Tag Archives: Paiute petroglyphs

“Rattle River” Petroglyphs

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This entry isn’t named for anything specific to the petroglyphs. Instead it is named after what the trip to see it was like! This is one of the last sites we visited using our little red truck, and no other site came closer to breaking the truck than this one did.

The funny thing is that there are two ways to get to it: the way we approached ( scenic but brutal for a tiny stock truck: down a rocky canyon with a river we had to ford multiple times ) or the way we left ( nice flat graded dirt road! ) Never have I been more thankful to get back to the pavement in one piece – not even that one time we — cough — walked for miles, didn’t find anything and ended up getting stuck in deep sand for an hour ( and we had to dig out with a flat rock because we didn’t expect to get stuck and didn’t have a shovel. )

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“Cupule City” Petroglyphs

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This site is no secret – the local community knows all about it. Several dirt roads lead up to it and a stone boundary keeps away the vehicles. The ground around the site is scattered with modern debris – shotgun shells, bottles, broken glass – and the petroglyphs themselves have been vandalized by tracing over them and in one case by carving crude additions into the rock. A sign warns rock climbers away from the petroglyphs but the site is nonetheless covered in climbing talc and some of the vandalism is far enough above ground that it was likely done by a climber.

That’s a depressing introduction, isn’t it? Don’t let that scare you away – this site is still really interesting and has some amazing and unique features! For example, the number of cupules and mortars ground into the rock at this site is amazing. How much time did it take to make them all, and what meaning did they have?

The petroglyphs themselves are big and impressive despite the vandalism. Most of them have been filled in with red pigment, an uncommon feature for petroglyphs. There are a few other sites in the same area where the petroglyphs have also been carefully painted in with red pigment.

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“Curious Crack” Petroglyphs

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The Volcanic Tablelands north of Bishop is one of those places you either know and love or have no idea exists.

For rock climbers and desert wanderers it is an exciting spot, offering many problems to work and remote places to explore, respectively.

For everyone else it is dreadfully dull, something to be zipped by ( going downhill ) or crept past ( going uphill ) as you navigate the steep Sherwin Grade on the nearby US 395.

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“Shields Up” Petroglyphs

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In many ways the shield design is the defining element found in the Great Basin. Rectilinear elements are also really common – not to mention the famous Coso bighorn sheep representations further south – but the shield design pops up at sites all over the region.

This particular site consists of almost nothing but shield designs. The main site consists of eleven well-defined shields on a large upright boulder with a smooth, level north face, and some less well-executed elements lower on the same rock face.

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Chalfant Canyon Petroglyphs

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These petroglyphs are found along a sandstone cliff on the eastern side of Chalfant valley. Because sandstone is a relatively soft rock, most of the designs are deeply incised, often with V-shaped grooves, in contrast to the more shallowly ‘pecked’ petroglyphs one sees in harder rock such as volcanic basalt.  Since most other petroglyph sites in the area are in volcanic basalt, this site is something of an outlier.

This site stretches about a quarter of a mile along a north-south wash. The sandstone bluff it is carved on sits on the western side of the wash. The designs are mostly high off the ground, suggesting that the bottom of the wash has been eroded down since the petroglyphs were carved.

The following series of photographs follows the wash south to north, taking in the various designs on the cliff faces.

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“Fall Funnel” Petroglyphs

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This is one of the most extensive sites I’ve visited to date. I have been on the lookout for it for a while, managing to narrow down my search via scraps of information gathered here and there … and also, mainly, by the time-honored tradition of simply not finding it, over and over! ( Hey – knowing where it isn’t also counts as narrowing down the search, right? )

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Red Rock Canyon Petroglyphs

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This site is enormous – not in terms of surface area as much as in the sheer number of panels and petroglyphs it contains. Around 500 elements are spread across about 25 separate panels on this volcanic outcropping.

As is common with known sites, this one has suffered vandalism. Some designs are defaced, often by gunshots, and some panels have crude designs scratched on them. Fortunately, the majority of the site is still intact.

In the following overview, the path taken around the formation starts at the center of an east-facing alcove and proceeds widdershins (anti-clockwise). The photos follow in that same order.
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“Pot Shot” Petroglyphs

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This petroglyph site is a rarity for the area it is found in, which predominantly contain pictographs. The pictographs in the area were made by the Tübatulabal, who first came into the area about 12 centuries ago.  This petroglyph site is likely older than the first Tübatulabal migrations into the area.

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Featured image for Chidago Canyon.

Chidago Canyon Petroglyphs

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This famous site is one of the better known and oldest sites in the Volcanic Tablelands area. These petroglyphs are believed to date back at least 3,500 years, and some of them could date back around 8,000 years, when the area was first settled.

Today it is partially fenced to deter vandals, and this is unfortunately needed, given the vandalism the site has suffered over the years: shotgun damage as well as graffiti.

Fortunately, most of the petroglyphs survive intact and the site is still well worth a visit. Continue reading →