For today’s exploration we’re tackling a part of the Mojave Desert I haven’t yet spent a lot of time in. We had a very windy day of it while driving down to the area we wanted to explore, but the wind brought a sprinkling of rain with it before it died down overnight, so the morning dawned fresh and bright — and just at the perfect temperature for a day of exploring. Let’s get started!
At this point we’ve jostled up a decent dirt track – decent in that it is not too sandy, and not too badly washed out, but definitely high clearance and some rudimentary skill at picking the right line to take required – and squeezed into a tight pull-out near some granite outcroppings. Now it is time to stuff cameras, water and snacks into backpacks, adjust trekking poles, lock up, and start walking.
Let the exploration begin! A big old boulder like this is not something I leave alone. Note – this is a pretty flat boulder, as in, low-slung. And it sits right in a wash. Normally, I would not expect to find anything underneath since the overhang would be exposed to runoff in the wash and blowing sand. But I’ve been peering under rocks all morning, so what is one more? This one is at least a little bigger that some of the others.Oh ho – jackpot! As soon as I bend down to peer in I see pigment. Time to get down low – get in right under this boulder and have a really good look. Note the coyote calling card in the very lower center of the picture. I contorted around that to take the pictures you are about to admire. I should have just scooted it out of the way with a stick or something, but it was quite dried up and odorless, and I try to disturb sites as little as possible. In this case I probably went a bit too far by not moving that out of my way.Looks like most of the elements can be found under this part of the overhang.These large elements on the rear of the shelter wall caught my attention. There’s an anthropomorph or zoomorph in the lower portion, and an abstract design that immediately reminds me of a butterfly above that.The “butterfly”. These elements are more faded in real life. My camera lens is worth its ( rather considerable, all that glass is heavy! ) weight in captured light when it comes to photographing faded pictographs. It captures images more vividly than the human eye does.Well, that does look like a butterfly, doesn’t it? Facing down, with the spiral circle representing its head?A closer look at the digitate anthropomorph / zoomorph. I’m leaning “anthropomorph” but let’s see what DStretch can show us.Yes, I think this is indeed an anthropomorph. I like how uniform the hands and feet are – five total digits each, looking very dragonfly-like with two parallel digits above and below the arm, and an extension of the arm forming the fifth digit.Beyond those two elements, up on the ceiling, are more elements. The ones on the right appear much less carefully made – just a rough dot and line. I think there’s also a very faded element to the left in the picture. And finally, right at the bottom of the picture, I think there’s some dots and another line. This shelter is a tough nut as far as photographing it goes. It is very, very low, barely three feet at its highest point. I’m having to lie down and contort to avoid coyote poop and prickly vegetation, so the framing on some of these pictures could be better!Ah – that “line” at the bottom is part of a circle, I think. Yes, definitely. The dots are somewhat randomly placed, which is unusual. Dots are usually painted in a line, or a grid pattern.Let’s get back to an overview shot with a slightly different angle and a lot more dStretch.The lower elements are very faded – likely washed away by rain flowing around the boulder – but it looks like there were more anthropomorphs towards the lower left, and some shield designs below the butterfly. It is really hard to tease out the details of the panel, but DStretch manages admirably.There’s another element up on the lip of the shelter.There’s a larger area of faded pigment. I think certain parts of the rock just held on the pigment better. This looks like an element that consisted of concentric shapes.Even up close a large dollop of DStretch doesn’t really tell us more than we could see with the naked eye.Waaaayyy back there in the alcove I think I see some more pigment. I’m already sitting haunched over and holding the camera out in front of me. Going to have to lie down to scoot closer to this one. Note the vegetational debris on the ground – this is the desert and almost everything is prickly so I’ll have to be careful!It looks like there’s more to see behind that little boulder that kind of propped up the big one. I’ll need to call on DStretch for help here!The parallel lines are still pretty visible ( lower center ). There’s more pigment above it that’s very hard to make out.So, in this case DStretch helps a lot! That faint whisper of pigment is actually an interesting little braided element.There is also a large, prominent line running along the right-hand side of the picture.
Once I’ve exhausted the possibilities of finding pigment under this boulder – and exhausted my core strength holding all kinds of weird poses avoiding poop or thorns while keeping the camera still – I scoot out from under the boulder, feeling a little bit like I should have given it an oil change or something while I was down there.
Time to sip some fluids, pack up and head on out, though! This is a promising start to the day but there’s still a lot more granite to explore, so we bid this site and its coyote-made companions goodbye and set off to see what else there is to find.
