Oh boy! Let me tell you about this one.
Typically, you’ll find me documenting any site I visit in some detail, complete with DStretch enhancements, overview pictures, detailed pictures to show how the elements occur relative to each other, the whole works … I really do put effort into trying to bring back some good pictures to show. Sometimes I’m dog tired from a long cross-country scramble but I still manage to pull it together. Other times ( and this site is one of them ) well, other times … I don’t quite get there.
We found this site at the furthest point of one of our long backcountry jaunts into Joshua Tree National Park. It wasn’t just the distance in this case, it was also the terrain. We had to work our way through overgrown gullies and down sandy washes, all while hauling packs heavy with water and camera equipment. It really was just barely too hot, just barely too late in the season, to be doing long miles in the backcountry. But I can be stubborn and forgetful when it comes to remembering a hard slog, and so we set out during what really should be considered a summer month and not a “let’s go for a long hike in the desert” month, pushing deep into the backcountry.
The first part of our trip wasn’t too bad. Walking in sandy washes is tiring but not difficult. The hard part occurred about a mile out from our destination, when we had to scramble through an overgrown, boulder-choked drainage. We ended up clambering over a huge downed pine tree trunk in order to drop in under a boulder so we could squirm our way through a long, low tunnel and emerge blinking in the sunlight, with barely enough room to clear an intrepid cactus growing by the tunnel mouth. From there the terrain smoothed out a bit and we soon stumbled upon a very nice pictograph site. I wrote about that first site in a different post, but I want to note here that we had first come this way many years before on a difficult trip where we found no sites at all — but we did walk within about 120 feet of these sites back then! Sometimes you just can’t duck under every boulder there is.
Years later, here we were, retracing our steps ( almost but not quite! ) and this time we found some really nice sites. We had an eye on the clock because this was basically a really long day trip for us – we had stayed the night before and gotten an early start but we still had a 4.5 hour drive to get back home once we made our way back to the pavement, so we couldn’t just stay as long as we wanted. Plus, it was kind of hot, we had done a lot of scrambling already, and our limbs were tired. So, after a long stop at the first site where we had some lunch and took a lot of time photographing, I decided to explore onwards a little more before we turned back.
Unfortunately I also decided to leave most of the heavy stuff – packs, cameras, majority of the water – back under the overhang of the first site. We’ve often scrambled with fully loaded packs and afterwards said: “Man, we should have just left the packs and came back for them later if we found anything.” So this time I decided to put that thought into practice and we walked on with only our sun hats, sunglasses, some water, and our GPS and PLB in my pockets. We were so far off the beaten track that the odds of someone coming along, let alone coming along and messing with our stuff, was nil.
For a while we explored a nice flat area, but as the terrain got rougher again we decided that we didn’t have the time or energy for any more exploring, so we decided to call it a day and turn back. That was when my companion said: “That boulder over there looks pretty big.” We sometimes do this, where we’re tired but we see something nice and whoever sees it first sneakily remarks that hey, maybe that thing over there could be really interesting … you know? Somebody should walk over there and check it out, don’t you think? Somebody … hmmmm, hint hint?
I glanced at the boulder. It wasn’t that far away but I would have to scramble down and back out of a small gully to get there. Still, it really was my turn to take one for the team, so I gamely went over to have a look. The boulder was indeed huge, but from the bottom of the gully I could already see that the side closest to me was also firmly pressed into the ground – no overhang for pictographs here! I sighed, but for the sake of due diligence scrambled up out of the gully so I could circle the boulder. Sure enough, towards the back side it had a long, low overhang. I had to get down on hands and knees to peer into it. I dropped down heavily and peered in grumpily. Nothing. Oh well. But even as I peered at the back wall I realized that no, I wasn’t looking at nothing. I was looking at a very, very faded black pictograph of a circle split into quarters.
Oh boy! Now I regretted leaving the cameras a half mile or so back. I’d have to schlepp all the way back for a camera just to take a picture of one faded pictograph. I considered just taking a picture with my phone and then realized that my phone, in airplane mode, was also a half mile away in the backpack!
