Slide Rock (second visit)

 Slide rock is a fascinating area! That's our slang name for a spot we came across that looks like a giant rock slide. I've hiked there once before (which resulted in two posts, Slide Rock part 1 and Slide Rock part 2). For this hike, Mitch and I are returning to check out a specific area that looks like a cave or shelter, which we didn't have time to visit on our last hike. Whether we can actually get to it is another matter, but whatever happens, it's a beautiful area that we want to see again.

The cave or alcove with the flat roof (white arrow) is where we hope to get to. It looks like quite a challenge!

 

We did this hike in mid-April, and there were still some flowers in bloom.

Wow, look at this beautiful Mojave Mound cactus right at the base of the Joshua tree. They have such intense, vivid  colors! Had to lay down on my belly to get this shot. I'm finding, at my age, lying down is the easy part. It's the getting back up that's the challenge!
 

The claw!

 

Mitch working hard to get just the right camera angle. Careful, Mitch!!

This little Joshua tree appears to be bending over backwards...

 

But a big, beautiful flower nonetheless!

 

This cloud or contrail reminds me of a zipper!

 

There it is, but we still have a lot of boulders to navigate past.

My preferred way to navigate steep rocks 😉

 

It looks like maybe we can get to it??!

 

Nope, it turns out these boulders are just too large to safely climb. Hard to get a size perspective from the photo, so I'll use a scientific term: They're humongous!

This is as close as we could get. End of the line. You can just see the huge flat rock covering the alcove. As we started our climb back down, we decided to pay a visit to slide rock.

 

I assume Mitch is just exploring. We decided last time we were here that climbing to the top is a little beyond our comfort level. The higher you go on slide rock, the steeper it gets.

 

Next thing on know, I see Mitch up on top looking down! Oh cr@p, now what do I do? Should I try? I decide to go a little way up, and I'm thankful Mitch isn't taking pictures of me, because I'm on all fours, crawling up like a dog. It's the only way I feel remotely safe.
 

Half way up slide rock I stop and take this photo. The rock formations in this area are truly amazing. Some of the formations remind me of sliced bread.

 

I finally make it to the top of slide rock, exhilerated that I'm still alive and uninjured, and the views turn out to be amazing. Some of the best I've seen anywhere in the park.

 

 

There are a number of these large depressions in the rocks (sometimes called tinajas, which I think is spanish for "jars"). How amazing would it be to be up here after a rain and see them full of water! They can be an important source of water for the local critters.

 

The area above slide rock turned out to be one of the highlights of this hike, but now it's time to head back down. Mitch and I confer on the safest technique. I know one thing to a certainty: I'm going down on all fours! All it takes is one slip on the loose gravel and you will tumble to the bottom, and I doubt you would be in one piece!

 

To my surprise, Mitch starts strolling down like it's nothing! I manage to make it down too, but with much less finesse!

 

As we retrace our trail back the way we came, we realize we have about 1.5 hours of daylight. I tell Mitch I have coordinates for a pictograph site that was published in a book, but last time I went to the site, I could find nothing. Mitch was willing to go check it out, and I figured a second pair of eyes might be a good thing. 
 

We were still about 1/4 or 1/2 mile from the coordinates for the pictograph site when I started to notice what looked like a large amount of lithic scatter... little chips and flakes of rocks that can sometimes be a sign of a Native American site. I told Mitch "my rock art alarm is going off in my head right now" and I pointed out all the chipped rock in the area. Within a few hundred yards we came to some large boulders. Anyone notice anything unusual in the photo above? It looks to me like the area underneath the boulders has been cleared of rocks. Perhaps many hundreds of years ago Native Americans used this site for shelter. Nobody knows for sure, but it sure looks like someone cleared away rocks and made a nice cozy area under those boulders!

 

More boulders. And that's not all. Pictographs!! What a cool find. Keep in mind, we are still at least a quarter mile from where the pictograph site is SUPPOSED to be, based on published coordinates in a book.

 

Beautiful! I think Mitch was the first to spot these.

 

I used dStretch to enhance the colors on this one. I really didn't need it for the upper picto... It's in a shallow indent in the rocks and is well preserved. The sun motif below it is harder to see and faded.

 

As we were tromping around looking for additional pictographs, I stepped right over the top of this flat stone and almost missed the fact that it's a metate or grinding stone! You can clearly see the highly smoothed area to the right of my lens cap. Somewhere in the area is likely a mano or smaller stone they held in their hand while grinding.

 

So it turns out this site IS the published pictograph site. Just that the coordinates in the book are not accurate. Just goes to prove you can't believe everything you read!

 

Reminds me of a breaching whale!

 

Mitch took this photo of me taking the photo just above this one!

 

Thanks for joining me on this hike!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.