Petroglyph pics

[CouesWhitetail]

My husband and I went out scouting an area I had never been before. There was a spring a ways back and we hiked to it and as I climbed down into the drainage bottom, my husband said, "look there is a petroglyph about 6 feet from you". So we started looking around and found lots of them. This place was an excellent water source so I can see why people would hang out here making rock art.

 

Some of the shapes were snakes, people, geometric shapes, and one I think is a kokopelli. It's a bit faded, but I can see a flute and his spikey hair. It's the first pic shown. He is facing to left.

 

First time I have ever found petroglyphs.

 

Also had another first. We watched a couple eagles harrass a javelina herd. I think they were trying to scare a young one away from the herd, but the pigs all circled up and then move away. Pretty awesome to watch the eagles kind of dive bombing the pigs. The only reason we saw the pigs was because we stopped to watch the eagles. Neat stuff.

 

Enjoy the pics.

 

Amanda

[Kilimanjaro]

Very cool stuff Amanda!! I have some pics I took when I was working in Africa of a bunch of Bushman petroglyphs.. They look quite similar.. Thanks for sharing those...

[bcoover]

Lark is getting pretty good at drawing with rocks.

[muledeerarea33?]

we have a place up by morenci where I grew up that has a whole rock cliff full of petroglyphs its kinda off the beaten path so I am not sure how many people know its there but I am sure the locals know what I am talkin about. next time I am up that way I will take some pictures and try to post them. its really kinda neat to find that kind of stuff

[az4life]

Very neat indeed. Funny how you can nearly walk right past something so interesting and obvious. Glad your hubby saw them!

Wish we knew the stories behind them.

Did you find any Deer pictures? If you did, it could be you are in a spot that has been good for bucks for centuries!

 

I do not think they are from Lark as a previous poster suggested.

He has been too busy for that.

[DEERSLAM]

Very cool

 

Thanks Amanda for posting the pics

[25-06]

That is some cool stuff. I'll bet just being there lookin at them up close was like goin back in time

[billrquimby]

Those are nifty drawings, Amanda. I don't know if the guy with the spiked hair is supposed to be Popokapeli, but that same figure is on a lot of rocks around Arizona.

 

I know nothing at all about such things, but I have found a bunch of them. The Recortado (sp?) Ranch north of the Three Points Shooting Range has a little hill just above its corrals. I doubt that there is a single boulder that isn't covered with drawings.

 

There's a well-known place on the Gila River near Painted Rock Dam that has a bunch, too. The Corps of Engineers put a fence around it. Problem is, a goodly number of the drawings were scratched into the rocks recently, or so it seems to me.

 

The Tucson Mountains have lots of petroglyphs, especially around the Picture Rocks Road area.

 

I've also seen lots of them arround Carrizo, Eagar, Casa Grande, Stockton Pass, upper Canyon del Oro, and I've forgotten where else. Some people find arrowheads (I've never found one) but for some reason I regularly stumble into rock drawings and pottery shards.

 

Next time you drive north through the Salt River Canyon, stop at the first scenic pulloff. Look for the metal stair rails. The highway crews apparently gathered up a bunch of petroglyph-covered boulders and stashed them there for the public to see. Some have been vandalized, but if you've never seen a petroglyph you might want to check it out.

 

Also, if you ever get on the ridge between Brown and Thomas canyons up very close to the eastern face of Baboquivari Peak you'll find a shallow rock overhang where the ridge gets very narrow and the south side of the ridge drops about 75 feet.

 

If you search for it you'll see "BQ" scratched into the rock wall. I put it there in 1960 after a friend's horse went over a ledge and rolled down a shale slope, and we spent a New Year's Eve at that spot.

 

I''ve been told that under Morris Udall's U.S. Antiquities Act, anything over 50 years old is an antiquity. If so, my "art" stops being grafiti in just five more years.

 

Shucks, I became an antiquity nearly 20 years ago.

 

Add another 100 years and someone will want to declare it a historic site.

 

Wish I could be there.

 

Bill

[CouesWhitetail]

Glad you guys like the pics.

 

Bill, I figured you would know some great spots. Thanks for sharing some of them.

 

Somebody added their name and the date of 1928 to the petroglyphs where I was. Guess it's an antiquity! It was interesting to see that even that mark almost 80 years old looks so much brighter colored than what I assume are real old petroglyphs.

