MAMMOTH: The Passing

Detail of first photo; High Desert canyon

Protrusions polished along canyon walls. Desert boulders emitting earthly sheen. Manganese, Iron adhering to congealed lava, basalt. Ancient walkways, passages, of now-extinct Mammoths in lands now-known-as Oregon, California, the Southwest. Rubbing on just-right rock for pleasure, need, ritual - affirmation. Certain heights, certain angles, perhaps one boulder among hundreds. We speculate about intent, time, seasons, passages. In their times, grasses, sedges, water abundant. Now, too often, these places -- the edgelands and expanses -- desiccate, heat, crust.

Details (left & right) of above boulder

Another view of same boulder

PASSING... conjures going-by, going on, going away -- changes. In terrains, in states of being. So, Ghosting Mammoths remind us, as they moved through.

PHOTOS. Oregon’s lava lands: high-desert basin-and-range block-fault country, Douglas Beauchamp, 2022. With appreciation to an anonymous guide. Below, canyon in High Desert central Oregon.

NOTES. Internet search: Mammoth Rubbing Rocks reveals many fine pictures. The walkway goes on… follow awhile? ... and rub on...