There are lots of reasons to go outside, not the least of which is that our lives require us to be busy all the time, swapping thoughts and data in and out of our heads at a blinding pace, never allowing anything to settle in for too long because there simply isn’t much room in our minds anymore.
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Not all rock art sites are out in the open. Some are hidden and you have to go out of your way, seek them out. I’m sure I’ve gone right by some petroglyphs or pictographs before, right on the other side of the rock, or past an overhang where you have to look back to see them, and not known.
Today’s site was one of those hard to see sites. I was walking along the top of a ridge while my companion walked in the wash down below. Rocks and careful stepping for me, sandy shoes for him. But I could see the backs of boulders he could see only the front of, and I spotted a carved rock face down below.
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Well, I’m back.
We’re in the home stretch now, finishing up our exploration of a large site on the Volcanic Tablelands. In this entry we’ll focus on an enormous panel, stretching across several separate boulders, and additional panels that seem like a continuation of the main panel.
This is the part of this site you’ll see most often in photographs – the largest panels, the most spectacular petroglyphs. While I love seeing these, the smaller elements often hold my interest – why here, on this rock face? Why this particular element? Who made it? How long ago? Questions we will never know the answers to.
Now, let’s have a look!
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We’re on our way to explore a really interesting part of the extensive site on the Volcanic Tablelands that’s been occupying our time of late. To date we’ve been exploring up and down ridges, and while today’s look is also at a ridge, there are several interesting features here. For one, we’ll see some grinding slicks in a very interesting configuration, a narrow passage full of petroglyphs, an awesome housing circle, some cupules with a secret, and, of course, petroglyphs!
Let’s go look!
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Today we’re continuing our exploration of an expansive petroglyph site on the Volcanic Tablelands. We’ve explored the westerly part of the site in detail, seeing petroglyphs, cupules and housing circles. Today we’re on our way to look at the north-easterly part of the site, where we’ll find several things that tie the outcropping we’ll be exploring in to the rest of the site. Prepare for more petroglyphs, housing circles, and bird print petroglyphs!
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We’re continuing our exploration of a wonderful habitation & petroglyph site in this entry.
In the previous entry we finished walking a ridge of volcanic tuft from north to south, noting the numerous bird print petroglyphs atop the ridge. In this entry, we’ll walk back up the ridge on its easterly side. There are numerous housing circles on this side, as well as petroglyphs, and the ground is littered with lithic scatter.
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This entry is a continuation of the previous entry in the series, further examining a large petroglyph site on the Volcanic Tablelands.
In this entry, we will finish examining the top and westerly side of ridge we’ve been following. We’ll also peek over the ridge to get a glimpse of what awaits us in the next entry.
Remember that I pointed out some bird-print like petroglyphs previously? Well, this part of the site takes that quite a bit further. All along the top of the ridge we’ll find a progression of bird prints, usually in sets of two, all the way down to a large boulder with a whole jumble of bird print petroglyphs. Quite amazing.
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We made a couple of visits to this sprawling petroglyph site in the Owens Valley over the last three years. The first time we visited was late on an early summer day, and the desert varnish was awfully reflective so a lot of photos did not turn out. The second time was mid-morning on a late fall day, so at least the shadows and lighting were very different!
Continue readingSo – we moved over the summer, my computer is still packed away as we’re getting settled in, and there’s been NO time for exploring! Ha.
BUT! We did have some time today to go rambling. We found plenty of exercise and fresh air as well as a couple of things from the past.
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The Tübatulabal have lived in the Kern River Valley for time immemorial – they do not have a migration myth of any kind. Instead, their stories tell that they have always been here.
During the summer months they ranged into the foothills of the southern Sierra, gathering the pine nuts that gave them their tribal name – pine-nut eaters. During winter months, they retreated to their winter villages, semi-permanent settlements dotting the Kern River Valley, close by good water sources.
We went out to a very well-preserved Tübatulabal pictograph site during springtime. It is close to a couple of traditional village sites – maybe it was within the village, given the presence of several grinding slicks nearby.
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