The first thing we noticed as we sat down in front of this panel was the long zig-zag line, running from the start of this alcove all the way towards the other entrance of the tunnel. There are some petroglyphs scratched over the pictographs below the zig-zag line in this part of the tunnel ( something I have also seen at the “Double Scoop” site in the Wonderland of Rocks ) but these soon gave way to a double, sometimes triple, row of red dots, a bit less than four inches across, stretching across the ceiling.

In the background at the lower left you can see the “Foyer” panel. In this next part of the panel, a long zig-zag line runs across the top above a long row of handprints. Here at the beginning of the panel are several very interesting elements. Up on the ceiling there are some tally lines, bisected, and some very faint elements along with a prominent line of eleven short hash marks. The petroglyphs overlay a set of intricate pictographs in a bright orangish pigment. There is also a zig-zag line petroglyph right below the pictograph line.

The row of hashmarks. Some may have been deliberately connected at the ends.

Close by, a more faded element of longer lines, bisected by a perpendicular line.

This element has nine crossbars.

This is a particularly noteworthy element. At first glance it seems like a spacing of random blobs, maybe with a small burst at the bottom. Here you can see how much more orangish this pigment is compared to the zig-zag line. Notice that the petroglyph zig-zag that mirrors the pictograph zig-zag reaches all the way to here.

There’s some amazing detail to this element that is hard to see in photos, because the textured, side-lit surface they are painted on distracts the eye. With DStretch flattening out the distraction, we see a sinuous shape with inner and outer elements. Next to it is a faded element ( two wavy lines with a center line ) that the zig-zag is superimposed over.

Below these elements is a series of delicate Rectilinear elements in the same orange pigment, as well as a very interesting shape that I’ve seen before in the Tehachapis, and in the Mojave.

You can see the little Rectilinear shapes in the lower left, and above it is this curious, bow-shaped element consisting of three parallel lines. This reminds me of the Golden Hills pictograph site, as well as a site in the middle of the Mojave, at Counsel Rocks.

Before we move on to the main part of the site, let’s take one last look at these elements. Here, I specifically targeted the bow-like shape. There seems to be three peaks to it, elegantly coming together in square endpoints at the bottom. Next to it you can see the small Rectilinear elements. Above it are the first few hand elements, bled out in this strong DStretch enhancement.

Finally, time for the main event! I’ll just go right to an overview picture. Wow.

Look at that. How many handprints do you see? At the very left are the elements we just saw. By that point the zig-zag line was already long, but now it continues across the ceiling, with rows of handprints below.

The GPS held by my companion is four inches across, and the palms of these handprints are a little smaller than that. That is a pretty small hand. Probably an adolescent, female hand.

The handprints are all clear, with no smudging, showing the care with which they were made. A lot of them appear tentative, with very light finger imprints.

Many of them show negative space at the center of the palm print, indicating that the hand was slightly cupped and lightly pressed into the rock. In the case of the print on the left, the fingers were slightly cupped, too, leading to a very light imprint from the proximate phalange area ( first segments of the fingers closest to the palm. )

With DStretch you can clearly see the fingers. In this case we’re looking at right-handed prints, with the fingers closed and the thumb held close to the palm. The print on the far right might be a left-handed print.

A bit further on, in the row right below the zig-zag line, we find handprints with fingers that are more spread apart, as well as some where the palm is completely filled in.

The print on the left has the pinkie and thumb spread away from the three middle fingers, which were held closely together. Next to it is a very tentative print, showing only the palm and the tips of the third, fourth and pinkie fingers. Past that, on the right, is a print where all the fingers are spread apart. In the lower portion of the photo we can see the fingers from the row of prints below. It seems like there is some faint pigment in between these two rows of prominent prints, too …

Let’s step away a little bit and have a good look. Two rows of prints, with a third row coming in from the bottom …

No! Three rows of prints, with a fourth row in between – very faint handprints filling in the gaps. Wow. I would guess that these were made last, when most of the pigment had worn off from making the brighter handprints. They are still so amazing, though.

Another print where the fingers are clearly visible.

Just amazing.

Curiously, a single one of the hands is adorned with a trailing tail of wavy lines. This element is towards the lower right of the sets of prints. While the print itself is in the bright orange pigment in this case, the tails appear to be painted with a darker purplish pigment.

Here’s good look at the tails and the surrounding handprints.

Over on the far side of the panel, close to the entrance, the zig-zag line continues a little bit past the rock face the handprints are painted on. Beyond the handprint panel is a set of lines.

The same picture with DStretch, showing the densest part of the handprint panel, the end of the zig-zag line, and the lines below it.

Many of these handprints appear to be right-handed prints, but these two, next to each other, looks like they might be a left and a right hand, likely from the same individual. If you look at the overview picture just above this one you’ll see these two prints in the lower right of the handprint panel. Notice that some of the other prints in the bottom row also look like they might be left-handed prints.

A DStretch view of those two prints.

Our exploration of this site is almost at an end. In this picture you can get an idea of the shape of the tunnel as we take one more look back at the entry we came in through. We’ll be leaving through the other entryway.

Standing outside the second entrance, looking in. The handprint panel is visible towards the ceiling on the narrow, darker band of rock in the center of the photo, and the foyer is out of view, around the corner. It is time for us to pick up our hats, sunglasses, hiking poles and desert shirts, don our backpacks, and set off under the bright desert sky to find our way back to our car.