This afternoon I took my youngest son, Bradley, out to search for some petroglyphs. I’d read about some rock art “near the dinosaur quarry turnoff” and I planned to drive around looking for it. We checked out the Victor Reef Road and the road to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry but didn’t spot anything from the road. I knew of a great deal of rock art south of the gravel road to the quarry, so I turned that direction and explored some dirt roads. The first site that looked promising had a vehicled parked there, and I didn’t want to let the dogs run loose with people were around, so we pressed on and found a small side canyon near Dry Wash in which to park and explore. Only a couple hundred feet from the Jeep we found a single faint petroglyph, but no other rock art in the vicinity. We explored the cliffs and the cracks between large fallen boulders.
There were several shallow overhangs that showed signs of habitation–chert flakes, potsherds, and soot stains on the ceilings–but unfortunately nothing terribly interesting. Most of the potsherds were small and plain gray, but one that I spotted had an interesting “nub” on it, probably a decorative element. Judging from the amount of trash in the area, I’d guess this place is well-known to the locals and most of artifacts have walked off over the last century or so. We ended our exploration when we ran out of good cliffs and rock surfaces to inspect. On the way back home we stopped for a short hike over the fence to Desert Lake. I was surprised to see the lake still almost completely frozen despite recent warm daytime temperatures.
Photo Gallery: Dry Wash