We drove about 100 miles east of Yuma, AZ on the way to tucson and went to Painted Rock Campground about 20 miles east and 11 mi north of Gila Bend. It is a BLM Campground with about 60 very large sites. You must bring your own water as there is none to be had anywhere near here. the campground is about half full and is a very nice area. the weather turned cooler yesterday with a brisk breeze blowing. Today, Feb 14th, it was cool in the AM but warmed up later. then the clouds came over and the breeze kicked in again and cooled it off. It is still in the 60's tho.
This area has numerous painted rocks from several hundred years ago when the O'oldham indians lived in this area. they put messages on the rocks with specific meanings. they also used the rocks to grind their corn or other crops. there is still evidence of the worn rocks where they worked the grain and wore the rock down.
There were hundreds of rocks on this one small hill covered with their messages.
This area has numerous painted rocks from several hundred years ago when the O'oldham indians lived in this area. they put messages on the rocks with specific meanings. they also used the rocks to grind their corn or other crops. there is still evidence of the worn rocks where they worked the grain and wore the rock down.
There were hundreds of rocks on this one small hill covered with their messages.
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| More great sunsets!! I never get tired of these sunsets in Arizona! |
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| this is the area around the campground, nice an open. |
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| These are some of the Petroglyphs |
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| Our campsite from the top of the hill, you can see that it is real spread out here. |
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| This is the wear on the rock where the indians ground their crops such as corn. They also grew cotton in this area back then and it is still being grown here now. We drove some of the back roads out to the farm area and they had Cotton and alfalfa growing in the valley. the cotton bales are as big as a small semi truck trailer. |
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| we had another 12 inch rain storm today in 5 minutes time. One drop very 12 inches!!! typical rain storm here in the desert this time of year! |
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| and a couple more sunsets tonight!! |
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| the glow on the painted rock mountains from the sunset!! we will move on to Tucson area tomorrow and spend about 2 weeks there. we plan on visiting the Desert Museum and several other areas there. I want to visit the Air Museum, they have several hundred or maybe thousand aircraft sitting on the desert, a lot of them go way back to the 60's I think. |
