This massive boulder stands guard at the river’s edge. I’d guess it’s close to 5 ft tall and possibly 6 or 7 ft across.

This lookout is along one of my regular power walking trails, and each time I pass it, I wonder how the giant rock came to occupy this spot.

The last time I was on this trail, I noticed what appeared to be small muddy hand prints on the rock. These were new from my last walk in this area. They reminded me of petroglyphs we’ve seen in our travels. I’ve never seen children on this trail, so who stopped to put them there?

Because history is among my favourite things, rocks on their own hold many mysteries for me. Add some muddy finger painting and my imagination can be busy for days.

“Little by little, over more than two centuries, the local stories told by rocks in all parts of the world have been stitched together into a great global tapestry – the geologic timescale. This “map” of Deep Time represents one of the great intellectual achievements of humanity, arduously constructed by stratigraphers, paleontologists, geochemists, and geochronologists from many cultures and faiths. It is still a work in progress to which details are constantly being added and finer and finer calibrations being made.”

~ Marcia Bjornerud