DV 2025 DVII: The Quickening

[Beardilocks]

Our next mini-adventure was to stop by a rock outcrop that I have been meaning to explore forever.  I had no idea if I would find anything, but as it was at the edge (or perhaps once even in the middle of) one of the many dry lakes out in this area, I was hopeful to come up with something.  At the very least eliminate it from future searches.  Lol. 

Looking down into Hidden Valley from the small pass between there and Ulida Flat.


Pretty much within the first 50 yards of searching I hit paydirt.  Not sure if this sheep is chewing something or… the more I look at it I think his head is sideways, showing off both horns.


A very strange alien character here.  Odd shape for how symmetrical it is. 


Anthropomorph or zoomorph?  Some kinda 'morph I think. 


Classic squiggly lines. 


Couldn't make this one out.





And just like that, that was all she wrote.  A smattering of petroglyphs in a 100ft area.  Circling the rest of the nearly 1 mile circumference of the hill would yield no more glyphs. 

But it would yield more oddities. 

Like this pristine old bottle laying on a rock.


Anyone have any ideas on age/use? 


Crappy cell photo, but for hours there was a pair of both of these circling and practicing… I originally thought refueling, but they never seemed lined up quite right or close enough for it.  Maybe escort training?  The big prop planes rumbling through the sky were a nice change from the jets screeching.  Oddly nostalgic. 


Then at the far side of the outcropping we found this. 


At first I was insanely excited to find a Native American rock alignment!  Which are oddly not all that rare in the park (with well over 100 identified according to Rondthaler), just REALLY hard to find. 


At least that's what I thought starting at the tail, which I saw first.  But the even spacing of the rocks that make up the circle had me doubting that assessment.  Most of the rock alignments that I've seen around Death Valley are a bit more loosey-goosey.  They didn't seem to have our more modern OCD about placing the stones so evenly spaced or so close together.  The compactness and the neatness of it speak more to a modern fake IMHO. 


But not THAT modern.  On close inspection, the stones are very deeply imbedded into the surface.  So they weren't placed super recently.  Also, most of the bushes there have grown on top/over rocks already placed there (rock traps wind-blown seed, bush grows under/next to rock).  Off the top of my head, I can't identify these species or their growth rates. 





So my wild guess is that alignment is 50-100yrs old at least.  With there always being a possibility that it's older.


For those curious, I neglected to get my compass out when I was there but the cross in the circle is vaguely East/West oriented, with the tail pointing east.


This artifact (sitting about 50ft away) added to the mystery.  It has been used a fire ring at some point, but it's not a truck rim, but rather a section of very heavy (1/8” steel at least) mining drum of some kind, much heavier than would have been used for transportation of liquid or materials.  Is it related to the rock alignment?  Impossible to say.