That was good enough for me and soon we were all on the mountain working our way up. At the first small summit, we met some rock climbers and as the map failed to identify the location of any paintings, we asked for directions. The information was vague and the consensus was that there were some paintings near the top of the mountain slightly off to the left. Returning to the climbing chain, we slowly made our way up. The last couple of feet were really steep and required some effort and a little courage to overcome. Finally, we rested at the summit. Now it is pretty well known that ancient rock paintings, exposed to the elements disappeared long ago. The only remaining ones are tucked up under, around or behind rock formations. This requires a lot of bending and crawling on knees if one ever hopes to find the secluded designs. While Lynn went one way, I went the other. The girls remained at the summit point to explore the immediate area. After sticking my nose in this crevice and under that boulder for a while I returned to see what the others had discovered. The answer was the same, nothing. It was time to try a different approach, we began shouting to others we could see, asking if they had found any paintings. All responses were negative. It began to look like the trip was a bust, when over the hill, just in the nick of time, came the Calvary. Literally, two rock climbing soldiers from nearby Fort Bliss descended down next to us. Wes Carlson of Evergreen, Colorado and Dan Moore of Clay, West Virginia, couldn't have been more helpful had they been park rangers. After a short discussion on the painting they decided it would be easier to take us to them rather then try for a lengthy list of directions, and so off we went. Within time we halted in front of a rock base. Nothing spectacular about the area and nothing showing. We joined our guides on our knees and looked up under a ledge and there it was in all its sparkling yellowish orange. A 1000 year old painting, hidden away from prying eyes, to be seen only by those with the knowledge to find it. The satisfaction was gratifying. I had accomplished what I had set out to do. It was good. We soon found out that this example of Indian art was the only item on top of the mountain, and so we hung around for a while taking each other's pictures and exchanging names. The troops needed to get back to base and started to depart leaving us with instructions on where the "BIG" show was near the base of the mountain. Nimble legged Lynn who was the only one who could keep up with these boys, decided to make the rapid descent with them and on the way they would show him where the main attraction was. The rest of us made a slow and careful descent down the chain until we caught sight of Lynn near the bottom. He led us to what looked like a cave opening, but was actually a long low slit in the rock. On hands and knees we worked our way into the center where we could sit up and look around. The slit continued on for another 30 feet or so, narrowing down to only a few feet of clearance. To a casual observer, it was nothing but a slit in the rock, but Lynn had worked his way around on his back and had discovered the ceiling was covered with beautiful, intricately designed, rock paintings, hidden away for centuries from damaging winds and prying eyes. Much of the ceiling was covered, and we had to move around quite a bit to see it all but it was worth it. What a find. For the next hour we searched and photographed most of the ceiling. Although there were dozens of people prowling around on the rocks above no one entered the cave-like area. We seemed to have the place to ourselves for as long as we liked. Having seen all we could see, we withdrew from the area, leaving no trace of our passing, satisfied that we had indeed seen something special, thanks to a couple of neat guys who took the time to help.

*** THE END ***