In early 2013, I was out hiking in the backcountry of the Wonderland of Rocks in Joshua Tree National Park and came across this solitary boulder with petroglyphs and pictographs. They are inside of a concave, hollowed-out section of a large White Tank monzogranite boulder along what could have been an ancient trail. The Serrano and Chemehuevi last used this area.
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Cary's Castle North Petroglyphs
In 2016, on an adventure north of Cary's Castle (one of many), I stumbled upon these petroglyphs hidden among the granite boulders of the Eagle Mountains. The abstract designs appear to be Desert Archaic in style, likely created by indigenous peoples who traveled these washes for thousands of
Pine City Overlook
Pine City was never a city. Instead, it's a peaceful collection of pinyon pines and junipers scattered among granite boulder formations at 4,200 feet elevation in Joshua Tree National Park. This unusual concentration of drought-resistant conifers in the otherwise sparse desert landscape likely inspired early miners to