“Up and Over” Petroglyphs

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Today we’re continuing our exploration of an expansive petroglyph site on the Volcanic Tablelands. We’ve explored the westerly part of the site in detail, seeing petroglyphs, cupules and housing circles. Today we’re on our way to look at the north-easterly part of the site, where we’ll find several things that tie the outcropping we’ll be exploring in to the rest of the site. Prepare for more petroglyphs, housing circles, and bird print petroglyphs!

I hope you’ve enjoyed exploring this site so far. As we head east through the outcroppings you’ll notice the size, quality, and preservation of the petroglyphs increase quite a lot. This doesn’t mean that they’re more recent than some of the weathered elements we saw, though – the quality of the volcanic tuff they’re on may be better on this outcropping, the prevailing wind may carry less sand to scour these outcroppings since the westerly outcropping acts as a shield … any number of reasons.

Either way, we have some really neat petroglyphs to examine. Let’s get going!

We’ve moved on to a different outcropping, a little northeast of the one we’ve looked at before, and we’ll follow it in an easterly direction. Right off the bat we see a bold Rectilinear design on the edge of the outcropping. You can also see the outcropping stretching away in the distance to the right.
A close-up of the elements. The Rectilinear element is well-formed with bold, even strokes. Above it on the right are what looks like some exploratory pecks that didn’t lead to an element, and on the left we can see what looks like much the same element repeating twice, first large and then smaller.
The close-up we looked at was taken in light that made the element look very flat. Take a look at this picture with the afternoon sun slanting in on the petroglyphs. We can barely see the top elements, but this casts the element in a whole new light, literally. Doesn’t it look like the large element was made at two different times? The top portion is shallowly pecked, the lower rectangles are more deeply incised, likely by dragging the chisel stone along the lines.
A single shield design with deep, narrow lines on a low boulder just a little further on. The ridge we’ll be following stretches away in the background.
On the back of the boulder there are several other petroglyphs. This outcropping has a rather fantastical shape.
A lot of the photos are taken looking back westerly as we walk easterly along the outcropping. Here we see the petroglyphs on the back again, along with the ridge we looked at before in the background, and a boulder with faintly pecked petroglyphs in the foreground. I toyed with the idea of composing this entry with the pictures in reverse order to how I took them so that the “looking back over our shoulders” element is reduced, but I also like to show things as they are, and in this case this is the direction we walked in. Speaking on showing things how they are, that’s my hand shielding the sun in the top part of the image. I could have cropped it out, but I just need to look at this picture to recall the feeling of squinting into the hot afternoon sun, fighting lens flare, trying to take pictures!
Almost the same view but taken at a different time of day, and a slightly different angle, so the sun doesn’t spoil the picture. This is a more pleasing shot and probably the only one I should have used, but it doesn’t help me remember the experience of being at this site as much.
Here, on the easterly side of a bulge in the outcropping, we find another housing circle. In the upper center you can just see the beak-like hook of that first outcropping we looked at. Also look closely behind the housing circle – petroglyphs on that boulder. Another case where the petroglyphs and living space is found very closely together. Judging by the boulders piled in front, the petroglyph boulder was outside the housing structure, not incorporated into it.
The petroglyphs on the boulder, up close. There’s one bisected circle at the top, and another circle below where it looks like the line bisecting the circles forks. There are also some other indistinct circular elements to the left. I really like the sense of depth in this photo. The rock is rough and textured.
All by itself on the southerly side of the outcropping is this deeply incised circle, bisected horizontally instead of vertically like we’ve seen a lot of other elements.
From this side there’s a way to scramble up the outcropping, above the housing circle we saw earlier, so I go up and take this picture back to the outcropping we looked at before. There are some petroglyphs up here too, as well as what I first take to be possible mortars ( the indentations on the right side of the outcropping, in the lighter pink tuff ).
Up close it is obvious that these are just natural indentations – the insides are too rough to be mortars.
Additionally, this pocket in the rock shows how these indentations came to be – pockets of gas cooled in the volcanic tuff, leaving gaps for erosion to expose.
Looking back down towards the housing circle. There are several shallowly pecked shield designs up here, as well as some circles connected by meander lines, and squiggle lines. They are hard to see in this overview, so I’ll show some close-ups.
The bright afternoon sun made taking pictures really tough. The only way I could take any was by having my shadow in the picture, too. Look in the top part of my shadow at the odd, almost zoomorphic element in a shallow bowl on the side of the rock – that’s what I was trying to show here. The shields and circles are in the left of the picture.
Close by is another interesting boulder – diamond chain motifs! Those are very common down south in Luiseño territory, where they are associated with puberty rituals. They are pretty rare up here in Mono Paiute territory, but we did just see a diamond motif in the previous entry. Here. we have some diamonds on the left, then a suiggle line in the center, a diamond chain on the right – and another in the background, also on the edge of this boulder. We’re looking straight down here, right atop the outcropping.
