As you drive the paved roads through Joshua Tree National Park you may have noticed the numerous washes they cross. To the majority of JTNP visitors these washes barely register unless they become active during flash floods and wash out or temporarily close the Park’s roads.
To people who lived here before roads were built the washes provided an easy means of travel. Though slogging through sand is not by itself easy it is more comfortable than winding through thorny plants or scrambling along boulders.
Quite close to the main road through the Park there are a couple of boulders nestled along one of the washes that bear witness to the passage of prior cultures. One of the boulders has a curious shape and a nice flat surface. On this flat surface the desert varnish was scratched away to create petroglyphs.
This boulder is curiously shaped, as if part of it was carefully cut away. This is natural weathering though, and a portion probably split off along a fault line all at once after one too many rain and heat cycles. The lower portion of the boulder is covered in petroglyphs.
The boulder has a companion of similar size close by, but the companion has nothing on it.
The designs on this boulder are commonly found in the area. Many other petroglyphs and pictographs in the region have the elements of squiggly lines or circles connected by lines. The designs might have been entoptic, or may have carried specific meaning, perhaps indicating boundaries or used in rituals.
The petroglyph panel. In addition to the circles and lines there is also a squiggly line and a sunburst motif ( lower right ) as well as one or two possible Rectilinear elements.
All of these elements can also be found, often in pictographic form, in the surrounding area.
Regardless of why they came to be these petroglyphs remain long after the people who created them have gone from this place. If you visit, please do not touch the petroglyphs and try to disturb the area as little as possible. It was left pristine for you to find. Pass on the favor.