, like a swamp, rock cut, or other geographic oddities. This boulder stuck out in my mind before I came back to this site for rock hunting:





Here is a view of the stone to the left of the upright rock, as you're facing it looking up the hill:



And here is a view of the stone to the right - it looks like there could be a niche there:



And this is the view looking down the bank, as you stand just behind, and on top of, the boulder. If you click on the photo to see a larger view, you can see the stone wall down below this boulder:



On just the other side (to the southwest) of that stone wall, the land plateaus before going back down the other side of the mountain. There is a small cairn/rock pile field there, consisting of 5 stone piles. I will post photos of those during the week. Beyond that, the state land ends and the property is posted. On the positive side, there is a LOT of state land going down the mountain, heading to the northeast, that I haven't explored for rock piles yet.

Big boulders

There were 2 big boulders in the boulder field on the steep hill. I didn't notice anything unusual on or under the boulders.

This picture shows both boulders with me standing on the high side of the hill, looking down toward both boulders. The boulder in the front is not very visible in this photo:




There was one upright rock to the right of the boulder that was closest to me in the above photo. It's hard to see, so I outlined it in the photo below:




Here is what that rock looks like from above:




And here is a better picture of the boulder to the front. I was standing on the boulder behind it to get this photo - just a real interesting shape to this one:

Stone wall features

There is a stone wall that runs up and down the hill near the boulder field. I'm not certain if it has any significance to the boulder field or if it is colonial, but it has a couple of nice features to it. One is a small aperture:



The other was a nice 'wave' to it that looks somewhat snake-like:





This rock wall goes down to the area where 3 rock walls come together to form a channel, but don't appear to meet. I can't help but think it might be a sheep weir or a deer weir. But I question whether a deer weir would be found so close to the large cairn site that seems to have some spiritual significance related to the headwater. The headwater is to the northeast of where the stone walls come together, about 2/10ths of a mile away, and the large cairn site lies between the two.

Stone Seat?

This stone structure is also in the area of the steep bank with boulders. I'm not sure if it was meant to be a seat, but it looks like one:




This is a view of it, looking from the opposite direction (from the top down) - it looks completely different here:

Boulder with a stone pile

Nearer to the cairn field, and on the steep bank, was this boulder with a stone pile on it:









This photo doesn't show the stone on the boulder very well, but I like the way the horizon looks here, in relation to the boulder:



This is where the strange rock is located - the one that, when I first saw it, I couldn't tell if it was one rock or two.





It's one:




Then there is this pyramidal shaped stone, right next to the boulder:



Here's a view from the pyramid shaped stone, to the one stone that looks like two, to the pile of stone on the boulder and then the horizon in the background:



This is looking down on the boulder with stone, from higher up the bank:

See through niche

One of the boulders in this area has a see through niche:

Southwest

There are some interesting structures to the Southwest of the tall cairn at the Masonville cairn site.

A wall bulge:






This area, where 3 stone walls come together, but don't seem to connect:




And a steep bank with boulders of various sizes, and a lot of different features. I'm going to try to post a few of them through the week. This is just one spot:

One more stone pile and an aperture

Heading to the South or Southeast of the last large cairn in the group from my last post:



Which, incidentally, every time I take a walk up this way, I come to this cairn. It's not intentional - I'm usually looking for something new, that I overlooked the last time I was out, and I always seem to find this cairn. It may be because there is barely any underbrush around this cairn and it's easy walking near and around it, but I just find it interesting that, in the middle of no where, 'all roads lead to this cairn'.

So, when I came to this smaller cairn, I was excited because I had not noticed it before at this site. It is near a stone wall that borders an area that has been completely, well, let's say 'revamped', by the State:



This small cairn seemed to have a lot of character. A possible niche to one side of the pile:



A nice upright rock to the side of the pile:



And, the stones at the top of the pile seemed to have something to say:






I couldn't help but notice that large, flat rock at the top had the shape of something like an arrowhead:






So, what was the pile saying? It was the combination of shapes at the top of the pile, saying 'look at me':



Looking up from the pile, I could not see anything obvious through the brush:




So, I walked in the general direction of the pointer at the top of that pile, and came to a stone wall, and found this:



Here is a close up of that aperture:




Looking back from the stone wall toward the pile, I could just barely make out the pile through the brush - I did not get a photo looking that way because the stone pile was not visible enough to show up in a photo - but I think I'll go back in the winter and see how it looks then.

I was very excited to find this. It is the first aperture I have found. I am quite certain it was there for the purpose of that stone pile, and probably the entire cairn field that lies just to the Northwest of this stone wall.