Monthly Archives: February 2017

“Bee’s Knees” Pictographs

This site is nestled at higher elevation on the slopes of the western Sierra, around 6,500 feet or so. There’s no habitation sites nearby that I’m aware of, and nothing stands out about the landscape. However, the site seems deliberately chosen all the same – this is a rocky little knoll and the boulder it is painted on is the largest in the grouping.

To me the site seems to represent a shaman’s portal into the spirit world: it is painted in a crack in a large, striking boulder. This would have been considered a good spot from which to access the spirit world.

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Queen Mountain Pictograph Boulder

Now here’s a site that was hard to find! I’m not even sure how many trips we made before we found it.

This site is kind of in the middle of nowhere so you have to commit a good chunk of time just to hoof it to the general area, never mind start searching. After we had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at finding it I started analyzing my very vague research more thoroughly.  As I found more clues I steadily narrowed down its location until finally I was sure I had it this time!  So we set out again to find it. This was going to be the time. It was late afternoon and we were kind of done for the day already but I had the urge to be out in the desert despite my leaden legs, so off we went.

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