Safely back on the ground, so we can look ahead a bit! In the front is an exfoliated boulder still showing traces of connected circles, and in the background you can see several boulders with very prominent petroglyphs on them, our next target.
The back of the boulder we just looked at has a roughly pecked shield design on it. You could barely see it on the left in the previous picture.
Our next target – a jumble of rocks with a LOT of petroglyphs on it. A LOT. This is different from what we’ve seen so far at the site where the petroglyphs are spaced out. Here we have several boulders that seem to be just covered by petroglyphs. Let’s go explore!
Over on the lower right, this boulder with a small concave opening has a squiggle design over the top, and a circle with wavy vertical lines inside over on the right.
A glimpse at the petroglyphs waiting for us. Rectilinear elements, a spoked wheel, a herringbone design, a rake on the flat boulder in the foreground, a net design … this is amazing.
The most striking petroglyphs are atop the boulder, but the side of this boulder does have a faint but intricate net-like design on it.
On a nearby boulder I notice this rake – it is very deeply incised on the boulder.
The rake isn’t the only petroglyph on that boulder. By carefully climbing up behind it and looking back, we can get a good look. The snake-like line on the left hand side in this picture is also quite striking.
A closer look at that snaking design. Like the rake, it is also pretty deeply pecked. It peters out towards the left, as if the design was sketched out but not finished.
Up past this boulder is another, with some shield-like circle designs
A closer look. Looks like two circle/shields, five wavy parallel lines, and a smaller petroglyph consisting of another wavy line and a small circle.
Beyond the shield designs is a large boulder with several designs on it. Note even in this overview that they have different styles and possibly different ages. The large Rectilinear element is very deeply incised, as is the ”ladder” to its left. The spoked circle and smaller Rectilinear element appears to be shallowly pecked. Above the spoked circle is another circle with vertical lines. To the right of this is a boulder with a lot of circular elements and meander lines. Note how the lower left circle follows the edge of a natural indentation in the rock.
Up close the different styles are obvious – the large Rectilinear element has smooth groves where it was incised, the spoked wheel and small Rectilinear element are pecked and both lighter in color which suggests that they are more recent. The large element extends down a little further than we saw before. I grant that the design is reminiscent of a figure, but I doubt that that is what it was intended to be. Above we see more deeply incised elements peeking out; we’ll look at those soon!
The boulder to the right. There’s a lot of interconnected circles here, including the ones that follow natural indentations in the rock, that appear to be carefully pecked. The bisected circle, on the other hand, appears to be incised. This site saw habitation over thousands of years so it is not surprising to see varying styles in the petroglyphs.
The upper portion of that boulder, with more pecked petroglyphs. The light isn’t very good on this picture so they are hard to make out.
The view after hopping down on that side of the outcropping. There are some curious elements here, all in this area, that doesn’t really match the style at the rest of the site. I’m referring to the elements you can see clearly in this picture – the sparse rectangles and marks on the boulders in the foreground.
These designs are pretty nice – at the top the edge of the boulder was incorporated into a rake design, and the Rectilinear element in the bottom right is pretty well made. In between is a faint circular design.
Further along, two haphazard nested rectangles and a precursory half-circle.
Half hidden in the jumble of boulders is this edge with several deep grooves on it.
Time to walk around the left side of the outcropping. There are a lot more to see here! This gives a pretty good view of those petroglyphs we saw peeking out above the panel earlier. Those are some spectacular petroglyphs, carved deeply into darker boulders. There are more petroglyphs all the way along to top of the outcropping. Note that those are about ten to twelve feet off the ground, and the slopes are very steep. Not sure how anyway even got up there to make them, let along take so much time and care to make them.
The pictographs right at the top of the outcropping. It would be nice to get a look at them from a different angle, but there’s no safe way to climb up there. From down here we can see a diamond motif in the lower part of the panel, and right next to it … a bird print. There are numerous other abstract designs, including a very delicate little dumbbell of connected circles.
Just past this boulder, in the background, is the panel we’ll look at next. While it is also at a precarious angle far above the ground, it is actually possible to scramble up the back of that outcropping and take a better look.
The climb up is anything but relaxing. There’s a lot of exposure, and the footing is uneven and in places uncertain. But I make it to the top, and take this picture – camera extended in one hand, other hand clinging to a lip of rock, leaning way over. Worth it! From the ground the panel in the lower part of the picture seems to be all there is, but look! The top of the boulder has a lot of designs on it, too. Pity the light is pretty bad and it is so hard to make those designs out.
This is another pretty nutty angle. It shows the designs on the top a little bit better.
