I had a lot of fun exploring this site and I hope you do too! It is a pretty extensive site, or maybe several separate sites that are close together. Either way, it made for some good walking, excellent views, a little bit of scrambling, and plenty of discoveries.
Let’s go see!
It’s a bright morning and the world is full of ridges I haven’t seen up close yet. And so we set out to remedy a small portion of that situation. Look closely at the outcropping in the foreground, far left. Do you think we’ll find something today?Indeed we will! The petroglyphs on this boulder are rather delicate, but interesting nonetheless. Bolstered by some early good fortune we press on.Once you see one petroglyph you start thinking you see them everywhere, which can lead to a lot of dashed hopes on the Tablelands, where erosion scour the desert varnish away and you may hurry to a distant boulder only to find it is all natural. Nonetheless I feel good about this ridge. No way ALL those boulders only have natural weathering, right?Indeed not. I soon find another element. Here’s a close-up view. It may not look like much, but it took time to peck out that design.I round a corner and – wow! This looks interesting!Goodness – what a lot to take in. Over on the right there’s a rake element and some squiggle lines – both extremely common petroglyph and pictograph designs. In the middle is a perfect little digitate zoomorph – a lizard maybe? – with a small snake next to it. The remainder of the panel features intricate dots – a real theme at this site – and some other abstract elements. Wow! I don’t see Representational elements other than deer or sheep all often in this part of the world, so this was a fun find.A look back. The rock face has a clear lip to it. I approached this panel from the direction we’re looking in now, so I had a nice little surprise as that lip hit the panel from me at first.In the background you can see the first panel we looked at. In the foreground is another panel. There are a lot of Rectilinear elements on this boulder, and the lower design is incised. Likely someone was sitting down or kneeling as they made it, which explains its odd placement in the lower right corner. When you’re not standing up I’m sure you have all the time in the world to make such a detailed design! The rest of the boulder is a little more sparely engraved.The light is not at its best for capturing this panel. Over on the left are some designs that remind me of spindly digitate zoomorphs. Those designs are pecked, unlike the lower panel that is engraved.Look closely. As I explore, peering at each boulder and into every nook and cranny, this little guy calmly watches me. He’s enjoying the sun, and I’m wrangling two cameras and two camera cases draped around my neck, trying not to strangle myself as I switch between cameras and work to keep my hat from blowing away at the same time!He’s got quite the view! And look, his little pad has petroglyphs on it! I would have given him his privacy if this was a plain rock, but now I have to scramble up, and so the little lizard has to scramble down and go hide in a cranny as I go to work.The panels are not particularly intricate, which is interesting in itself because the surface seems pretty good, even and darkly varnished.Obviously there is an element in the lower right, but some of the other marks seem like they could be natural. This is the challenge sometimes – is that a design? Or weathering? You can also see a set of older weathering in this picture, now revarnished to a ruddy brown.This panel is the most intricate of the set. There’s a rayed element, possible bird prints towards the top, and other abstract elements.It requires a scramble and standing up tall, holding the camera at an awkward angle, to get an acceptable overview picture of the set of panels.A short distance away there’s a boulder with some densely carved Abstract designs upper left, and a smattering of small circles, some with a center dot or a dividing line, lower right.A better view of the circles. Towards the right there are some who are not complete. And maybe that is a bird print in the lower center?There’s a surprise around the back of that boulder – a Rectilinear element filled in with evenly spaced dots!A last look at where we’ve been. You can see the Rectilinear element from the previous picture in context here. In the background is the lizard’s boulder.
This is it for this entry! Next up: more explorations in the area, and more petroglyphs!
Wow! I just found your website and I want to say thank you for sharing, I can’t wait to read all of your posts
Welcome!