Rocky Point Petroglyph Site - Gila River Area AZ

Rocky Point is another great site along the Gila River. Background info relating to this site, is pretty much the same as my recent post on the Painted Rock site. For thousands of years people have been using the areas around the Gila as an ancient "freeway." While doing so they left a great deal of evidence of their presence.  This site contains petroglyphs, pottery shards, rock alignments, ancient trails, etc. There is also some historic graffiti here.

This photo and the next are in the general area, but may or may not be near the actual site.

 Most certainly a very barren and unforgiving area. 

If you look just left of  center in this photo, you can see a horizontal line of rocks. 

This is the same line, only with the photo taken from above. If you saw it in person it is recognizable as a man made stone wall. Maybe it was defensive in nature, or maybe not...

 The bare line leading away from this is an ancient trail. There is also at least one going up the hill.

 Nature always finds a way.

No idea who left this, but has clearly been here a long time. 

A pretty large pottery shard. There were quite a few of them. (Yes, I replaced it exactly where I found it).

We are spending the next few weeks in Nevada, and Southern Utah, and have already seen some amazing things.

Part #2 - Every Long Hike Should Pay Off Like This One Did

In my last post, I only showed you the stars of the show. This post includes the rest of what I saw. When you put it all together, it adds up to an amazing and mind blowing experience. One of the most thrilling things about it was, the total and absolute absence of human footprints.

This two inch granite "point" (arrowhead or spear) was sitting on the ground in clear view. I placed it on a pottery sherd/shard to get some contrast. You can clearly see marks on it, that were left when it was transformed from a rock, into a tool. I put the pottery shard back on the ground where I got it, but the point was put where somebody just hiking by couldn't see it. Then, I kicked some dirt over it. Like I've said many times before, out here it's an awesome bit of history, but taken out of that location, it's nothing but an interesting rock in your sock drawer. Maybe even worse, it could become one of thousands of other points in a bag or box, locked in the back room of some NPS, NFS, or BLM office.

Another rock shelter and another spirit stick

I can't tell you the exact purpose of this, but it was clearly arranged by somebody a long time ago.

Another man-made rock arrangement. If the bush wasn't there, you could more easily see that it is, or was a circle.

The Ocotillo were very green and healthy looking

A shard that was once part of the lip, on of a piece of pottery

Shards were all over the place. 

This large boulder had a couple of spots that have been worn smooth by grinding seeds, or other food items with a handheld rock (Mano). These spots are usually called slicks, metates, or a milling stations. 

A little later we saw another one, that still had a Mano sitting on it.

Both the bottom of the Mano and the little concave portion of the large rock were worn smooth. I'm not saying that this Mano has been sitting there for hundreds of years, but maybe it was! To see the smooth spots on the large rocks is fairly common, to find the Mano, even just in the area, is very rare.

Just because I liked it

The obligatory black and white. This was a large desert tortoise.  

A couple of what I believe are called scutes. They cover the tortoise shell.

If you stood on a higher level, you could more easily see that this arrangement of rocks is in the shape of an arrow. It looks to be a little messed with, but it is clearly an arrow pointing through the notch in between those large rocks. I wonder what it is pointing at. Next trip...

Yoni

Maybe some of you remember that a Yoni, is a female hoo-hoo, fashioned out of a natural crack in a rock. If you look at the bottom of it, you can see the tool marks. The tools were made of harder stone. These are fairly common in the southwest.

I think this large boulder looks like a Desert Big Horn Sheep head (sort of).

Desert Bluebell

Always nice to see the moon in the middle of the day. I think it completed the photo. Of course it might just have been a smudge of chicken salad on my lens.

And of course, there were also some petroglyphs nearby.

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Part #1 - Every Long Hike Should Pay Off Like This One Did

Just like the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, a recent long hike ended with an amazing reward. 

Several days ago, a friend invited me to do a long hike with him to a place he had just found in the desert. Ignoring my doctor's advice (to do nothing strenuous for six months), I of course accepted. 

This site was so amazing, and so pristine, that I will not be uttering either a name, or location relating to it. After several miles (uphill, I might add), we spotted some large rock formations that were not visible during the entire hike.

We climbed one of the rock piles and then dropped down into a hole. What I saw not only rendered me speechless, it also took my breath away. 

 The thing that blew my mind is the circle of rocks, that is just right of center, at the bottom.

