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Steam Wells Petroglyphs

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The petroglyphs at Steam Wells are well worth a visit. You’ll have to drive in on a dirt road that turns rough and sandy, and then hike about 3/4 of a mile up a wash to see them. Don’t try driving to this site in a 2WD vehicle or a passenger vehicle! Parts of the road are very rough, across sharp bedrock, or very sandy, and you will get stuck for sure. You’ll need 4WD, or else the ability to hike in from the nearest paved road – a journey of many miles.

This site is in the desert portion of Kawaiisu territory and is mostly made up of abstract Rectilinear petroglyphs, although there are also some Representational bighorn sheep and shaman figures.

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“Curious Crack” Part II – Pictograph Edition!

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During the late winter we had the opportunity to return to the “Curious Crack” site. On the first trip we found petroglyphs but this time we peered closely at the nearby cliffs because there are apparently some pictographs in the area that we missed during our first visit.

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“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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“Homestead” Pictographs

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This pictograph shelter forms part of a much larger habitation complex.

The pictographs themselves are not particularly special – in fact, some are fairly rudimentary – but the whole area is of archaeological interest because of midden fields and other evidence that this was an extensively used habitation site at one time. Across a small open space from this overhang there is another, much larger shelter, and while there are no pictographs in that second shelter the soot deposits on the ceiling shows that it was inhabited too.

The pottery sherds that archaeologists recovered at this site point to Serrano or Cahuilla occupation, dating from around a thousand or so years ago to historic times. The site also yielded lithic scatter and midden deposits, the later radiating away from the rock shelter.

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Ryan Mountain Trailhead Pictographs

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The trailhead for Ryan Mountain is a popular spot in Joshua Tree National Park. Typically, many vehicles are parked in the lot and plenty of people are on the trail to the peak, hoping for fresh air, exercise and beautiful views.

If you keep right of the trailhead you’ll notice a small sign for the “Indian Cave”. This sign points you to a small habitation site with some weathered pictographs. It is a quick way to step back in time and think about what life in JTNP used to be like.

Most visitors bustle up the side of the mountain, ignoring the history of the area. If you take the time to go look, here is what you’ll see.

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Squaw Spring Petroglyphs

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The Squaw Spring petroglyph site is a very small site consisting of a few petroglyphs on a rock outcropping some distance away from the spring. This site is in Kawaiisu territory. The Kawaiisu also lived in the Greenhorn mountains around Tehachapi where they painted very elaborate pictographs. To me the contrast between the art in their desert territory and their mountain territory is quite marked.

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Twin Tanks area Petroglyphs

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Reaching the Twin Tanks area in Joshua Tree National Park from the Twin Tanks backcountry board requires a little bit of a hike, either cross country proper or up a wide wash.

The tanks referred to are dams built by cattle ranchers to enhance natural tanks that were used for years prior by the Native Americans who lived in the area.

The tanks are interesting enough by themselves, but today’s entry is about the older history of the area.

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“Exfoliated Shelter” Pictographs

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Many of the rock shelters in Joshua Tree National Park are at least partly formed by a natural erosion process called exfoliation. There are different theories as to how exactly this process works. The theory currents in favor is that it is caused by rain breaching the surface of the granite and interacting with the minerals in the rock, causing expansion which over time causes the surface to flake off.

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