Winter Solstice in Bluff, Utah

Once again artist Joe Pachak, with the help of about 50 volunteers created another of his fabulous animal sculptures for the Winter Solstice Celebration in Bluff, Utah.  This time, Joe built two great blue herons.  In this slideshow, you will see a few of his past creations (a mammoth, an ice age bison), a sequence of shots of an intriguing shadow that appears up in Cottonwood Canyon near an intricate Navajo Yei petroglyph, archaeologist Jonathan Till at the Bluff Great House pointing out prehistoric Anasazi celestial alignments, locals doing yoga during winter solstice sunrise, dancers getting ready for the winter solstice celebration, and "the sacrificial burning" started by a young Navajo boy throwing a flaming atlatl into the neck of one of the herons.  During the night, snow fell upon Bluff and the ashes of the great blue herons.