Woods Wash Petroglyphs

The Dzrtgrls and I headed out to the Mojave desert a few years ago to find a petroglyph and pictograph site. We were not disappointed. This is a large petroglyph site and required a few miles of hiking. It has thousands of petroglyphs and covers a few square miles of area in a lonely corner of Mojave National Preserve.

Most of the petroglyphs are likely of Chemehuevi, Mohave and/or Archaic origin. If you venture out here, please respect this site. It is an amazing place.

You can see the Dzrtgrls trip report here.

Woods Wash Petroglyphs

107 photos

We start seeing petroglyphs right away on our hike.

A large panel with complex designs.

Closer view.

Barrel cactus and petroglyphs.

Note the enclosed cross petroglyph.

Petroglyphs.

Interesting little shelter.

Petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs.

Wavy lines.

Many of the same symbols.

View along the wash.

Panel of glyphs.

Strange symbol in the center.

A line of sheeps in the center.

Petroglyphs.

Very broad cravings.

Petroglyphs.

These petros have been repatinated.

What could this grid be?

The site has a large variety of symbols but noticably few animals.

A large wall of petroglyphs.

Panel of glyphs.

Jamie at a small cave. Not much inside of it.

A faint pictograph on the wall. It is amazing that this is still here.

A slightly enhanced version of this photo shows another pictograph on the left.

Some interesting glyphs higher up.

There was a bee hive up around these petroglyphs. I wasn't going up there to get a better photo.

Petroglyphs on top of petroglyphs.

Some faint and unusual petros.

These look newer.

Faint petroglyphs.

Very faint.

A few of the petroglyphs are high up and harder to reach.

This is pretty unusual.

Closer view.

Diamond pattern.

Back down along the wash.

Petroglyphs.

There are so many petroglyphs here it is hard to see them all.

Petroglyphs.

Quite a variety here.

Star up high.

Interesting.

Eyes? Storm?

?

These are fading.

This looks like a grinding slick.

We find a digitate anthropomorph pictograph hidden on the back side of a rock. Note the zigzag line underneath him.

More very faint pictograph lines enhanced in this photo.

Note the red paint and a petroglyph here.

Lots of open country out here.

Salvia dorrii (Desert Sage).

A red-orange Sphaeralcea ambigua (Desert Mallow).

A small petroglyph high on a solitary rock outcrop.

Enclosed dots.

Panel of glyphs.

Did I mention this is a large site?

A few anthropomorphs with many other symbols here.

These have been revarnished.

Talking?

Grids.

Petroglyphs.

Square designs.

Another large panel.

This wall is covered too.

The yuccas were in bloom.

We find a few pottery sherds at what looks like a village site.

One of the many obsidian flakes we find here.

More pottery pieces. There were more but this was the biggest I found. We put everything we found back where we found it.

We move on to another site a short hike from the wash. It is a basalt ridge outcrop that has more petroglyphs on it.

We find many more obsidian flakes here.

A few on this outcrop.

Petroglyphs at the edge of a small shelter.

Shelter?

We start hiking back to our trucks.

A few small ones here and there.

Hourglass with lines.

Circled cross.

Fading.

It is easy to walk by some of them.

Petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs.

This filled in circle is not common.

Large panel.

Petroglyphs.

A few small sheep.

Is this circled cross a mask?

Some more sheep.

Here is a line of sheep.

And close by, another line of sheep.

Very interesting face or mask like petroglyph. We saw this symbol repeated a few times at this site.

Sheep moving across the top.

A couple of figures.

Jamie photographs some of the petroglyphs.

Walking along a wash.

Petroglyphs.

We take a break on the way back near another flat spot. This could have been an ancient camp site too.

The Dzrtgrls take a break before our last section to hike out.

We find an arch!

Jamie at the arch.

Jamie and Niki use their patented arch measuring technique.

The arch from a distance.

Desert mallow.

Some small shelters up here too.

Niki checks them out.

Jamie poses under the arch. What a great end to a fantastic day of exploring.

Last Modified on May 4, 2020 by Guy Starbuck