I tried and I failed! The petroglyphs in the foreground are out of focus. There are little meander lines and circles all the way to the front of this outcropping. The boulder with the hollow underneath is the one that has the petroglyph panel I couldn’t get to on it. Here you can see that there’s really no safe way to go towards it. The other side of the outcropping looks just like this. You’d have to clamber and cling and shimmy and not fall off, and since I’m not that great at any of those things this is as far as I went.
This is a pretty good shot. Note how deeply incised that double-lined snake element is. Remember, we saw another one like that when we first started looking at this outcropping.
While scrambling around I find another petroglyph. Unless you’re up here risking your tailbone, you’d never even know it was there.
So, there’s one more panel to look at before we move on. Here we’re looking straight down from the top of the outcropping, and you can see that triangular rock with petroglyphs. We’ll head back down soon to have a look.
I did a slightly better job here – you can see some of those petroglyphs that were out of focus before in focus in the foreground. The triangular boulder is also visible in the background.
One more! If you’re bored of these pictures appreciate the irony – I was the opposite of bored when I took them! I was rather worried – I don’t do great with heights, haha.
Back down in front of the panel we looked at. There are several more petroglyphs up there that are also hard to photograph. Also note the boulder on the far right – very deeply incised.
It was not easy to get a good picture of that boulder so this zoomed in shot will have to do. In addition to the large, boldly incised elements there is also a quite delicate little squiggle line in the lower left.
There are several more petroglyphs up on this slanted panel – really hard to photograph these! Some are more distinct than others. The ones that look like dragonflies interest me the most, but there’s also a little rake shown in relief up in the top right that looks pretty nice.
A close look at one of the possible dragonfly elements – two wings and a body.
When viewed from above you can see the other dragonfly-like element, and some additional details. These elements are shallowly pecked and I’m not surprised – that’s a precarious slope to work on! The less time spent the better, I bet.
These petroglyphs are pretty big, as petroglyphs in this area often are. They take up most of the space on the rock faces they are on.
Okay, on to the triangle boulder, as promised! There are a lot of abstract elements here, some exhibiting typical stylistic designs for the region – the spiral shape, the circles connected with meander lines and the dumbbell shape are all examples of this.
The dumbbell, connected circles, and spiral shape at the top of the boulder.
There are some additional petroglyphs on the side of an angled boulder. Most notable is the one that looks a bit like a B.
On the other side we find another housing circle. This one is pretty nicely made, with a good, well-stacked base. Looks cozy!
Some weathered, deeply incised petroglyphs in the boulders close by.
Another boulder with some indistinct petroglyphs.
Okay, home stretch! There’s one more grouping of petroglyphs waiting for us, right at the end of this outcropping. Here you can see the most prominent panel. The others we’ll look at is just to the right of it. If you look closely you can see some of them.
This is a very interesting panel – a lot of parallel lines, most of them branching once from the top, but there is at least one that has another branch lower down, and it appears as of a circle design was also incorporated. Beyond that, the horizontal bar of scratching seems to be superimposed on the vertical lines. Further to the right we have a small “tree” design, and finally, on the far right – a bird print.
At a little bit of an angle we can see the bird print and the circular designs better. Petroglyphs are often like this, where a slight change in angle reveals additional detail.
With the afternoon light on the boulder the deep incisions are more obvious. Some of the vertical lines seem to bifurcate at the bottom, and there is also one that has a split at the top, but the downward line was never pecked. Interesting little details.
Here we go, most of the final grouping of elements in one shot. There’s some shields and lines in the foreground, the boulder we looked at in the back left, another boulder with a possible bird print in the center, and some additional elements including yet another possible bird print towards the right.
That boulder in the foreground looks a bit different when viewed straight from the top. Now we can see that all those shields and lines form a cohesive whole – all is interconnected save for the circle with the cross in it, here shown at the top.
The rightmost boulder with a possible footprint has a little more to show when you hop up to the top of the outcropping. Atop the boulder and not easily visible from the ground we find some additional petroglyphs.
Here’s another view of all that, showing the petroglyphs arranged on the various “terraces” of the boulder. Just to the right of it we can see some additional elements, including one that looks like a long meander line.
Closer look at that meander line. Also note how the circular petroglyphs in on the right hand side of the boulder is pecked around natural fissures in the boulder.
You can’t really tell what stupid thing I’m up to now, but I’m hopping along the top of the outcropping again. That gap we’re looking down is about 5 feet deep. If you step wrong up here you’re going to end up with fewer whole bones than you had a minute ago! All that to get a nice shot of that boulder and its three little petroglyph circles decorating the natural fissures.
From up here I notice the last boulder of petroglyphs, again not a panel that is really visible from the ground. Time to carefully head over there.
Very nice! That’s a pretty intricate Rectilinear element in the top right part. Worth risking my tailbone to see it and take a close up picture of it, right?