At first sight most people would think that it's a fire ring. They wouldn't notice that many of the stones were placed in a vertical fashion, rather than just being stacked. They also wouldn't think much of the grassy dried vegetation at the bottom (probably a rat nest), or the branch leaning against the inside of it. 

This isn't a fire ring at all. It is an "Olla Nest." The branch (what is left of it) is a "Spirit Stick" and the grass is there to make sure the "Olla" sits on something soft. So what is an Olla?

The large piece of pottery standing next to this lady (her name is Rose), is an Olla.

CREDIT: San Diego History Center

An olla is a large piece of pottery used to store water or food. Because it was high up in the rocks, I'm thinking it was probably used to store food, rather that water. Just a thought. The olla was gone, but that didn't matter. It was awesome just to see the nest.

This little spot was in amazing enough in it's own right, but there is much more!

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We went up another pile of rocks and once again, had to drop down into an opening.

I apologize about this terribly blurry photo All I can see after dropping into the hole, is another Spirit Stick, leaning up against the rocks. When I got closer I saw...

...that the Spirit Stick was standing right next to a whole Olla. At least it was a whole Olla when it was left there.  Unfortunately, either a rock fell on it, or it just fell apart on its own. Maybe if it had been in a nest! You can't really tell from this photo, but those shards are as large as my hand with spread fingers. Some of them are buried and/or partially buried.  There were also two more Spirit Sticks in there, but somehow I didn't get a photo of them. I don't know exactly how old these two sites are, but they are very old...

My friend knew how much I would love seeing these sites. He was right and I really appreciated it. There aren't very many people who like this stuff as much as we do. There are some of course, but it's a relatively small group.

Part #2 will be posted soon. So much more to see...


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Sears Point Archaeological District - Arizona

Sears Point is one of the major archaeological sites in the United States. There are thousands of petroglyphs, as well as geoglyphs, rock circles, grinding areas, ancient trails and rock alignments. This post doesn't come anywhere near doing the site justice. I hate to say that, but we had to make it a short visit because of the weather.

The site is located at the convergence of several washes and becomes almost impossible to get into, or out of. I had enough stuff in our Jeep that would allow us to be stranded there for a day or two, but our diabetic cat back at the RV, would be needing an injection that night. So we were also prepared to hike out (really didn't want to do that). So few people go this spot, that we weren't expecting any help to come along either. We hadn't been there very long when we saw storm clouds coming towards us. That was our cue to leave.

The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) advises visitors to not even try to get to Sears Point during of after periods of rain. It had already been raining on and off for two days and it was expected again on the day after we were there. As you can see in this photo, the forecast was correct (and we went anyway).

Off the highway and onto a maintained dirt road for about 12 miles. Looks like it's clearing up! 

Then we hit the "un-maintained" dirt road and had to battle this for the next several miles. Even with FWD it was very difficult and we almost got stuck several times. It's worse that it looks. The salt content of the dirt in this area is extreme and it makes the mud very slick and stick like glue. Unfortunately, there were very few spots (like this one) to go around the mud.

 You can see what I mean about that salty mud. It made our tires act is if they were totally bald.

Enlarge this photo please

One of MANY fantastic groupings of petroglyphs. This area has been a major "thoroughfare" and meeting place for thousands of years. If you enlarge the photo, you can clearly see where symbols have been made over older symbols.

What follow are a few of the images we saw.

My wife is standing on top of a lava mesa very much like the one in the background. The petroglyphs are along the base and sides them.

Please enlarge this photo!

Looking in this direction, there are a few items that are every bit as interesting and important as the petroglyphs. If you enlarge the photo you will see a rock circle just above center. Next to the circle is an ancient trail, areas cleared of rocks, and some rock alignments. The circle might be some type of a trail shrine (just a guess, based on how close it is to the trail).

 A cleared circle on top of a butte

 Another (of many) ancient trails

One of many rock circles in the area

We will return to this great site as soon as we can!

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I would be remiss if I didn't advise you NOT go to this place, unless you have FWD, are prepared to be stuck there for a while, and the ability to hike out. Although it is a "public" site, it is rarely visited and therefore still fairly pristine.  The summer is brutally hot here, the winters can get very cold, and the other seasons can be very cold at night. If possible travel with another vehicle. If you do go, please leave everything as you found it.