Magma intrudes and, over millenia, becomes solid. Through the passage of more millenia the continents wander, colliding. The collision forces hardened magma into the sky. It loses its dark overburden through yearly cycles of freezing and heat, rain and snow. What's left is very competent rock, but the forces of moving landmasses don't stop. Cracks open. Water intrudes, year by year dissolving and working its way in deeper. Earthquakes shake the mountains of shattered bright rock and pieces tumble. Other cycles overlay the geologic ones. Year by year people follow their tracks through various harvests. Trade routes work through the sharp mountains. Harvesters gather acorns, chia seeds, pine nuts and anything else. In a place like this one can't be choosy. Being people, they leave tracks. Some, being made of the nearly everlasting stone, record many years of use. Others remain only because of their location. People make art. Even in an environment where survival is a matter of constant work, there's some time for expression. Maybe it was someone waiting for someone else. It could have been an expression of a belief in magic, inviting a bountiful harvest or peaceful days. Reasons don't matter. The art is here, someone's heartfelt labor hidden on overhanging huge fallen blocks of enduring Sierra Nevada granodiorite. The images speak through time to those willing to work hard enough to get there. Bighorn sheep bound. Mounted men ride in file. Geometric patterns wind through the composition, and less comprehensible figures stand, voice faint with years. Enter Indian Wells Canyon The image above shows Indian Wells Canyon from a vantage south of Ridgecrest, looking northwest. Owens Peak is the high point on the right, with the long bright rocky ridge descending and swinging to the left. This expedition was sponsored by my friend JuLee, who had heard of these pictographs and wanted to take a look. Another friend, Earl, then from British Columbia, was here on vacation and we all headed up the canyon on a cool spring day in 1997.

Pavilion of Nature and History Human Touch Museum

pictgrph.htm 1999 February 14