Death Valley 2022/23

[John Morrow]

And immediately onto yet ANOTHER undisclosed location on the fringes of the park in an attempt to find what might be the only pictographs in DV.  Please correct me if I’m wrong!!

After a long hike through the deep back country and passing some more modern glyphs that were way too explicit for viewing here, I finally found the type of rock I was hunting for.  


Gorgeous approach but I’m running out of daylight! 


A really stunning area that I wish I’d had more daylight and energy to explore.  


With some cool (if short) slots. 


There we are.  The ground is virtually carpeted with chips and shards from point making (I’ve bloody forgotten what this scattering of flakes is called…) in reds and whites and even some black volcanic glass.  None of which would be found close by.  










This small glyph was my favorite.  Carved out and then carefully painted around. Possibly a fertility symbol?  


Looking out of the alcove. 



Some petroglyphs on the outside of alcove.



Alcove next door had some more rudimentary and more weathered pictographs.  



After exploring the area a bit more I could see this cave from across a slot canyon, lurking in the late day shadows. Also featuring some of the natural potholes holding water that made this site so attractive in the first place.  


Absolutely stunning pictographs in this more well protected cave.  


At one time glyphs covered much of the ceiling as well as the walls. 
The following detail photos track left to right in the alcove/cave.







Panoramic:






This one was very intriguing.  A cup in the ceiling that appeared to be carved and then circled in several colors of pigment.  I wish the rest of the scene was a bit more discernible. Its hard ti say if this element stood alone or was part of a larger work. 


I love when you can get a feel for the artists actual living fingers in the paint.  


Panoramic of the right side of the cave.  I stated at this for a very long time.  At first it look a bit phallic.  And then like a large ship??  After a bit more study, I think it’s in the same style as petroglyph panels like “The Great Procession” in UT and many others.  These start with a circle or a spiral on the left and then a line travels out to the right featuring many scenes and people and animals etc etc.  Its thought that the circle or spiral represents a beginning (start of a journey/migration/genesis/coming into this world) and then a history of sorts follows on the line or lines.  There’s a fascinating version of this in Buckhorn Wash UT that has two separate lines that depict different species of trees and different styles of people represented between the two lines.  Which might be what’s happening here as well.  Although the lower section is very hard to make out.  



Left detail:




Right detail:


After lingering a bit too long for the time of day but not nearly long enough to satisfy my curiosity, I headed out on the long hike back to my truck that I would finish in the dark.  Such a beautiful area, I must go back sometime.  

I know of a pictograph cave (of sorts) that I have yet to see in the Hunter Mtn area.  Long hike for me since I won't drive that close to the area in my vehicle.  But could be a part of a wonderful loop backpack with decent potential for surface water.  These alcoves you visited I located by matching Kay Plaza photos with GE landscape.  That got me close and I looked for the tuff and potential for alcove erosion.  Got lucky.  Also took all day and made for a long one.  Somewhere up Surprise Creek is a elaborate polychrome site in an alcove.  I haven't found any details on that one.

Your three sites could form a line of travel along a route.  Or do you think just an area of once concentrated activity?  It is so dry there now outside of very infrequent filled potholes.  Could the main canyon have had a rise of surface water once?