 

Bill, did the horse and your friend make it out of there?

 

Amanda

[coues4x4]

I think Lark put the date on that on the rock art The first pic is Lark doing the"I shot a toad dance"

[billrquimby]

Bill, did the horse and your friend make it out of there?

 

Amanda

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's a long story, but I'll try to keep it brief. His horse wound up wrapped around an oak tree. Every time it would try to get up it would throw its head up and slam it back to the ground. There was a triangular flap of skin torn up on its rump that we could lift and see muscle. The owner figured one more fall wouldn't hurt it, so we got on our butts and shoved the horse over the ledge. When it got up, it just stood there, shivering. We collected all my friend's stuff from his saddlebags and he led the horse off the mountain.

 

Gene Clayburn, who owned the lion dogs we were chasing, and I climbed back up on top of the ridge and retrieved our horses. By then it was almost to dark to see. Don't let anyone tell you that horses can see in the dark. We rode ours for no more than 100 yards before they refused to take another step. We spent the night right there. We had no food, no flashlights, and couldn't see well enough to find much wood for a fire. Gene and I spent the night taking turns dancing around and huddled in our saddles to stay out of the wind. There was about two inches of snow on the ground and everything froze up.

 

To say that my wife was unhappy when Gene and I returned to Tucson the next day is an understatement. She had gone to the New's Eve party without me.

 

Bill

[billrquimby]

Bill, did the horse and your friend make it out of there?

 

Amanda

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's a long story, but I'll try to keep it brief. His horse wound up wrapped around an oak tree. Every time it would try to get up it would throw its head up and slam it back to the ground. There was a triangular flap of skin torn up on its rump that we could lift and see muscle. The owner figured one more fall wouldn't hurt it, so we got on our butts and shoved the horse over the ledge. When it got up, it just stood there, shivering. We collected all my friend's stuff from his saddlebags and he led the horse off the mountain.

 

Gene Clayburn, who owned the lion dogs we were chasing, and I climbed back up on top of the ridge and retrieved our horses. By then it was almost to dark to see. Don't let anyone tell you that horses can see in the dark. We rode ours for no more than 100 yards before they refused to take another step. We spent the night right there. We had no food, no flashlights, and couldn't see well enough to find much wood for a fire. Gene and I spent the night taking turns dancing around and huddled in our saddles to stay out of the wind. There was about two inches of snow on the ground and everything froze up.

 

To say that my wife was unhappy when Gene and I returned to Tucson the next day is an understatement. She had gone to the New's Eve party without me.

 

Bill

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[CouesWhitetail]

Hehehe, that's some story Bill. Wow, hardcore stuff. Shoving a horse over a ledge and sleeping in a saddle all night. What fun....

 

Glad everyone made it out ok. I am surprised the horse even let the owner near it after pushing him off the ledge.

 

Thanks for the story. Good thing your wife finally forgave you... I figure she must have since you are still married.

 

Amanda

[billrquimby]

Hehehe, that's some story Bill.  Wow, hardcore stuff.  Shoving a horse over a ledge and sleeping in a saddle all night.  What fun....

 

Glad everyone made it out ok.  I am surprised the horse even let the owner near it after pushing him off the ledge. 

 

Thanks for the story.  Good thing your wife finally forgave you...  I figure she must have since you are still married.

 

Amanda

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The horse wouldn't take a step until the owner got to it and led it off the mountain. He said it turned out to be a good mountain horse after its rump healed. Translated, that means the beast was extremely cautious in spooky spots from then on.

 

My wife forgave but never forgot. She's put up with a lot from me in the 49 years and 9 months we've been married. Missing a New Year's Eve party is among the least of the things I've thrown at her because of my obsession with hunting. I'd write a book except I'm having too much fun writing books on contract to other hunters with tons more hunting experience than I have.

 

I tried to tell our daughter not to marry a hunter but she wouldn't listen.

 

Bill

 

[crotalus]

Thanx for sharing Amanda. In the Torts just north of Tucson there are some drawings that look exactly like the stick man in the second picture. When I find stuff like that and/or pottery shards I often think about the people who left them there. Weird to think that a few hundred years later you stumble on it. Exciting stuff and amazing, thanx for sharing. Thanx for the story Mr. Quimby.

Ernest