Tag Archives: Serrano Petroglyphs

“Slick City” Habitation and Petroglyph Site

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Sometimes you come across a site that is almost stupefying in its sheer abundance – petroglyphs on every rock, for a quarter mile or more. These sites are thrilling to find, but they are difficult to document. I have a few like that sitting on the back burner, where every time I open the photo folder I think “I can’t really not show any of these 200 photos I picked from the 500 I took, they’re all good photos showing interesting elements … but who would want to sit through a blog post the length of a football field?”

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Smoke Tree Wash Petroglyphs

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Smoke Tree Wash winds its way through Joshua Tree National Park’s southern portion, and if most Park visitors notice it, it is usually when they start wondering who named all these washes ( “Smoke Tree”? “Porcupine”? “Fried Liver“?? ) that the Park’s main road crosses.

If you’re up for a walk you might find some petroglyphs out in the flats, so that’s just what we set off to do one winter morning. We had our choice of walking along in the bed of the wash or kicking out and walking along some ridges, which is what we did. Our hard work mostly didn’t pay off ( so many rocks out there! So many! ) but we did find traces of an old trail – maybe an old Indian trail? Maybe a mining trail? No mining activity in the area that I know of though.

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“Rain or Shine” Petroglyphs

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This is a site that we visited with Guy Starbuck. Thank you, Guy! This was a lot of fun.

Out in the open Mohave desert there is an outcropping of varnished desert stone, perched on the edge of a valley. The area around this outcropping has many more small boulders scattered on the soft ground. On some of these, as well as on some of the boulders forming the outcropping, are Abstract petroglyphs. Some of the designs are carved, others are pecked. Almost all are darkly revarnished and are often difficult to see.

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“Double Scoop” Pictographs

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This site, in Serrano territory in Joshua Tree National Park, was an accidental discovery on our part. We just headed out semi-randomly, on a “Let’s see what’s out there!” quest, and after a while our wandering took us down a narrowing wash lined with uninspiring rock piles. We wondered whether we would end up with a dud of a trip!

As we picked our way past yet another obstacle, enthusiasm waning, a troop of rock climbers came up behind us. I didn’t feel like being surrounded by a gaggle of strangers in the middle of nowhere so I suggested we turn back and walk down a different, larger wash we passed a while back instead.

We waved to the climbers ( who seemed as surprised to find us out there as we were to see them. I guess you always assume – or hope – that you will have nature all to yourself when you step off the beaten path ) and retraced our steps.

That turned out to be a good call. Barely a hundred yards down this new wash we struck pay dirt in a big way!

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