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.

The site is tucked in at the foot of a pretty large boulder ( the shadowy area in the lower right, under the little overhang ) This placement protected the elements pretty well. Note how the elements seem placed at a crack in the boulder. Shamanistic belief was that rocks represented places of power, and a crack represented a portal into the spirit world.

The site faces generally southerly, and the terrain is pretty steeply sloped. It was a bit of a scramble to get to it, actually! We were poking around the grouping of rocks, clambering over deadfall and stepping gingerly on springy mats of pinecones and needles gathered between the fallen tree limbs, when we spotted this boulder and angled over. The underbrush was surprisingly scratchy for the elevation – you associate thorns with the desert, not the Sierra! – so we circled this way and that looking for a way to get to the boulder.

We finally opted for dropping down over a disintegrating log, and had just touched terra firma on the other side when we heard a steady hum. Oh — great! Bees!

I glanced up. There was a steady blur of bees high overhead. Probably a hive right up at the top of the boulder. Great – just great! I never have much luck with bees. Last time I found a swarm of bees while rock art hunting I walked around with a soccer ball of a bee sting on my upper thigh for days afterward.

I was ready to punt on the boulder right then and there, but my companion had scouted ahead and announced “Here’s something!” So I had to worriedly scoot past the overhang that hosted the worst of the bees. And sure enough, there was something! A very nice little panel of pictographs, about four feet off the ground, tucked under a little overhang.

I knelt down to get out a camera, keeping an eye and an ear out for the bees. Any intensification of the hum and I’d just have to brave the prickly undergrowth and roll downhill in search of safety!

Since I’m writing this, you already know that I wasn’t chased off a cliff by bees. In fact, we escaped completely unharmed, though it was a bit of a struggle to leave the site. Every which way was tangled, thorny overgrowth with soft forest duff underneath. We did finally make it back to the vehicle and smiled at each other, happy that another day’s exploring went well. We did face an extremely windy road home, the sort of road that makes even the driver queasy, but such hardships are no match for a day out in nature.

Now, let’s take a look at what we found!

The panel is multi-hued. The center figure in particular has a yellow body and red hind legs. There is a very localized erosion of the figure’s rightmost rear leg. I suspect that might have been deliberate, though the rock may also be shaped in such a way that that portion of the element is the only part exposed to rain. On the right is a digitate anthropomoprh, and on the left another multi-hued figure with an orange-red body, orange upper appendages, and a lower circle element in red.

The left side of the panel, close up.

There is some pigment between the bar on the left and the figure, but I can’t make it out. There’s also a dab of pigment right up in the crack in the rock, to the left of the figure, and some more indistinct pigment between it and the next figure. Some of the rock may have flaked off there, taking part of that figure with it.

Both of these elements are multi-hued. On the right is a likely zoomorph although it might also be an anthropomorph. The body and upper appendages are yellow-orange, the lower appendages are red. The one on the right had mostly washed away.

The panel is well-preserved but I want to point out some details with DStretch. Note how the right-hand figure’s head and upper left appendage is slightly redder than the rest of the figure. I suspect the orange paint was made by blending yellow and red together, and I think the figure’s head and upper left appendage was painted first, with paint that had sligthly more red pigment in it. There’s no sign of overpainting with the rear appendage. Either the artist was very precise ( indicating a brush or similar tool was likely used ) or one of the pigments is much less opaque than the other. Because this figure is thinly applied to the rock face ( note how the texture shows through here and there ) I suspect it might be the former. Now, look at the left-hand figure. Its horizontal upper appendages were painted with the orange paint, and I think there’s some obvious overpainting going on there, meaning the figure was initially painted with red and then the orange was added. So perhaps the orange paint is more opaque after all, and there was some overpainting on the right-hand figure. Hard to say!

Here’s the digitate anthropomorph on the right-hand size of the panel. There is also an intricate little figure to the left of it, and some more pigment below.

On this monochrome part of the panel I can choose a strong red DStretch enhancement. Look at the detail on that little element! With the naked eye it looks like a blob, but now we can see that it was very deliberately painted, with crisp lines. Amazing.

This was a fun little site to visit. I’m usually the photographer so after the initial excitement is over, my companion is left staring at plain rocks while I finish up the pictures. Thus, my companion prefers “bite-sized” sites, with an interesting panel or two that doesn’t take too long to photograph! This site fit that bill.

I hope you enjoyed visiting this site with me in this entry. If you ever visit it in person, be sure to leave it as you found it. Do not touch the pictographs, or trace them, or anything! Leave it just as you found it so others can enjoy it like you did.