Petroglyphs in the Tyson Wash

 Wednesday, December 10, 2025

What can I say but it was another beautiful day in Quartzsite, Arizona. I/we started the day having coffee and chatting with my sister back in the frozen north. Yes, we do let Tom get a word in occasionally...😊 Then after that a short chat with our daughter. By then is was getting close to lunchtime. The "Plan" for today was ride in search of a Ghost Town Tom had information about but looking at the time "Plan B" a ride, closer to our location, to look for the Painted Rock Petroglyphs and Grinding Mortars became the "Plan" for today. We are pretty sure the Ghost Town is not going anywhere so it will wait for another day, plus, this ride was also on our list of "places we want to see". 

We started on Old Yuma Road and now we are going 
cross country towards the Tyson Wash.

 

As we rode along, and then once in the wash, it is hard 
not to notice all the green. Quite a change from last year.

We are in the wash but we are not having any luck finding
what we are looking for.

Now we are out the other side of the wash heading west and 
then back east. The search is on for a particular road.
My first thought, when I spotted what was left of this guy,
was he must of been on large saguaro.

Along the way we spotted this beautiful saguaro.

More detours, or dead ends for us.(An ATV would make it
we will not.) Plus, up and over several washes

then there it was the road we were looking for.

I just thought this guy deserved two pictures.

Then we reached a way back into the Tyson Wash. So, yes,
we have made a circle, more like an oval, back to the wash.
We can see, upper left, this wall ahead and as luck would have 
we went by it earlier. So the thought is they have to be on that wall.

Once you spot the first one

they all come into focus.

We did not find a lot of them on this wall

but we did find what we were looking for.

I just like the look of the wall next to the petroglyphs.

"The Jeep with No Name" parked in front of the 
wall were we finally found the petroglyphs.

Around the side Tom found a small cave. He went in a few feet
 but without a flashlight thought it best to back out. 

Looking across from the above picture.

This rock formation was across the way from the petroglyphs.
We thought it was possibly were the Grinding Mortars where 
but we did not have any luck finding them.

 Tom took a picture of what looks like a claw, a very large claw to me.

One last look and with a right turn we are headed down
the Tyson Wash back to Quartzsite.

Some of the crazy things you see out in the desert.
Glad this guy is focused on the mountains and not where we are.

Continuing along the Dome Rock Mountains are on our left.

One of the things that amazes me whenever we are in a wash
is if you look around you can see just how powerful water is.

There is Kuehn Street and looking right we can see the venders.

Different visitor tonight. If you look closely
you can see the red on his neck.

The sun has set and I like the glow it 
has left around the palm branches.

The dark shadows are slowly crawling up the mountains
across the way as the sunlight leaves our day.

It was a fun and bumpy ride but we checked something off of our to see list. Wish we could have checked two off but maybe we will try looking again another day. 

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If you have enjoyed the pictures I have put out there 

or the words I have added that makes me smile. 

If you have time to leave a comment they are always special to read. 

No matter what I am glad you stopped by!