Pictograph Trail - Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

We're perched on our favorite mountain ridge, in the Cuyamaca Mountains for a couple of weeks. From where I'm sitting, if I look down and to my right, I can see the Yaqui Well/Tamarisk Grove campground area of Anza-Borrego. If I look behind me, I can see all the way into Mexico. Closer than Mexico though, and also visible, is the Little Blair Valley area. As the crow flies, it is only about 12 miles away. Unfortunately, we aren't crows. So it takes over an hour to get there using a combination of roads.  I don't mind though, because we're almost a mile high in elevation. When we left here it is was about 77 degrees. When we dropped down into the desert, it was HOT and made it up to 104 degrees. It gets MUCH hotter there.

This was taken from our camp site. The little notch just above center is the saddle between Little Blair Valley and Smuggler's Canyon. There is a hiking trail leading up to the saddle and down the other side.

feel free to embiggen photos to enhance your viewing pleasure

This is the view to my right as I'm typing this. Once we got to the bottom of the Banner Grade, we headed towards the horizon. Once we got to the other side of the large mountain (Granite Mt.) to the right. We went right and eventually into Little Blair Valley. 

Down the mountain

Past a dry lake bed

Just about to the bottom of the notch in the first photo. Except for the Border Patrol helicopter that checked us out, we didn't see anther human the whole time we were there. Mad dogs and Englishmen, I suppose...

Looking back towards our campground (on top of the ridge in the middle) from the trail head. 

This is an enlarged and cropped section of the previous photo. Our RV is in the right side of those pine trees on the ridge line. That spot is about 12 miles away and almost a mile higher. Those two little white spots are part of the California Wolf Center which is involved in reintroducing wolves into the state. They have several packs of wolves there and you should hear them all howl. Spooky, beautiful and amazing. If you are ever in the Julian area, it is well worth taking the time to visit.

Geez, that was a lot of writing and photos and we're just now getting to the subject of the post. We're finally up trail a bit. You can still see where we are camped.

Except for hiking in sand and uphill most of the way, this 2-mile out and back trail is pretty easy. However, once you consider all the little side trips I take, looking at things that catch my eye (or because I'm ADD) you can probably add a mile to it.

Looking back down the trail

This is some tough country

Just because I like it.

I'm looking at every peculiar rock for rock art. You never know what you might find.

Coming down the other side of the saddle 

See the large rock at ground level in the distance?

This is that rock!

As is...

Enhanced...

A first glance all the pictos appear to be red.

Looking at the rock closer it looks like there is some yellow present. The dark pictos in this DStretched version are actually yellow. (I'm still a novice).

You can see some of the yellow in this one.

Finally! Yellow...

I've never seen yellow (or in this enhanced case brown) diamond chains. There is even an anthropomorphic figure to the left of the sunburst. 

Red and Yellow chains in the same spot. Based on the red diamond chains, this site appears to be (at least in part) related to female puberty initiates. Some of you might remember my earlier post on the subject. 

A lone bedrock mortero at the site. That doesn't mean there aren't many more in the vicinity...

only because I thought it was pretty

Although my Granny was an expert and knew more about Joshua Tree than anybody I've ever met or heard of, she was no slouch when it came to Anza-Borrego. What she loved the most about Anza-Borrego was that until recently, there were very few restrictions relating to where you went and where you camped. She and and my step-granddad, really liked to get away from people. That is very easy to do here because you can camp just about anywhere. Pick a spot on any back country road and you can camp as long as you are a car's length away from the road. It was and pretty much still is wild, beautiful and desolate place.

A bit about Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Largest desert park in the country

Second largest state park in the country

500 miles of dirt roads (you can camp anywhere, as long as you are a car length away from any dirt road)

Almost 5,000 cultural sites (this is one of them) with only 20% of the park surveyed to date

28 mountain peaks and summits

The world's largest wooden train trestle

12 designated Wilderness areas withing the park

Did You Wash Your Hands?

Just a short-one today...

I've spent a large chunk of time in places that either don't have outhouses and/or bathrooms, or maybe just have "vault" toilets. I'm sure you're asking yourself, "why in the world is he telling us that?"  I'm just giving you a little background info. Umkay?
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I spent a lot of my childhood at my grandma's house. It was actually more like a cabin. Not a mountain cabin, but a desert version. It was a very rustic place, but it did have an indoor bathroom and septic tank. Normally, that would be a great convenience, but we (me and my brother) were never allowed to use it during the day or evening hours, we could use it in the middle of the night, but only if we couldn't wait until morning. 

That means that ninety-nine percent of the time, we used the outhouse. Upon our return, there was never a single word said about washing our hands. However, on the rare occasion that we used the indoor bathroom (snow, rain, thunderstorms, etc). She ALWAYS asked if we had washed our hands. 

Is that more than a bit odd, or is it just me?