Back in 2012, I decided to go out to Joshua Tree National Park and see if I could find a small pictograph site hidden in a boulder field in the backcountry. I had a good idea of where it was, but you never know for sure, and I would still have to search for it.
It was an easy hike across flat terrain and into the hills at the foot of Queen Mountain. It was a really nice day to be out as well. It wasn’t long before I was getting much closer to my destination and where the actual search for the boulder shelter began. Right away, I found a small shelter in a rock overhang that had some stacked rocks. This wasn’t the pictograph shelter, but it wasn’t natural either. I looked around the boulder for anything else but didn’t see anything. After some puzzling about what this could have been, I think this could have been a water cache site.
Indians could have placed a water vessel (called an “olla”) here since there were no springs nearby. This got me wondering if I was on an old trail. I didn’t see any traces of one, but that doesn’t rule it out.
I walked around the rocks some more. It wasn’t too long before I found the site. First, I noticed what could be a grinding stone out front. It had some unnatural scrape marks across its top. Then, I spotted a rock shelter. Looking inside, I saw some pictographs. They are not extensive or overly impressive, just a few scattered sun symbols and lines. But what an interesting site. It is remote and very quiet out here. It was nice to relax and enjoy the view.
![](https://www.starbuck.org/content/images/2021/07/IMG_6020.jpg)
However, the sun was going down, and it was time for me to head back. I explored more of the surrounding massive granite (White Tank monzogranite) boulders for any other pictograph sites. I didn’t find any.
I began to wonder why they chose that boulder and not any others. There are plenty of other possible shelter sites here. As I was hiking back to the trailhead, I came across a few pottery sherds scattered in what seemed like random spots to me. I can only assume they washed down from somewhere else.