Most East Mojave rock art sites have a mix of abstract designs, the occasional bighorn sheep, maybe a few human figures. This canyon has those too, but what sets it apart is the number of enclosed crosses pecked into the basalt cliffs. I didn't name it, but whoever did had good reason. The crosses aren't the only things worth looking at. A repeating mask design shows up on the rock, sometimes with two dots, sometimes four. And in a side canyon at a tinaja (natural water tank), there's what looks like a thunderbird and a possible cougar.
The canyon holds five separate petroglyph sites spread along basalt cliffs. The first site is near the mouth of the canyon, on a bench along a long basalt cliff wall. This one didn't have many crosses but plenty of other petroglyphs. The second site comes where the canyon narrows at a point of basalt rock, and the crosses start showing up. The third site has clustered crosses at a fork in the canyon. The fourth site is farther up the main canyon with only a few unusual petroglyphs. The fifth site is the most interesting. It's in a tributary canyon off of the main canyon and near a tinaja. It has some unusual animal-like petroglyphs that you don't see elsewhere in the canyon, including what looks like a bird (possibly a thunderbird) and what could be a cougar. You don't see that every day!
