This site consists of a few boulders very close to a site I wrote about before. I decided to write them up as separate sites because these petroglyphs are really something and putting them both together may dilute the wonder. Here is one of the main boulders at the site. There’s some pretty unique petroglyphs across the top right of this boulder, don’t you think?

You may have had a hint of it in the previous picture, but this picture should really show why I named the site like I did. That sure looks like a land shark to me! The petroglyphs towards the lower part of the panel are more common designs, so to speak – meander lines, rakes, squiggles, and circles. Pay attention to the somewhat faint line you can see extending from a circular element to the right of the bright squiggle line, all the way around to the cross-shaped element in the upper right. That line follows a ridge on the boulder. It looks like the line, decorated with hashmarks for its first part, branches off towards a second circle. That kind of imagery can also be found in Tübatulabal pictographs, far south from here.

Some detail from the lower left of that panel. Note how there’s a circle pecked around that patch of orange lichen. The lichen is just barely encroaching onto the petroglyph, giving us some broad guesses at this site’s age. The site was first recorded around 50 years ago, and the slower-growing types of lichen expands by maybe an inch every 100 years. Also note that in this picture you can see some brighter white elements, and some slightly more patinated ones. All in all, evidence suggests that the brighter colored elements at this site are pretty young, maybe dating from 200-300 years ago, which could place its creation in historic times. That doesn’t diminish the significance of the elements, though. It is amazing how densely the boulders are carved at this site. This place had meaning. No-one puts this much work into something that doesn’t mean something to them.

Here’s the rake element in the lower left of the panel. Most of its tines are actually elongated squiggle lines. That reminds me of this site in Tübatulabal territory. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen petroglyphs way up north in Paiute or Shoshone territory and thought “Hmmm, I’ve seen pictographs like this before, far south in Tübatulabal territory”.

These elements really make me think of Roman numerals. The Shelf Life site in Joshua Tree National Park, far away to the southeast of here, has some similar imagery. And note the line in the upper left of the photo that I referred to earlier?

Time to leave the land shark behind and look at some boulders just downslope from it.

There’s some nice circular motifs on this boulder, and also some zoomorphs.

A look at one of the zoomorphs. This petroglyph is rather spindly.

These elements are much better pecked.

This boulder is densely carved. Petroglyphs run all over the surface.

An intricate design of concentric circles.

A shield design and some squiggle lines. There’s also a tiny little zoomorph toward the left of the large squiggle line.

Over on this site, the lichen and petroglyph pecks are so closely packed it is hard to distinguish individual elements, but that looks like the backside of a zoomorph, maybe a lizard.

The upper part of the boulder is exfoliating. Here we can get another look at the zoomorphs to the left of the concentric circle design.

The foot-like element peeking out at the bottom of the previous picture is actually one of the raised, outstretched hands of this massive anthropomorpic figure that was superimposed on this boulder. With all the carving and pecking done on this boulder it is hard to distinguish parts of it.

Here’s a look at how the figure was scraped out over some of the other petroglyphs.

The other side of this boulder is very densely covered with lichen. On a single boulder you can find microclimates like this, where one side is conductive to the growth of lichen but the other sides are not.

That’s a lot of lichen, but there are also some petroglyphs hanging on on this side.

I think this is a historic inscription, but I can’t make it out. O-L-L-E-S-E-R? O-L-L-I-S-E-R? The amount of lichen overgrowing it is another argument for this site not being that old, at least as far as parts with a similar amount of wear or overgrowth is concerned.

Here’s the side of the boulder opposite to the side with the inscription on it.

Finally, a reddish boulder a short distance away also has some really neat petroglyphs.

This kind of element reminds me of some Yokuts pictographs, particularly those at the High Sierra Meadows.

These rows of curved parallel dots always fascinate me. Some interesting burst elements here, too! The one in the center right part was pecked around a natural divot in the boulder.

Here’s another look, apparently taken with camera settings that wasn’t quite as reddish!

A lot of burst elements on this one.

Well, all explorations come to an end. With a last glance back, we return to our vehicle. What a spectacular site this was.