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. 

\

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!

A Short Ride Down Tyson Wash

Thursday, February 23, 2023

When we first looked out this morning there was blue sky with clouds floating by.  The wind though not as strong as the last couple of days was still with us and the temperature was in the cool range. In no time at all the clouds covered the sky above us with just some hints of blue along the horizon.

Looking out the front window our view was empty.
The Igloo was gone.

Deb and Riley were off this morning in the Dogsled with the Igloo following behind. They had an appointment; Deb talks about this on her blog, On a long and lonesome highway...

Looking towards the Northwest 

 this morning. The sun was touching the mountains.

After a late breakfast we headed into Quartzsite. We are thinking of making some changes to our solar system. Tom has been doing some research and he had some questions so we went in to see if we could get some answers. More on that once we make some decisions.

An interesting "guy" in the distance.
This is actually two Saguaros.

Looking out towards the mountains as we are going
by La Posa South LTVA.

After getting some answers we headed over to Quiet Times to pick up a package. Then we took a ride down Main Street turning towards Kuehn Street. Heading East on Kuehn we reached the Tyson Wash and decided to take a right turn into the wash. We had crossed over the wash when we took a ride down the Pipeline Road on Tuesday so we decided to see if we could take the wash to the Pipeline Road. No real reason except it sounded like it might be fun. This wash is basically a bumpy soft gravel type and not far in Tom put the Jeep into sand mode. It was a fun ride and the views were great. One thing about riding or walking in a wash is it makes you aware of just how powerful the force of  water can be. 

Going by Q Mountain

Looking ahead down the wash.

Halsey Williams Mill

Williams Mill, also called the Halsey Williams Mill, is an ore processing facility located on the backside of “Q-Hill” just south of downtown Quartzsite. Built sometime around World War II, the mill was fed ore from nearby mines which were either sent off to market or for further processing. The mill site underwent redevelopment over the years and processed tungsten, lead, silver, and gold in its lifetime.

The top of Q Mountain

It was about here that it started to rain, it was mostly sprinkles.

This is were we left the Tyson Wash and 

turned onto the Pipeline Road.

Then in a few minutes we could see our
neighborhood/home ahead.

Looking out at our view towards the northwest
the mountains are behind the dust.

The rain really started to come down just before Happy Hour this afternoon. Happily Deb, Riley, and Doug were able to make it through the raindrops to join Tom and I inside the Stinger "B". The rain continued to come down and while we were chatting away Deb noticed what was a perfect rainbow.  Doug went out and took a beautiful picture of the entire rainbow check it out on his blog, Miss Adventure Travels.

As the light of this day faded we said our good nights.
Looking out as they left we could

see puddles in the desert.

There are a lot of wonderful things about this lifestyle. I believe most of us would agree the friendships we have made along the way is the best part. At the same time it is not always perfect and right the now the weather is not great. We did have a few nice days this past weekend but between the wind and the cold temperatures it is not fun. Yet we still find things to do and life goes on and it is good.

We are glad you stopped by!

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.