“Surprise Rock” Pictographs

In early 2013, I was out hiking in the backcountry of 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 area was last used by the Serrano and Chemehuevi.

This is an interesting site. If you come across it, please respect it and take only pictures. Some of the petroglyphs and pictographs seem to have been chalked. Please do not chalk (or touch) any pictographs. Touching them helps to wear away the pigment.

"Surprise Rock" Pictographs

18 photos

Pictographs and petroglyphs on the inside of this boulder.

Left side of the hollow.

Some of the petroglyphs look to be chalked but they might be recently re-pecked.

Petroglyphs are on top of the pictographs. Hard to make out the complex petroglyphs here.

False color image of one of the panels.

Possible water and rain symbols.

False color close-up of these lines.

Anthropormorph over rake.

Lots of elements.

These pictographs are fading away.

False color of this panel.

In the left alcove. Note the two rakes.

Close-up of a grid and water.

Under a ledge. The pictographs are very faint.

Single faint pictograph in this depression. Slight false colors.

Faint petroglyphs.

False color of these faint pictographs in a small concave area.

False color of the double rake.

Last Modified on August 4, 2020 by Guy Starbuck