SOUTHWEST UTAH
Turns out, Sedona doesn't have a monopoly on the vortex. Utah has one too!
The Vortex trail is northwest of St. George, Utah, past Snow Canyon State Park, near Gunlock State Park. It was a pretty cool hike with beautiful scenery along the way, plus I was the only one out there - yay! The more I hike, the less I like sharing my trails. :)
The trail starts out through a field of lava rock, then a dry creek bed, and then the view opens up to a huge open expanse of petrified sand dunes. You definitely won't get lost, but also, it's not exactly clear where the "trail" is.
Here's a video that starts with a panoramic view of that open area, then up the bluffs to an incredible view that looks out for miles, and then, finally, to The Vortex! I loaded the video in double speed so you don't get bored, but the faster speed also makes it look a little choppy. I'll get this video thing down eventually. :)
If you prefer photos to videos, here is the view from the top of one of those bluffs. So pretty!
And here is The Vortex - how crazy is this? It's a huge bowl at the top of this hill, reminiscent of a toilet bowl, complete with swirled lines around the edges.
Apparently you can climb down into the bowl and apparently a lot of people just happened to have their hammers and chisels along. As one does.
Here is a closer view of some of the graffiti that's been etched into the bowl:
And to answer your question: no, I did not go down there. It would be cool, but I was not willing to risk rolling right down into that puddle at the bottom. And if for some reason I couldn't make it out, it would be a long cold night(s).
My Musings About the Graffiti
I've now been in several parks with ancient petroglyphs, hailed as works of art, messages to other prehistoric peoples, and sacred sites.
At every single petroglyph, I prefer instead to imagine a bunch of twerps, out past their bedtimes, carving funny drawings into the walls, and that thousands of years later, we have a bunch of historians running around to these historic sites, devoting their lives to deciphering the meaning behind these drawings. And they are just graffiti.
I smile to myself thinking about historians thousands of years from now, uncovering a piece of spray painted graffiti-covered concrete from under a bridge and trying to make sense of it.
And now that I've seen The Vortex, I feel even more justified in my hypothesis. I can't wait for historians thousands of years from now, long after technology has eradicated the need for written communication, to dedicate their lives to deciphering these symbols carved into what must have been a sacred site. Meanwhile, it's just Frank and Taylor and Kevin and Kim goofing around after being dared to go down to the bottom. :)