Circle Sun Pictograph Site

 I don't think I took any photos on the first half of this hike. I was too busy trying to catch my breath and wipe the sweat out of my eyes. The rocky wash we were following was steep and challenging, and it was an uncomfortably hot day for a hike. Which means carry a lot more water than usual, which means a heavy pack. 

On a more positive note, the site we were looking for was one that is relatively unknown. It's been visited only rarely, so that's always a plus in my book! A friend of mine, who discovered the site (a few years ago), contacted the Park Service, who told him the site is unknown and uncatalogued. Pretty cool!

Just taking it one rock at a time!

Sometimes it's easier to stay down in the wash or ravine. We had had our fill of that, and the boulders were getting large, so we were trying the side approach. Not sure that was any better. All I can remember thinking is "this hike is really kicking my butt!"

 

I'm following Roger as we explore. I'm not going to show a photo of the area where we eventually found the site, but let me just say it's highly unlikely you would ever stumble across it (even if you could manage the climb up the wash). The butt-kicking hike notwithstanding, the shelter itself is in an unlikely location with difficult, challenging access.

What an amazing shelter! It's actually made up of three alcoves: Two large and one small. Let's take a closer look... 

You can definitely see pictographs in this view. The circle sun picto, which this site is named after, can be seen in approximately the center of the photo. It follows a natural indentation in the boulder. Very unique!

 

Plentiful pictographs at this site, but I saw no signs of habitation. No lithic scatter, grinding sites or bedrock mortars, pottery sherds, or other items one might expect to find at a habitation site. 
  
Many of the pictos at this site are well preserved and are in deep shade. I'll share some of the more prominent pictos with you. On some of these images I used dStretch color enhancement so you can see more detail.

Circle Sun pictograph

This hole in the wall of the shelter intrigued me. It seems too perfectly formed to be natural erosion, and there were no similar holes anywhere in the area. If made by Native Americans, one can only ponder as to what utility it had.
 

This indented area in the shelter was an interesting find. To the naked eye, you could make out some very faint pictographs.

 

Same photo with the color enhanced. There's a really interesting circular picto on the left side. To the right of the circular picto is one that looks almost anthropomorphic. I can make out legs and faint arms. The "head" is unusual, with cross hatching and a circle in the middle.

 

This last one is unusual. To the naked eye, it just looked like a sheen on the rock. Enhanced, you can see tally marks using a whitish pigment. It's the only pictograph at this site using white pigment that I found, and it makes me wonder what significance that might have had?

 

After leaving this fascinating site, we followed the wash a little further up the mountain. We all agreed we didn't want to go back down the hellish wash we had come up, and Mitch thought he found a alternate way back to the cars using the topo map on his phone. 

We begin our "alternate" route back to our cars. Our guess is that if we can get over these boulders, we can go down the opposite side of the mountain to get back to where we started the hike. Easy peasy, right?

 

In the above photo it looks like Roger is getting ready to spear Mitch with hiking poles! The reality is that Mitch is handing his poles up to Roger so he will have both hands free for the climb up the boulders.

 

What's that new movie out on Netflix called? Power of the Dog??
 

After getting over the ridge, we are surprised to see a large flat area. You really appreciate flat hiking when you've been hiking steep all day, but it wasn't to last.

 

Uh oh... things look steep once you get past this Nolina. You sure about this, Mitch? And why is this Nolina flowering? Seems like the wrong time of year. Moving on...

Steep descent. Do you see Roger in the center of the photo?

Looking back up at Mitch... what have you gotten me into??

I'm just doing my best not to tumble down the mountain!

We're all thinking the same thing... Seriously? We just hiked down that mountain?? Actually, it doesn't look all that bad from here, but there's no way I would ever do it again!

 

By the time we got back to the cars, it was dark. A very memorable hike to an incredible pictograph site!

A 62% grade is steep!

A 7-mile hike that felt like at least 14 miles!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Thanks for stopping by!