White Mountain Petroglyph Site
Personal Notes
This page contains our personal notes on our visit to the White Mountain Petroglyph Site in Wyoming.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
1:53 p.m.
We headed north out of Rock Springs on Highway 191 and drove north about 12 miles to where we spotted a brown sign indicating the Petroglyphs at GPS coordinates: 41 43.612N; 109 16.395W; 6514 feet, along Sweetwater County Road 17. We turned off onto this well traveled dirt road and quickly found another sign at a turn out. This sign says that it is 17 miles to the White Mountain Petroglyphs, 18 miles to the Bore’s Tusk, and 21 miles to the Killpecker Sand Dunes Wilderness Study Area. It also says that the 191 Short Loop route is 31 miles. This is an Improved dirt road, with no winter maintenance.
2:19 pm
The junction of Sweetwater County Road 17, and the turn off to the White Mountain Petroglyphs, is at GPS coordinates: 41 53.439N; 109 12.438W; at 6632 feet in elevation. A sign says that it is three miles from the main road to the site. This west bound road is a bit narrower and appears less traveled than Road 17.
2:26 pm
We found the petroglyphs site with no difficulty. There is a well marked large parking area, and a modern vault toilet, as well as a garbage dumpster. There is no drinking water. It looked like a couple was setting up their pop-up trailer to spend the night. The parking area is at GPS coordinates: 41 53.370N; 109 15.587W; at 6936 feet in elevation.
3:33 pm.
From the parking area there is an old jeep trail that is blocked to motorized traffic. It leads to the base of a prominent sandstone outcrop which faces south. The area that contains the rock art has been fenced off to protect the area from cattle and, no doubt, ATV traffic. No motorized vehicles are allowed on the jeep trail, but for some reason some ATV riders believe that does not apply to them.
We walked to the far west side of the cliff face, and began our inspection there. We found a few modern graffiti marks in this area, and a scattering here and there along the length of the panel, but very little of consequence.
As we worked our way along the base of the cliff, examining the petroglyphs, which are cut into a soft sandstone, we also spotted several pack rat middens high above in the cliff. There is also a bat cave, with at least two entrances. We also found a third cave that looks like it had been used as some sort of living space, since there was carbon on the roof, indicating some sort of fire had burned inside. There were several petroglyphs around and just inside this entrance.
There were also several smaller openings, each with at least one associated petroglyph.
Near one of the caves there appeared to be some red paint at a couple of places near the entrance, but it was more of a smear and there did not appear to be any attempt at the creation of a pictograph.
There are quite a few interesting types of petroglyphs on these panels, including horses with riders, large elk and deer, and several anthropomorphic figures that appeared to be representing females, due to their arrangement above what appeared to be natural holes in the sandstone.
See our Rock Art page for photos and a more detailed description of the petroglyphs.
The site was much more impressive than I thought it would be. Besides the rock art, there is some very interesting geology. It's such an impressive outcrop that it is so different from the surrounding ridges that, coupled with the small dwelling cave and the historical rock art, one wonders if this isn't perhaps a location used for vision quests by the local Native Americans.
