We visited this site with a fellow desert explorer, Guy Starbuck of starbuck.org.
This little site is hidden deep in the backcountry of Joshua Tree National Park. It look a long slog through vale and gully just to get here, climbing up and around many obstacles, wriggling through manzanita and choosing to bypass this yucca here in favor of that cactus over there, simply because the gap between thorn and boulder seems a little wider over there than down here and besides, have you seen what a yucca leaf can do when you meet it at the wrong angle? Always choose the cactus over the yucca.
This is not the kind of thing I leave unexplored.
After all that work there was one last push over a steep lip of rock and then the terrain opened up into a pleasant, secluded little valley, away from the bustle of the main areas of the Park, with towering granite cliffs to two sides, some pine trees dotting the landscape … very pleasant, very quiet.
It was a relief to finally reach the point where the contour lines stopped standing on each other’s shoulders and where clambering up one boulder didn’t mean there were ten more just like it waiting for you!
The trek up the gully had worn us all out a bit so we fanned out, looking for good spots to catch a breather, or interesting areas to explore. I wandered off to the side to attend to something nature wanted to see me about.
On my way back I spotted a dark opening under a big boulder. I know better than to pass that kind of thing by without a closer look so I headed over, picking my way through a sprawl of cactus.
My first view into the shelter. I first spotted the faded pictograph on the right by the lip of the shelter and immediately knew I found something interesting! There is another pictograph nestled in the hollow on the back wall as well.
As I got closer I noticed that the shelter was much smaller than I thought! Does this happen to you too? You spot a nice boulder off in the distance and go over to see if there’s a shelter under it, and then it turns out the top of the boulder barely reaches your navel.
A good look at the faded pictograph by the shelter entrance. The wide angle lens flattens the image somewhat – this is a view of the side and top part of the shelter entrance, not just a flat rock face. The faded pictograph has broad lines, while the lines drawn up on a hollow of the rock at the top of the photo are very fine and precise. This kind of pictograph – lines in a hollow – is something I have seen elsewhere in JTNP. The “Lonely Ledge” site comes to mind, as does “Scattered Surprises“. This makes it seem as if this particular type of symbol might have meant something to the people who drew them.
Here is the same elements from a different angle. The shape of the rock is a little easier to see now. The topmost elements, very finely drawn, are also the most sheltered. The elements become progressively larger and more weathered from there.
This shelter is pretty small – the opening shown in the photos is about at head height, and the lip is around two and a half feet tall. There really wasn’t much room to get in from the front but it had another narrow entrance around the back of the boulder. Guy managed to wriggle his way in and spotted some interesting pictographs that weren’t readily visible from the front entrance.
This is the opposite side of the shelter entrance. There is another set of finely drawn lines here – this time not in a hollow in the rock.
Another look. Do you see the very faint pigment visible to the left of each of these designs? There is another site in JTNP ( “Hot Cross Buns” or, as Guy Starbuck named it, “Sky Cross“, which is a much nicer name! ) where the majority of the pictographs are made with four parallel lines – as if a hand was dipped in pigment and the four fingers drawn across the rock face.
The rock face at the entrance to the site has some faint pigment on it, so I took a photo. It is nothing more than splotches, though. Maybe this pigment was deposited when the artist switched position to apply more designs, maybe it is just some natural redness in the rock face.
A nice shot from inside the shelter, showing the elements close to the lip of the shelter. Regarding my orange shirt – orange is not really my color, but the shirt was on sale! I’m not surprised that that particular color was on clearance …
Finding this little site was a great thrill. This area of the Park doesn’t see that many visitors so I don’t imagine too many people have visited here in the past few years. The site is in a beautiful spot and there are some small tanks nearby but no springs. There wasn’t any sign of habitation – either at the site or in the surrounding area, which we explored. There was at least once nice rock shelter nearby but there wasn’t anything to it.
This site was likely ceremonial, then. Certainly hunters would have visited this area from time to time, but the trek to get here is not particularly easy so it is hard to imagine any seasonal hunter-gatherer activities drawing people here.
The pictographs in this shelter are well-preserved, except for the larger one by the entrance which is weathered.
Let’s focus on the design nestled at the back of the panel. This is another pictograph that was carefully placed inside a natural rock feature. Note how sparsely utilized the rock shelter is – often pictograph designs are bold, filling up much of a shelter wall, or numerous, scattered throughout much of the shelter. In this case, the pictographs are very sparse, and it seems like most of them were deliberately placed – in a hollow, hidden by the entrance, or on a curve of the rock face.
A really close look at the element, which consist of three nestled upside-down U shapes. Note the rough texture of the granite, and the relatively sparse pigment application. The pigment was likely quite dry when it was applied, yet also wet and malleable enough that it could be easily applied over the rough rock without depositing too much or too little. Contrast the shape of these lines with those at the Alister’s Cave site or the “Born Again” site, for example, where it is obvious that the pigment was much wetter and more diluted when applied.
Two simple little designs on the back wall of the shelter.
A baffling patch of pigment. I say baffling because I don’t clearly remember where this pigment was located in the shelter! Based on the light in the shot I would say it was somewhere on the right side of the shelter, looking in.
These are perhaps the most interesting pictographs in this shelter. Guy Starbuck discovered them when he worked his way into the tiny shelter. They are hidden around a curve on the right hand side of the shelter. I feel like I’ve seen pictographs like this before, but the exact location escapes me for now. I’ve certainly seen some petroglyphs in the Great Basin that had the same bird print-like design.
Below these two “bird prints” is another area of faint pigment. Check out the tiny little alternate entrance in the background of the picture that Guy wriggled through! Whoever made these pictographs felt strongly about this location and went to some trouble first to get here and then to get inside the shelter to paint these.
I haven’t been able to dig up anything about these pictographs. They are in a secluded little spot in Serrano/Cahuilla territory and the designs are mostly abstract and do not contain any imagery, like diamond chains or anthropomorphs or zoomorphs, that could give a clue about the reason they were made.
It was quite an experience visiting here, though. The journey into nature is its own reward even when you do not discover any traces of the past to reflect on. For me it is always worthwhile to spend some time gazing at these designs and imagining the moment they were made – why was this spot chosen? Who found it? Were they by themselves or were others present? What were they focused on as they pressed the pigment onto the rock? How long ago did they create these?
Most of these questions we’ll never know the answer to, but these sites all deserve respect and consideration. Whenever you come across a site like this, remember that they were not lightly made. They had meaning, often spiritual meaning, to the people who made them. Don’t visit casually, and definitely do not leave any trace of your visit. Do not touch or trace any of the designs. Just take photographs, and take a moment to be quiet and think of how the world used to be.