After a few miles of wandering, poking around rock piles, and ducking in under various boulder overhangs or into various nooks and crannies, we happened upon a small pictograph and petroglyph site. Since we looked all over the surrounding area I’m fairly sure that there’s no other sites really close to this one, and there was no signs of a habitation site either.
This might have been a shamanistic site. It doesn’t exhibit any of the elements associated with puberty rituals – no diamond chains, no zig-zags. Even though the elements are simple, I think that this site was important to someone at some point, because a portion of the rock, about the size of a human backside, is worn rather smooth, right where you would sit in order to face this panel.
If you wander JTNP’s backcountry and you see something like this, you’d better climb on up and take a closer look!
Yeah, definitely worth it! I saw the petroglyphs first, but sometimes you see something that looks just like a petroglyph that turns out to be natural mineral streaks in the rock, so I didn’t get too excited. But then I saw the red pigment! Well, sometimes you see red pigment and it is just natural pigmentation in the rock. So I didn’t get too excited. But then I thought … well, if you see both in the same spot, surely it will be something? And it was! So I got excited!
After scrambling up into the alcove, I wedge my back against the wall that has no pictographs or petroglyphs, and survey the find. I don’t notice this initially, but I automatically sit down on a patch of rock that is much smoother than the surrounding rock. I think this site has seen a lot of use, and a lot of human backsides wore my perch smooth over the years. In this picture you can see most of the elements at the site – petroglyphs on the floor, pictographs over towards the wall.
Over on the floor we have some circular petroglyphs with lines radiating from them. Also noticeable is the cupule ( or perhaps natural indenation ) that was incorporated into a petroglyph.
A close look at that feature. What do you think, is that a cupule or a natural fissure in the rock?
One panel has pecked petroglyphs and some very faded pictographs. This alcove looks pretty sheltered – in fact, when we originally discovered this site it started raining just as we arrived, and we stayed dry inside it – but I suppose the rain does get in from time to time.
For some reason I felt compelled to also include a slightly more zoomed picture. At least you can see the petroglyphs on the main panel a lot better! They are carefully pecked, despite the fact that granite rock really doesn’t take petroglyphs very well.
This DStretch enhancement shows the pictographs better. The element on the left is very indistinct, but on the right there is a quite interesting element – the ubiquitous bisected circle.
The upper part of the panel contains a Rectilinear petroglyph.
On closer inspection, the bisected circle might have additional lines in it too, but I’m not sure.
Up above the petroglyph panel there are a few faded dashes of red pigment on a separate rock face.
DStretch shows us some well-spaced lines. And with that, we have seen everything this little site has to offer.
We did a good bit of meandering exploring before we found this little site, tucked away in its quiet little valley, and we enjoyed our visit here. If you visit, make sure to respect the site – don’t touch the pictographs, they are very fragile and faded now.
Two in a row I’ve never seen
Another nice find.
This little site was great to visit, because of the added element of a smoothed area, which hints at use over a great period of time. It is not that close to any of the known habitation areas, so I wonder if there is more in the area, or if people simply travelled for a bit to use it.