I decided to shimmy in a bit more and make sure that that really was a pictograph. I crawled towards the pictograph, ascertained that it really was a pictograph, and flopped over on my butt to sit upright ( but hunched over ) so I could get my legs under me and crawl back out.
As I did so, I had my first look under the lip of the overhang and there, right in front of me, was a hash-marked design in red pigment, a type of design that I had never seen before, anywhere! I’d like to say that that rejuvenated me but in reality, though I was excited, I was still tired! I called out to my companion that I had found something. Here is something I always marvel at in the desert: we can be half a football field apart in the back country and clearly hear each other’s speaking voices, because the desert is so quiet. You don’t realize how noise polluted our world is until you go somewhere natural and peaceful. After exchanging a few words my companion set back off to go get the cameras. I decided to make the trek back with him so we could get both packs, and we tacked on a little round trip to haul our stuff back.
This time he went in first and said “Oh wow! I see it! That’s a nice portal.” I nodded and said “Yeah, it is.” Though my first choice of words to describe the pictograph wouldn’t be “a portal”, I thought it fit well enough. My companion removed himself to one end of the overhang so he could rest in the shade and I got a camera out and snapped a picture of the pictograph.
Then I glanced to my left and exclaimed: “Oh wow, a portal!” My companion stared at me and said something like “Well, yeah. What did you think I was talking about?” and we established that he had actually seen the portal first when he entered the overhang, not the pictographs I saw. I managed to completely overlook it on my first trip in and I just assumed he referred to the pictograph I saw.
With that little mystery cleared up I started taking photos. I really wanted an overview shot showing the two red pictographs, but the shelter was very low and very shallow, so try as I might I couldn’t get them both framed properly. I had to hold the camera out blindly and hope for the best, and it wasn’t going well. As I flailed around my leg landed in a cactus that was growing under the overhang. I didn’t even notice at the time but a couple of cactus spikes embedded themselves deep into my shin.
After a few more tries I gave up. I was hot, tired, it was getting late, and we still had many miles to go to get back. We really had to get a move on. The area was not completely explored, we may be back later, and who knows, maybe my photos would not be as bad as I felt they’d be. So I sat back up, and that was when I felt a strange tugging in my right shin and glanced down. I was surprised to see two long cactus spikes had gone right through my pants and were sticking up out of my leg. The spikes had snagged when I twisted around and given me that weird sensation. I hesitated a moment, then gingerly got a hold of one and gave it a little tug. For my trouble I got a sharp pain and no movement on the spike. Some experimenting with angles of attack revealed that the cactus spike was seated very, very firmly.
Well, this was not great! I thought about species of plants that propagated by attaching themselves to animals or birds, and wondered if I had encountered one of those – a cactus species with a little hook at the end of its barbs. I guess I should be happy I only got the spikes, not a whole seed or leaf segment hanging off of my leg!
After a moment I made up my mind. I didn’t want to yank these spikes out in the backcountry and end up having to nurse a bleeding wound back to the car. The spikes would have to stay until I could attend to them somewhere more comfortable. I was sure I could take enough care while scrambling the difficult route back that I wouldn’t snag them on anything. And if I did snag them somehow … well, I’d deal with getting them out then. Since walking with the spikes sticking through the material wasn’t comfortable I threaded my pants leg over the spikes and unzipped the leg on the right side. That worked well. With the leg zipped off they were barely noticeable as long as they didn’t snag on anything.
With this done we packed up and set off, but in that flurry of decision making after getting nailed I forgot to take any overview shots of the boulder at all!
So here we go, time to look at some really bad pictures of a really interesting little site!
After turning myself around in the tiny overhang to crawl back out, I saw this pictograph, which I thought quite amazing. I’ve never seen hash marks in this shape before – triangle with rounded corners.
Nothing but those hashmarks here. It does look like the part where it doesn’t close was intentional. There might be some weathering away of the bottom row, though.
Overall, the pictograph is bright and well-preserved.
I think there’s a little bit of weathering or exfoliation damaging the last few hashmarks in the lower row.
Close by is the black pictograph I saw when I initially peered into the shelter. Because this is a wide angle lens shot you don’t get any sense of depth, but this whole overhang is U-shaped and the red and black pictographs are on opposite sides of that shape.
