Early one morning I was out hunting specifically for this site. I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be too hard to actually see if I could just find myself in the general vicinity of it, since the photographs I’d seen made it appear large enough to be visible from some distance away.

The panel boulder nestled among its companions.

As it turned out, I was right about it being visible from a distance! This was fortunate because I was off on my general guess about where it was. We were one ridge too far west, clambering around in the jumbled rocks and coming up empty, but my eagle-eyed companion crested the ridge and spotted it off in the distance one ridge over. (Companion’s Note:  My finest petroglyph moment!) We chugged over and admired it. It was indeed enormous, as petroglyph panels in this area often are.

I am used to hunting for pictograph sites that either consist of small, easily missed panels or require peering closely at rock faces to see faded designs.  Exuberantly large, crystal clear petroglyphs are a refreshing delight.

The entire panel is well in excess of six feet across and nearly as tall. The most striking elements in the panel lead to the most common nickname for the site: “13 Moons Petroglyphs.” There are thirteen large, bright circles scattered on the panel. Together they form a general crescent shape. Some of these circles are connected or have small appendages. In particular, four in the lower right that resemble a square pattern are partially connected. The rightmost two are connected with double lines, the leftmost two are joined with a thick line with red pigment rubbed in, and the bottom two are linked by a single line.

The panel in the early morning sun.

To the left of the “square” of four circles is a circle with digitate arms and legs. To the left again there is a circle with short lines coming off the top right.

It is these additional decorations on the circles that led me to regretfully set aside my initial thoughts that the thirteen circles were a deliberate reference to a lunar calendar. Besides, there are also two smaller circles and several other elements on the panel!

A close look at the pigmented areas. Note the grinding slick in the background.

The patterns on this panel are actually fairly typical of entoptic patterns seen under the influence of some hallucinogens. The two grid elements, the burst element at the left, and the curved parallel lines found at upper right are all reported in the literature.

The large symmetrical Rectilinear design looks vaguely like a mask or maybe even something fanciful like a spaceship, but it too is likely an entoptic pattern.

A close-up view of the petroglyph panel.

There is also a small anthropomorph in the center of the panel, with bent legs that make it appear to be dancing while holding a rod in either hand.

Right at the bottom of the panel is a curved line similar to designs used to depict rattlesnakes. Often, rattlesnakes were seen as spirit helpers for the shaman. It is possible that this panel was made to record the vision quest of a shaman who used the rattlesnake as a spirit helper.

At the far right, to the right of the parallel curved lines is an element that resembles a bird’s footprint. Bird prints are another possible sign of a vision quest, with the bird acting as spirit guide. There is another of these possible bird prints next to the lower right circle in the “square” pattern.

In the lower right and lower center of the panel are two simple shield symbols, one a bisected circle and the other a circle split into quarters. When the bisecting line runs vertically the resulting symbol might be a yoni, or fertility symbol. However in this case these two symbols are likely just entoptic artifacts.

Except for the two diamond patterns, one dead center and the other upper center, the lines forming the petroglyphs are all uniformly pecked. The two diamond patterns were scratched instead of pecked – the lines appear spidery in comparison. This likely means that these symbols were added into the design later.

The grinding slick atop the nearby boulder.

Across from the panel there is a large boulder with a flat surface. On this surface, as well as on another boulder a small distance away, there are grinding slicks. Bedrock mortars are rare in this vicinity, but grinding slicks can be found here and there. Its presence doesn’t necessarily mean that this was also a habitation site. It could have been formed during the grinding of substances used during shamanistic activities.

This panel is in excellent condition. If you visit it, please respect it and do not damage it. A short distance away, another boulder has been shot up to create a crude design.  Shooting at rocks in a wilderness area is illegal, but at least the shooter in this case picked a clean canvas and didn’t destroy an irreplaceable cultural site.