Monthly Archives: November 2015

“Lonely Hollow” Pictographs

This site is also in a very remote part of Joshua Tree National Park. The boulder itself looks very promising – grotesquely hollowed – but the pictographs themselves are rather nondescript. The ceiling of the hollow boulder contains a few red elements as well as evenly distributed splatters of black pigment down the two sides.

These splatters of black pigment form an interesting counterpoint to what is present at the Lone Woman site – at that site the alcove next to the Lone Woman pictograph is splattered in red and there are some black pictographs present. Here, the splatters are black and the pictographs are red.

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“Petroglyphs and Pictographs and Mortars, Oh My!” Site

Often a site consists of a handful of pictographs, or a few petroglyphs, or perhaps a granite slab hosting bedrock mortars. Sometimes, the mortars and the pictographs go together. Other times, there might be grinding slicks close to petroglyphs.

This is the first time I’ve found all three in one location!

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“Lonely Ledge” Pictographs

I am the kind of person who looks at a topo map and thinks “Oooh, look at this lonely spot way over here, far away from anything! I wonder what it’s like over here?” Oddly named meadows and creeks, hidden little valleys and lakes draw me in.

This is why I sometimes end up on some really silly hikes … way off in the sticks. Sometimes I find nothing but solitude and natural beauty, other times I find something interesting. This entry is the result of one such hike.

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“Kermit” Petroglyphs

As you drive the paved roads through Joshua Tree National Park you may have noticed the numerous washes they cross. To the majority of JTNP visitors these washes barely register unless they become active during flash floods and wash out or temporarily close the Park’s roads.

To people who lived here before roads were built the washes provided an easy means of travel. Though slogging through sand is not by itself easy it is more comfortable than winding through thorny plants or scrambling along boulders.

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“Lone Woman of the Cave” Pictographs

I made my first acquaintance with “The Lone Woman of the Cave” a few years ago as I hurried out of the backcountry with the sun setting behind the hills. Though it was a pleasant enough evening there was a fall chill in the air and a day of exploring made my limbs heavy. It was a good time to be leaving the desert for the comforts of civilization.

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