Just this one single black pictograph on the back wall of the shelter, as far as I could make out. It is much more weathered and faded. It would be directly exposed to driving rain, whereas the red pictograph is safely tucked under the lip of the overhang.
Further along, on the other side of the overhang, is the pictograph I didn’t see at first but my companion immediately noticed.
Seeing this “portal” pictograph gave me some chills. There are other sites in Joshua Tree National Park, such as Hot Cross Buns / Sky Cross, Peaceful Valley, and Circle Sun, that has this exact same motif. Could this actually be a depiction of a portal – something that a shaman painted on purpose? If so, were these sites painted by the same person? They are some distance apart, and quite hard to travel to, but they are all in the same general area and they all share this imagery.
The lower left was painted on a slightly rougher part of the rock face, and it shows in how uneven the lines become. I keep getting drawn to what this imagery might mean. I wonder how many other sites there are, tucked away hidden, in unlikely spots in this area, that has this same motif. Wow. I’ve certainly never heard of anybody else finding this particular site, though I wouldn’t be surprised of someone other than its creator has found it over time. The thing all these sites I know of have in common is rather severe inaccessibility. You have to go through some kind of insane terrain to get to them.
I got some poor results when I started trying to take overview pictures. The only way to do this was to lay flat on the ground, arm stretched out while trying to hold the heavy camera, wide angle lens zoomed out all the way, steady, and curl my body out of the way at the same time. The shelter is very cramped, and I did not fare well.
Oops, after I missed to the right with that previous shot I now aimed a little too far left …
Dang it, another miss to the right … almost got it but not quite … but just before this shot I put my legs ( dark shapes in the lower left ) too close to a cactus and managed to get two spikes embedded deep in my leg. You can see the cactus sticking up behind me ( the two rabbit ear shapes above my leg ).
I took one more awkward shot, twisted like a pretzel ( that’s my legs behind me again! ) but as I unfurl from this pose I snag the embedded spikes on my other leg, which makes me notice them for the first time. At that point the photo shoot pretty much ends.
So! After we found this site we still had to trudge back a long way, which we gamely did. The spikes stayed in my leg the whole walk. They didn’t hurt as long as I didn’t snag them or try to remove them. In fact, I had to drive out of the Park with my souvenirs still firmly embedded. We were beat so we stopped for some to go food before we tackled the road home. At that point we realized that the vehicle would also like some to go food so we gassed up as well. As the vehicle was fueling I messed again with the smaller of the two spikes. I managed to figure out how it went in based on how much pulling on it in different directions hurt, and I reversed its course, helping it along with some muttering under my breath, and got it free. The larger one was staying put though, so I carefully kept from hitting it on the underside of the dashboard as we drove home. Once we got home I was able to deal with it ( it was not pleasant! ) and the day’s adventure came to an end.
What can I say about this site? It was a marvelous find, so far out in the backcountry, so well hidden, so hard to get to, and so very intriguing. I can’t wait to get back – when it is cooler! – and see what other secrets this part of the desert holds. I am humbled and happy that we had the chance to visit this little site.
Welcome back home. Sorry about the cactus misadventure, but it almost sounds like it was worth it in your vivid description of the find. Hopefully the wounds do not become infected. These pictographs sound, and look, truly amazing. And to find something you have never seen before is icing on the cake. I am as enthralled as much with your find and pictures as with your detail of the trip to the encounter. You have a knack for pulling the reader into the journey, with words. The first thing that comes to mind is Sir David Attenborough “Fabulous Frogs” documentary on PBS. Have you ever given thought to doing a documentary or writing a book?
Thank you for the note! We had a good time going out to this site, I’m glad you enjoyed reading about it. I try to add some detail to my writing so readers can immerse themselves if they want to, especially when the trip out was memorable like this one. I certainly had a bit more skin in the game than usual, but this was such a good site to find.
The thrill both of finding one of those portal-like pictographs, and finding another design I’ve never seen before, made it worth it.
I hope to make the trek back to it sometime to take some more pictures of it – but my bad pictures of this site is certainly something I cherish because that reminds me vividly of how hard to find, how precious to have visited, this site is.