October 31, 2002: Arizona Trip Day 6
	October 29, 2002: Arizona Trip Day 4
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Today we are going to drive almost all the way to the California border to see the Petroglyphs at Painted Rock, and then we'll drive northeast up to Phoenix to camp for the night.

Getting to the Painted Rock Petroglyphs

Checking out of our motel in Tucson, we headed west on I-10.

From Tucson, we drove northwest on I-10 towards Phoenix. We passed a site called Picacho Peak, and we noted that there was hiking there, but we knew the drive to Painted Rock would be a long one, so we made note of it and put it on our list of places to visit in the future (we finally did so in 2011). At the split between I-10 to Phoenix and I-8 west to California and San Diego, we followed I-8, driving approximately 90 miles to the town of Theba.

We exited Interstate 8 at Painted Rock Dam Road, approximately 12 miles west of Gila Bend and just on the western outskirts of Theba. We went north on Painted Rocks Dam Road, which was paved, 11 miles to Rocky Point Road, which wasnt. We found the Petroglyph site just a mile further west. We turned south on the entrance road and found the parking area.

The Painted Rock Petroglyphs

The Painted Rock Petroglyph Site is approximately 90 miles southwest of Phoenix, Arizona, provides visitors the opportunity to view an ancient archaeological site containing hundreds of symbolic and artistic rock etchings, or "petroglyphs," produced centuries ago by prehistoric peoples.

Painted Rocks is a collection of hundreds of ancient petroglyphs, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The petroglyphs are located within the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site which includes an improved campground as well as an informative walking trail showcasing the petroglyphs. The site is operated and maintained by the United States Bureau of Land Management.

Painted Rocks is located along a number of important historical routes, including that of Juan Bautista de Anza's expedition of 1775-1776 (the expedition that founded the city of San Francisco); the route of the Mormon Battalion; and the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route. As a result, the site contains inscriptions made by travelers in these and other groups along with the petroglyphs. Sadly, some additional crude inscriptions have been made by modern visitors with no sense of history.

Prior to 1989, the site existed as Painted Rocks State Park, and included camping facilities on the nearby Painted Rock Reservoir referred to as the "Lake Unit". When the state turned control of the park over to the BLM in 1989, the Lake Unit was closed due to concerns over pollutants in the Gila River and is not maintained by the BLM. There is a picnic area and some other primitive facilities here, but the site is not usually manned except for a few months in the summer. You can see the parking area, facilities and the trailer occupied by the site hosts if you click here. Basically, the viewing of the petroglyphs is from one main circular trail around the pile of boulders that comprise the site; there is also a short trail to another few boulders with some additional markings.

The Boulder Pile at the Painted Rock Petroglyphs

As you can see in the aerial view above and the ground-level view at right, the Painted Rock Petroglyphs are, essentially, a large pile of small to medium-sized boulders on which have been etched symbols of all different types. The loop trail circles this boulder pile. Along the loop trail, there was a series of interpretive signs depicting cultural and geological history. (There were also some signs cautioning visitors not to leave the trail, but these, sadly, were sometimes ignored.)

We did find that some native peoples have called this area home for thousands of years, and that they believe they are descended from the people known as the Hohokam. These petroglyphs have accumulated over a broad reach of time estimated from 7500 B.C. to 1450 A.D. (not counting the recent graffiti). Walk along the loop trail and see the various rock art depictions of animals, people, shapes, and events. There wass also an abundance of lizards calling the site home.

I should point out that the loop trail did, fortunately, have some offshoots that led at least partway up into the boulders so that visitors could see some of the most interesting petroglyphs up close. This made the site even more interesting, and we took all of these side trips. (So when you see one of us standing a ways up the boulder pile, please don't think we ignored the admonition to stay on the trail; a sign at the ground-level trail would tell us when we could walk up into the boulders.)

There is actually little else I can tell you about the petroglyphs here, except to say that they were more numerous than just about any other site we've visited before or since. So let's just take a look at some of the pictures we took as we were walking around the loop trail.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

As I said, there were an incredible number of petroglyphs here, as it seemed as if every boulder was covered with them. At one point in the walk, we saw an arrangement of boulders that almost looked purposeful- with one almost spherical boulder wedged between two uprights, with another boulder placed on top. All were covered with petroglyphs, and you can see them here.

As for the rest of our pictures, I think that the best thing to do is to create a slideshow. To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Although it was a long drive out here, and there wasn't another "attraction" nearby, the effort was worth it; as I said, I don't recall ever seeing so many petroglyphs in one place before. We spent a couple of hours here, and then headed off to spend the night at a State Park near Phoenix that Fred found on the Internet.

Nearly 30,000 acres makes White Tank Regional Park the largest such park in Maricopa County (Phoenix). Most of the park is made up of the rugged and beautiful White Tank Mountains on the Valley's west side. The range, deeply serrated with ridges and canyons, rises sharply from its base to peak at over 4,000 feet. Infrequent heavy rains cause flash floodwaters to plunge through the canyons and pour onto the plain. These torrential flows, pouring down chutes and dropping off ledges, have scoured out a series of depressions, or tanks, in the white granite rock below, thus giving the mountains their name.

To get there, we drove back down to I-8 and went east to Gila Bend. There, we took a paved Arizona highway north, wandering through the desert until we intersected with I-10 west of Phoenix. We headed east and then took Highway 303 north.

We got off Highway 303 at Olive Avenue- one of the prime east-west roads through the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix and Scottsdale)- and headed west. Eventually, we ran out of civilization, the road climbed, and we found ourselves at the small entrance station for White Tank Regional Park. We followed the park road as it climbed along the eastern ridges of the White Tank Mountains and eventually arrived at the campground.

We found a great campsite that overlooked the entire valley; Phoenix lay spread out below us. Tomorrow, we'll look at some pictures we took here, but for this evening, we set up the tent and had one of Fred's campground meals before we hit the sack on this now chilly late-October evening.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	October 31, 2002: Arizona Trip Day 6
	October 29, 2002: Arizona Trip Day 4
	Return to the Index for Our Arizona Trip