We visited this petroglyph site in mid-spring, on what turned out to be a pretty hot day. Instead of taking the Rings Loop trail, we parked in a different spot and approached the petroglyphs from the other side. This lead to a bit of consternation on my part, since the petroglyphs are all on the far side of the boulders, except for one very small panel, and I thought that we drove all the way out here for a couple of petroglyphs and I would have to apologize to my companion for creating such a journey for the sake of two petroglyphs!
The petroglyphs are on volcanic tuff – soft rock that takes carving easily, but erodes just as easily. Except for a few modern-looking elements they all have a decent amount of desert varnish, so they are likely at least prehistoric. Since the rock is so soft, and the surface is mostly uneven, the petroglyphs are quite large and not very crisp.
Let’s look!
We approached the grouping of boulders from the rear and quickly spotted some petroglyphs under a small overhang.
For a minute I was worried that these were the only petroglyphs we were going to see!
Fortunately, there are several more boulders with lots of petroglyphs just a short walk away.
A large triangular boulder, with one face covered in petroglyphs.
If you search for Hole in the Wall petroglyphs, this is the picture you’re most likely to find. It seems that everybody takes this exact same picture! This is the top part of the panel on the triangular boulder.
I think most people take that picture because the rest of the panel is very busy, with thick, criss-crossing meander lines and superimposed elements, and it simply doesn’t photograph as well.
A single multipede-like petroglyph, on the side of a large boulder.
There is a single Coso sheep style petroglyph on this face of this boulder. It is still very bright, so it is likely a modern addition.
Just around the side of that boulder there are some additional petroglyphs. In the background towards the right yet another boulder with some circular petroglyphs peeks out, with what looks like a barbell-shaped petroglyph design.
But before we get to those barbell-shaped petroglyphs, we see that the rear of our boulder contains another panel with many superimposed meander lines and faint zoomorphs.
Next is a boulder with a few elements, a short dry-stacked wall in the gap between boulders, and the boulder with some few circular pictographs. The wall might be modern, stacked by ranchers.
Detail of the circular elements. What initially looked like a barbell seems to be a circle with a squiggly tail, and a roughly pecked element underneath.
Right next to the boulder with the circular elements is another densely decorated boulder.
This boulder has a very large circular element, and very dense meander ( squiggle ) lines.
The petroglyphs extend right to the edge of the sharply angled boulder.
A nearby shelter hosts a few more petroglyphs.
Easy to miss are these bold elements, a short rake and an elongated atlatl-like element, high up in the shelter and behind a viewer peering in.
Some distance away one final panel completes our examination of the site. As with most of the other panels, this one has some circular elements and some meander lines.
This site has suffered some minor vandalism in the form of spindly scratched designs. If you visit, please keep your impact minimal. Others would like to see the site as much as you did.