This companion site to the more well-known Red Lady or “Lone Woman of the Cave” site in Joshua Tree National Park is located in the same general vicinity.
It is also thought to depict the Chemehuevi legend of Tavapëtsi, the Sun, impregnating a woman with rays of sunlight ( specifically, the fan of light that can be seen shining down from the sun when the atmospheric conditions are just right ). The legend claims that the woman birthed twin sons for Tavapëtsi. In general, the legend is tied to the spring equinox and the period of fertility spring brings to nature.
The pictographs are tucked out of the way in a narrow slot between two large boulders. There are several alcoves along the sides of this rocky slot and two of them have pictographs.
The larger alcove holds the Brunette Lady. To her right is a smaller alcove that holds two more pictographs, thought to depict her twin sons.
Both the Brunette Lady and the Twins have suffered damage, probably natural, as parts of the rock face have exfoliated away, taking the pigment with it. This is a natural erosion pattern for rocks in this region – in fact, the entire alcove was formed in this way.
A view of the Brunette Lady pictograph and the Twins pictograph in the adjacent alcove.
Even though the pictographs are visible with the naked eye, DStretch is still helpful, especially for the Twins. The remaining pigment appears to depict two human figures side by side.
With DStretch. Note the faint circles descending from her left hand.
A close-up of the Brunette Lady in her alcove. Note her black outline, unusual for pictographs.
Unfortunately, the Brunette Lady’s right arm has flaked away, as well as her right foot and part of the hem of her garment.
A trail of faint circles descend from her left hand. This is interesting, because the Red Lady pictograph also shows elements trailing from her left hand. This supports the theory that these pictographs depict the same legend.
The Twins pictograph. The entire bottom portion of the pictograph has exfoliated which is a pity, as what remains appears quite detailed. It would be really interesting to see what they used to look like. Note that they also have black hair, just like the Lone Woman.
The Twins with DStretch.
Just from the pictograph elements present this site does seem to closely track the legend and has some stylistic similarities to the Red Lady site. At that site the sun’s interplay with the bedrock mortar only strengthens the idea that that site refers to the legend.
How about this site? Is there anything else special to it?
Well, rumor has it that the sun shines right into the Brunette Lady’s alcove at sunrise on the spring equinox. That is worth looking into, I thought, so I planned a trip to go check it out!
The sunrise glowing on the horizon, as seen while looking out of the Brunette Lady’s alcove. There is even a promising-looking notch in the skyline. This could be really cool!
Fortunately, the spring equinox sunrise is not at some impossible hour like the the summer solstice, though it is still bright and early.
We set out for the site around dawn on the spring equinox but had some distance to cover from where we stayed the night, and in the end we had to make sure we hurried along.
A handy mountain range to the east of the site meant we still had some time – barely! The desert was brightening rapidly as we jogged through the chaparral, hoping we could make it.
I’ll let a few photos tell the sunrise story:
As the day brightens, I begin to worry. Contrary to how television and the movies depict dramatic sunrises, you typically don’t go from dark to full light in a moment. Instead, everything grows rapidly brighter. As the sun rose I could see the shape of the morning light forming on the rock before the sun fully rose, and it didn’t look like the morning light was going to shine right into the alcove at all …
Moments later full sunlight first bathed the top of the rock and then ran down the rock face towards the alcove.
The sun is now fully risen. While the interplay of light may still change a bit as the sun rises higher in the sky and the alcove may well be in the full light around mid-to-late morning, this sunrise event was a definite dud! The pictograph is mostly in shadow.
Well, the Brunette Lady’s site doesn’t appear to play as nicely with the equinox legend as the Red Lady’s does. In fact, it turned out to be a bit of a dud, at least as far as the “sunrise” part of it was concerned. I suppose the legend grew over time just because the alcove faces generally east and no-one’s ever bothered to check it out. Maybe the sun would shine more into the alcove later in the day … but probably not around noon like it does for the Red Lady since this alcove isn’t open to the sun above.
As I walked away from the site, I kept wondering about it. Since I had plans to be in the vicinity on the summer solstice I wondered whether the site would be any better behaved then. But the summer solstice sunrise is so early … and I already had somewhere else to be at that time …
To make a long story short I did manage to swing by the site on the summer solstice, before the morning was too old. Again I had to hurry so I did, bouncing my way through the desert on tired limbs, my cameras jostling in my backpack. If I could make it to the Brunette Lady in time to see something it would mean that I could check visiting this site at a solstice sunrise off my list and actually sleep in on some future date instead of rising at a horrible hour to peer blearily at the horizon one more time …
As it turns out this site puts up a much better display at the summer solstice than it did on the spring equinox. Though it was well past dawn when I arrived, the alcove was bathed in sunlight. The dawn’s rays would indeed be shining right into the alcove.
The Brunette Lady, bathed in the summer solstice sunrise. No, I have no idea what that bird-like shadow at the bottom of the picture is! Maybe some bird was peering over my shoulder? Freaky.
I think this site could function as a calendar marking of sorts, with the Brunette Lady’s alcove being progressively bathed in more sunlight as the growing season proceeds. Once the alcove starts to darken, the season is turning towards winter.
The whole site. The Twins’ alcove is still cast in shadow.
This site is again not precise – you can see much the same thing on dates around the solstice and the equinox as you can on the actual dates – but it is interesting nonetheless.
The Brunette Lady is not as well known as her companion but this site is likely to see increased traffic over time as well. If you visit a single glance at the exfoliated portions of the site should be more than enough to warn you not to touch the rock faces or the pigment. This particular site’s surface is very, very fragile.
Instead, take your photos and view the site at a safe distance, then leave it as you found it for the next visitors to enjoy. After all, you wouldn’t have gotten to see anything if everybody before you didn’t treat the site respectfully.