This site is a pretty small one, consisting of a single panel on a modest boulder with two very shallow bedrock mortars close by. The pictographs are still very vivid even though the site is quite exposed to the elements. I’m wondering whether this site is fairly modern – or maybe the binding agent in the pigment is particularly robust. The pigment and pictographs themselves definitely appear authentic – no modern paint used here!

This little site is in Kawaiisu territory, but that’s about all I know about it. I scoured the ground for lithic scatter but found nothing notable. It is close by a perennial water source so it could have been a small habitation site, though I would have expected more mortars in such a case. It may have been a ritual site instead, with the shallow mortars used to grind material for a few ceremonies. I don’t really know. The only thing I found in my research on the site was that it is not super modern – it’s been recorded in the early part of the previous century.

Either way, it was still a great little site to visit. Let’s look at some pictures.

Here’s the pictograph boulder. The pictographs are on the rust-colored portion of the boulder.

Stepping in close we see that the main portion of the panel is very well preserved. The figures on the left reminds me a little bit of the pelt-like designs the Yokuts made. I wonder if there are other sites with designs like these nearby. The double row of dots extending upwards from the middle element is another very common pictograph element.

I added some DStretch just to make sure there weren’t any faded designs. This does allow us to see the row of dots more clearly.

Nearby a small bedrock outcropping hosts two shallow mortars.

This design is more faded than the others. Maybe the prevailing wind drives rain and dust from this direction, or maybe it was just painted with a much drier brush. I think these pictographs were all painted with a brush because of how regular and well-saturated the line are.

DStretch shows us that this is another element with lobes, though this one has five lobes, not four like the other two elements.

A final glance, taken from the side, at this boulder. This allows you to see that the panel isn’t as flat as the front view makes it seem.

This was a pretty small site – just one boulder – but the addition of the shallow bedrock mortars tells us that people spent at least some time here.

As for me, I didn’t spend too much time here. I visited on a very hot summer day and I didn’t quite leave no trace – the giant drops of sweat I left behind are probably still visible as big circles of salt! This site is in the Erskine Fire burn area, so there was no vegetation shading what likely used to be a very inviting little spot.

If you visit, make sure to spend a little bit of time here. These places are special, allowing us to think beyond ourselves, back into human history, and consider ways of living that were very different from what we have now.