"Hidden Cave" Pictographs

Just out of the blue, I had this really nice individual contact me by email last week to tell me he likes my blog. He specifically mentioned my posts about rock art sites. Turns out, he is super knowledgeable about rock art sites in Joshua Tree and shared a couple locations with me. That's a big deal. Rock art sites are closely guarded secrets because there are so many knuckleheads out there that will deface them. So it made me feel good that this individual trusted me enough to share locations.

So earlier this week I went to visit one of the spots he shared with me. The "Hidden Cave" pictographs (also called "Indian Cave" pictographs) is one of the best examples of well preserved pictographs I've seen. The site has been described as "pristine", "amazing", and an "irreplaceable and sacred place". It's a small, cramped space under a huge rock formation, so a real challenge to photograph. You can just barely sit up once inside, and most of the photography is done while laying on your side or back. "Hidden" is a good description for the cave, because even if you can find it, people have taken great pains to hide the entrance by building a rock wall. 

The rock wall has to be taken down before you can crawl into the cave. To give you a sense of scale, that large boulder (bottom center) is too big and heavy to lift. I could only roll it out of place. I'm getting too old for this!

As you crawl into this hidden cave, and your eyes adjust to the darkness... hang on to your hat because you will be amazed!!

After removing the rocks and crawling into the cave, this is what you see looking back toward the entrance. Because the cave is not exposed to the elements, the pictographs are in excellent shape. Although the cave is small, it is chock-full of pictographs. There are so many it's difficult to document them all.

I knew in advance that the cave would be cramped and dark, so I brought a wide angle lens, a fisheye lens, and a couple small LED light panels. Also, a word about the photos. I used a program called DStretch to enhance the pictographs, and then blended those results with the original image in Photoshop. That way the images don't look so distorted and the pictographs stand out.

Here comes the sun!

I'm glad I brought my fisheye lens. Although the images have the fisheye distortion, it gives you a sense of the inside of the cave and the myriad petroglyphs on the walls and ceiling. As you can see, they are almost all done in red pigment. It appears there may be a couple done with black pigment. One site said they thought this cave was likely used for female puberty rituals, both because of the red pigment used as well as the shapes of the pictographs themselves. But who knows. That's one of the interesting things about rock art... nobody seems to know what the symbols mean, but there are plenty of theories!

Below is a random sampling of some of the pictos. Wouldn't it be cool to know their significance!? The variety is amazing.

So after nearly 2 hours of crawling around on the dirt floor of a cramped and hot cave, laying on my back and side getting photos, sweating like crazy (remember it's August in Joshua Tree!), it's time to crawl out from under my rock and re-build the stone wall that keeps Hidden Cave Pictographs so well hidden. After a good 20 minutes, the rock wall is rebuilt and it's even stronger than when I found it. I take pride in my work, stand up (slowly and stiffly... did I mention I'm getting too old for this??) and pack away all my camera gear. As I put on my backpack and get ready to leave, I'm thinking... where's my hat and sunglasses?? Yup, you guessed it... THEY'RE IN THE CAVE!!!

I'm exhausted, and it crosses my mind to perhaps just leave them inside. But no, I need them, so I begin tearing apart my big beautiful rock wall, rock by rock, squeeze back into the cave, grab my hat and sunglasses, squeeze back out, and rebuild my rock wall for a second time! Now I'm even more exhausted, and kicking myself for being so forgetful.

I'll leave you with a couple Joshua Tree sky shots from this outing. As the sun sets behind the desert rocks, the Joshua trees slowly turn to silhouettes!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Thanks for stopping by!!