Well, that was a long one, but worth it! This outcropping has some really intricate elements on it compared to the ones we looked at before.

I had to take care exploring this site – climbing up on the outcropping wasn’t a walk in the park! A lot of the boulders are loose, so you have to watch your step or one will tip you into a crevice. It is also disorienting to peer through a viewfinder and then have to look down for real for the next step! And finally, we needed to take great care not to step on the petroglyphs. But, you’d say, they’re carved into rock, for goodness’ sakes, how fragile can they be? It’s really more about respect for the people that made them and taking care to take no risk of damage. Any time you visit a site like this remember that it had meaning for people in the past, in a time where the connection to the land was much stronger and you might have spent your whole life living in one spot, hunting and gathering there, and really gotten to know the land. Nowadays we can go so far so fast that we’re never quite as settled as people once were.

2 thoughts on ““Up and Over” Petroglyphs”

  1. Richard Molinar

    Extremely interesting. Thank you for sharing. Looking at the housing circles can you determine if these were nomads, or was this a village? The housing circles make this even more exciting than just random petroglyphs or bedrock mortars. If you ever want company or a buddy to accompany you on one of these expeditions let me know. I am retired

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    1. peregriffwrites@gmail.com Post author

      Based on how well-built these housing circles are I’m inclined to say there was a village here at one point. For the amount of effort and care making them took you’d expect a permanent settlement. And given the proliferation of petroglyphs and the establish wide range of age for those, there were people here for a long, long time. Things that distract from that theory is the relative lack of debitage at the site. There are plenty of obsidian flakes, but far fewer than I’ve seen at many other sites. Maybe this site has been picked clean by pothunters ( growl ) over the years. I also haven’t noticed anything that could qualify as extensive midden, which is another mark against long-time settlement. It is worth visiting for sure – a very intriguing site.

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