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| Hiking | 1.45 Miles |
95 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.45 Miles | | | |
| 95 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Fascinating, remote, totally worth the frequently treacherous 7 miles of dirt road through the desert (lots of potential sand-traps; high-clearance vehicle definitely recommended!)
The site consists of a series of black basalt mesas surrounded by sandy/rocky dry riverbed and palo verde-covered desert. From the trailhead there is a mesa to either side, and a sandy rise in front of you. No clear trails, but whatever route you choose it is easy to pick your way through the rocks. Bring a compass, or climb to the top of a mesa to see where you are.
Hiking straight up the rise from the trailhead takes you into a saguaro-studded "bowl" full of black volcanic rocks and surrounded by mesas.
To get close to the petroglyphs requires a brief scramble up one of the mesas. We avoided the one to the left (south) because of reports of beehives. The right-hand (north) mesa seems to have the most glyphs anyhow.
As you climb the north mesa, find your way around to the far side where you can walk along the ledge next to several petroglyph panels. A sort-of trail follows the ridge just under the mesa-top. From here it is easy to climb up on top, where you can walk for quite a ways, with amazing panoramic views of the entire site, surrounding desert, distant mountains - and few signs of civilization in any direction save a trailer here and there, and the freight-train line along the interstate to the south.
It is also easy from up-top to see the contours of the dry riverbed and imagine what the site might have been like with the Gila flowing through it, and how it would have been an obvious way-point for travelers following the river. Perhaps half a mile to the northwest is another volcanic mesa; we didn't hike out to that one but clearly it would be possible to spend hours exploring this incredible site.
We camped in the parking lot and had the desert to ourselves all night!(It is BLM land so primitive camping is allowed; campfires are restricted in the summer months, but a summer visit would be inadvisable as this is open desert with no shade.)
A note on finding the trailhead: it is actually a bit more than a mile that you have to double back along the I-8 frontage road until you come to the left turn at Ave 76E. There is a turn before this, next to what appear to be some old ranch ruins - don't take that one! 76E was signed. It deadends at the trailhead parking lot. |
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