These pictographs are a collection of fairly simple elements, found within maybe a half-mile or so of each other. There are larger, better defined habitation sites in the vicinity, some of which I have written about.
I collected these together in this entry since they share the common trait of being painted in the eroded hollows of large boulders.
The hollow in the middle of this picture contains a red pictograph.
The first of these sites that I found consists of a looming boulder with some tally marks – or rays, perhaps, since the sunburst motif seems common in the vicinity – nestled in an oval hollow.
There are also three lines drawn a little further along the rock face.
DStretch shows that the hollow below these lines also has the remnants of pigment on it.
The pictograph in the hollow, enhanced with DStretch.
Possibly more of the hollows on this boulder had pigment at one time, but those have been all but destroyed by rock climbers. The boulder’s hollows are covered in talc from climbing.
I hadn’t been out hunting for these specifically when I started discovering them. I had passed by this area before, making my discoveries of the larger habitation sites. I happened to be back in the area, taking better photos of some of the sites I had found, when I started poking around and finding pictographs everywhere I looked!
The three lines, with a second element a bit lower down.
That was a new experience for me: usually my treks involve hopefully peering into many, many shelters or overhangs, often getting down on my hands and knees, or circling around many a boulder that looked promising from a distance, and coming up empty or perhaps finding a single site. ( My GPS tracks sometimes looks like Cheerios on a string with all the boulder circling I do. )
After finding this first boulder, unfortunately compromised by rock climbers, I found a second one that made a really nice little site.
A large boulder perches on top of a large, flat bedrock outcropping, and on its southern face it has three eroded hollows of varying sizes.
Each hollow has some pigment in it. While the two larger ones have designs drawn in them, a nice sunburst and an abstract Linear figure respectively, the smallest one, barely large enough for an adult’s hand, seems to contain only a smear of pigment to color it.
The largest hollow is filled with a sunburst symbol.
DStretch shows more details.
The sunburst figure in the first hollow. It is not centered in the hollow but drawn towards the top, and the upper rays wrap around the sides of the hollow.
The element in the rightmost alcove.
DStretch shows a little more detail.
The element in the rightmost alcove looks vaguely zoomorphic, as if it could depict an animal with a long neck and horns, but it is much more likely that it is an abstract shape.
The smallest alcove, showing a dab of pigment.
The smallest alcove is tiny, barely larger than a cupule. It is filled with a few dabs of pigment that doesn’t seem to have any deliberate shape.
With DStretch it looks as if there might have been a deliberate attempt at forming a meaningful design, perhaps formed by the lower shape with two smaller streaks of pigment above.
DStretch doesn’t resolve the dab to anything with obvious shape.
But I suspect that this explanation is at attempt to see too much meaning in the shape. In person it is pretty obvious that the distribution of the pigment is just an artifact of trying to fill the entire hollow with pigment.
Part of the boulder face, with the pictograph hollow visible left center.
The next pictograph is painted on the “rear” of a large boulder.
I say “rear” because these boulders are scattered along a hillside that was inhabited at some point. This pictograph is towards the uphill side of the boulder while most of the habitation area lies downhill of it.
A closer look. The pictograph is well-preserved and needs no DStretch to show it.
The boulder surface is very large, but the boulder has only one eroded hollow in it, and that hollow was chosen for the pictograph.
This makes it appear as if the placement inside the eroded hollows was indeed deliberate.
An unassuming boulder with a secret.
The final site in this little series is very interesting.
I discovered it at the tail end of my hunt for these and I likely wouldn’t have given the boulder a second glance if I wasn’t expecting to find pictographs in every cranny at that point.
Peering into the hollow underneath from the larger opening.
The boulder itself is unassuming. It sits a little up the hillside, above the habitation area and the other boulders. It is balanced on some bedrock, as boulders often are in this area.
It has a small opening underneath it, barely tall enough to peer into, and certainly not tall enough to get your head and shoulders in.
Still, I got down on hands and knees and peered in.
The interior with DStretch. There is a large burst element to the left and other abstract symbols further inside.
Pictographs! A lot of pictographs, actually.
The boulder has a somewhat larger opening in the back, but still not large enough to enter the small hollow unless you wriggle in and are content to have the rock surface inches from your nose with your legs sticking out.
Most of the elements are towards this larger opening, and were likely painted by someone using it.
There is a nice rake-like element above and to the left of the smaller opening as you look in that would have been painted ( somewhat blindly, because of its position relative to the opening ) from this smaller opening.
View from the front entry. Rake-like element is in the top left of the picture.
DStretch version clearly shows the rake element and the abstract symbols further in.
DStretch of the interior, viewed through the larger opening.
I took most of the pictures by simply sticking my camera into the hollow and waving it around. There really wasn’t enough room to actually try and frame any shots: once you had your head and the camera lined up, the lens would be inches from the rock!
Apart from the rake element, the next elements from the smaller opening are abstract.
The larger of the two looks somewhat like the element in the second alcove of the grouping of three just described. They might be contemporary and even created by the same person. The smaller element is a single, short zig-zag line, close to a solid circle.
The interior viewed from the smaller opening.
Even further in towards the back opening is a set of three parallel zig-zag lines. The zig-zag lines sometimes depicted mountains or water, but it is impossible to say whether they had that meaning either in this panel or for the tribes in the region in general.
At the very rear of the hollow is perhaps the most impressive element – a large sunburst motif.
Finally, the rear opening is guarded by a simple Linear design, visible upper center of the photo above depicting the view through the larger opening.
The only theory I have regarding these is that they were ceremonial since they are so inaccessible. Possibly they were also meant to be secret, despite their proximity to habitation sites. In some areas, pictographs were meant to be symbols of power and may have marked shaman’s caches. Perhaps these were intended as such.
If you happen upon any of these, please make sure to not touch them in any way. Pictographs are very fragile and the pigment is easily damaged by touch. Do not trace them or interact with them other than by looking and taking pictures. Enjoy your discoveries and leave them undamaged for others to find and enjoy!