Little Blair Valley Pictographs 
Little
Blair Valley in
the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a popular "dark
sky" site for many astronomy clubs. We were going
to take part in some sky watching Saturday night, and then
explore the pictograph boulder east of the valley the next
morning. However, the same clouds that made for such
a great sunset also made for lousy astronomical
viewing. At least we got lots of sleep! The
next morning we followed the directions in David Whitley's A
Guide to Rock Art Sites: Southern California and
Southern Nevada, to lead us to the trailhead for the
hike to the pictographs. This is a very scenic, albeit
short, hike into a little valley. The large boulder
stands aloof to the side of the trail. Whitley tells
us that the red pictographs found here were part of
the Kumeyaay girls' puberty initiation. Since the
rattlesnake spirit helper was particularly appropriate
for the girls, the zigzag and diamond-chain motifs are
the most common ones at the site.We
then continued down the wash to the Smuggler Cove village
site and the steep drop-off just beyond it. Here
we found numerous morteros as well as some pottery pieces,
indicating sustained activity over a long period of time. Some
of those morteros were quite deep. Remember, take
only pictures. This is a great spot for a hike, we
enjoyed ourselves and returned to the car feeling refreshed. So,
what will you see there? Click on the link below
to find out!