Starbuck's Exploring

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Rock Art

Native American pictographs and petroglyphs. No directions or waypoints to rock art sites unless they are already known or published.

149 posts

Jayhawker Spring Petroglyphs

Jayhawker Spring Petroglyphs

The Jayhawkers are famous for their harrowing journey through the unexplored lands of Death Valley in 1849 on their way to reach the fabled gold fields of California’s Mother Lode. They made it, but only after burning their wagons and ditching some of their possessions. They are likely the

Freightwagon Petroglyphs

Freightwagon Petroglyphs

It is a long and lonely walk into the wilderness of the Mojave Desert to get to this isolated petroglyph site. Hidden in the Cinder Cone Lava Beds of California's Mojave Preserve, the Freightwagon site contains a remarkable concentration of rock art. Most of the few hundred petroglyphs

Honeymoon Hill Petroglyphs

Honeymoon Hill Petroglyphs

In the summer of 2015, we visited a pair of petroglyph sites out in central Nevada collectively called Honeymoon Hill. They are close together on nearby hills and have fantastic views of the areas they overlook, which is probably why people were here, hunting and keeping watch over the surrounding

Bald Mountain Wash Petroglyphs

Bald Mountain Wash Petroglyphs

Brownie Sam and Emmett Rosse, two Shoshone cowboys, stopped alongside this huge volcanic boulder in late October of 1932. It is a place where their ancestors had camped many times. The ancients had carved numerous symbols on this rock; they decided they would, too. They stood on the backs of

Born Again Pictographs

Born Again Pictographs

The spectacular Born Again Pictograph site lies deep in the backcountry of Joshua Tree National Park. It is located in the granite maze wilderness of Queen Mountain and is a bit of a hike to reach. This rock shelter was once a habitation site and is covered with faded pictographs.

Robidoux Inscription and Pictographs

Robidoux Inscription and Pictographs

On a late autumn day in 1837, a fur trapper from Santa Fe, Antoine Robidoux, stopped along a narrow canyon in the Territorio de Alta California (what is present-day Utah). Beaver pelts were surprisingly lucrative at the time, and as hard as it is to believe today, the Uinta River

Red Hole Wash Pictographs

Red Hole Wash Pictographs

After a long hike across empty sand flats and through desolate canyons, we found a small alcove with a few Fremont figures and a six-color rainbow pictograph on the back wall. I’ve never seen anything like it. The site is way out in the middle of nowhere with no