Painted Nodule Pictograph Site

 OK, so yes, "Painted Nodule Pictograph Site" is not the official name. If I use the official name, it will give away the location. Plus, I like my name better. But let me back up and start at the beginning...

Mitch, Roger and I agreed to meet mid-afternoon to look for a pictograph site in Joshua Tree National Park. I knew the approximate location, but I also know the pictograph site was one boulder in a field of hundreds (thousands?) of boulders. Certainly no guarantee we would find it. Also, weather was working against us. We had to be careful not to overexert, and to carry plenty of water. When I left my house in 29 Palms, it was 106 degrees.

The hike itself wasn't particularly strenuous, and I was carrying a lot of water (which made my pack heavy). Not comfortable hiking weather, but hiking within our ability level. 

Interesting rock formations in this area. The one above reminded me of a sandwich with deli meet in the middle... turkey club sandwich, perhaps??

Ground level rock formation with concentric rings. I think Mitch named it Cinnabon Rock. Why are we always thinking about food while out hiking??

The rocks in this area are remarkable for having these rocky nodules that are harder, and erode slower, than the surrounding granite. They end up sticking out of the rock surface. This one looks like... a dog? A lizard?

 

In this area, quartz was littering the ground. Who knew geology could be so interesting? I certainly had little interest until I started hiking in the desert.
 

I knew we had to be getting close to the pictograph site, but there were boulders everywhere, and any one of them could be the site! Before finding the actual site, I spotted this grinding stone. It looked like it was broken in half, but easy to see the smooth area on the rock from years of grinding by Native Americans in an earlier time. A wonderful find!

 

Finally, we find that one boulder in 1000 that has pictographs inside. That's Roger taking a look. This boulder looks like all the others, and 99 hikers out of 100 would walk right by without noticing the pictos.
 

What an interesting site! I've never seen an arrow pictograph before (center of the photo, pointing up). I have no idea what its significance is. Of even more interest is the way the rocky nodules within this alcove are covered in pictographs. Let's take a look at a few.

Almost every rocky nodule has a pictograph on it. What significance could this possibly have? Certainly one of the more interesting picto sites I've come across!

 

A closer view of the red arrow, red lines, and what is either white pictographs or bird guano. They look a little too straight and deliberate to be bird guano, and also seem to run both vertically and horizontally. My vote is for white pictos.

 

A closer look at the red lines (and with a little help from dStretch) reveals that they aren't lines at all but are actually dashes. Each line is made up of four dashes. How unusual!

 

We search the area for more pictographs. Finding none, we decide to move on. There's a large impressive rock formation we want to check out.

It's hard to get a size perspective on how large this rock formation is, so I'll just say it's huge. The rocky walls are nearly straight up and down, and we were curious to see if it's a dryfall, with the rocky shute formed by water. Keep an eye on the large boulder in the bottom center of the photo above. We need to get over or around that somehow to check out the rocky shute.
 

Here's Roger sitting on that same boulder, with Mitch taking his picture. I have my back to the rocky shute.

 

The view looking straight up the rocky shute. I don't think this is a dryfall because the rocks are not worn smooth. Looking closely, I spot some climbing bolts in the wall (not visible in the photo). Evidently this is a climbing destination! I would estimate this rock wall goes straight up for 30' or more. 
 

Photo taken at 7:44PM, and finally starting to cool off!

Moon was keeping us company while hiking back to the car!

 

By the time we had our gear packed and socialized for a bit, it was dark. Here's the windshield view as we drove away from the trailhead... Joshua trees illuminated by car headlights, and a magical moment frozen in time!

 

Thanks for joining me on this hiking adventure. Hope you enjoyed seeing the pictographs!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.