Arizona’s Lower Gila River Valley is well known for its early American Indian settlements and Historical Trails. Indeed, the visible evidence of these Settlements & Trails are found all up & down the Valley. So, when Alice and I first heard of a large Petroglyph site at a location in the Valley named Sears Point… not far from the Painted Rock Petroglyph site… we did some research at the local Wellton, AZ, Pioneer Museum… and a few days later with our good friends Al & Barbie Rupiper, headed out to find it.
And what we found! The Sears Point Petroglyph Site is a huge area of over 4,000 acres, with two miles of Basalt Cliffs wrapped around it. It is located within the Gila River floodplain (Dry Desert), and hosts an estimated several thousand Petroglyph images in addition to early Native American ‘rock alignments’, cleared areas, intaglios, and (reportedly) aboriginal foot trails… as well as Winter Solstice Markers.
Archaeologists think people have been living & traveling along the Gila River since roughly 8,000 BC… Early Cultures that lived here include the Desert Archaic, Patayan, Hohokam and Pima-Maricopa Native American peoples. In 1775, Spanish Explorer Juan Bautista de Anza passed by Sears Point in 1775 on his way to explore the San Francisco Bay area… mapping out what is known today as the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. In 1846 Gen. Stephan Kearny passed thru this area, guided by Kit Carson, heading to help take California from Mexico… quickly followed by the Mormon Battalion which camped at Sears Point.. Later this same ‘Gila Trail‘ was used by the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, and then the Railroads… the Dixie Overland Highway (Hwy 80)… and today Interstate-8. Busy place!
Getting there is half the fun! On Interstate-8 from either direction, take Exit #78, Spot Rd. Then, go to the North side of the Interstate using the interstate underpass if need be. Head East on the dirt road running parallel to I-8 for approximately 1.3 miles… to the road shown below – Yuma County Ave. 76E. Turn left here (North),and go Seven miles down this ‘very basic road’… to the Sears Point Basalt Cliffs.
This is Yuma County Ave 76E. Sears Point is a little over 7 miles down this desert road… if you go, bring water. High clearance vehicles are not required, but helpful. Four-wheel drive not required… but again, helpful. Please note, there are some VERY deep sandy stretches of this road to be crossed before getting to the destination, but no steep grades or overly rocky surfaces.
At this end of this road, here is what it looks like: 4,000 Big Acres…
As you can see, we are way out in the desert. The road is easy to follow, and not difficult to drive. Due to the clay and ravines that we saw, I would not recommend driving this road if it is raining, or if there is a forecast of rain. The Parking Lot (below) is well marked and County Rd. 76E clearly terminates here. The Gila Riverbed (dry) is just a couple hundred yards away.
Arrived at the BLM Parking & Sign-in area… and starting to unload our hiking gear. Note the Basalt Cliffs in the background. We will soon be up there.
After getting our gear unloaded, we’re off! Initially, we started hiking towards the Northwest, following an obvious trail.
Getting started on the hike… Going Northwest. After a couple of hundred yards, we figured out going the Southwest trail route would be better.
Soon, however, the trail seemed to get lost in scrub brush. We climbed up the side of the Basalt cliff for some closeup pictures of petroglyphs… and then decided to backtrack.
Our first Petroglyph, on the side of the cliff, facing to the North.
Looking North while on the side of the cliff.
More Petroglyphs… And a view of the Gila River basin, looking North and West. The river basin, with usually no flowing water, is just a few hundred yards away. We changed trails after seeing that the path got to be quite scrubby this way.
The number of petroglyphs we found were just astounding… some were hard to make out, but this one below was easy.
Concentric Circles… with rays. Most likely a representation of the sun.
After backtracking back thru the Parking Lot, we started on a trail taking a more Southwestern direction. At a BLM gate, we encountered this large, gnarled, old root from a… Cottonwood Tree?
The trail to the Southwest… Not all out here is rock etchings – this is a root/trunk of some big tree… twisted, gnarled… and still with growth. Wonder what it has seen over the years and decades?
After passing thru the gate, we found ourselves inside the Sears Point Basalt Cliffs area… and walking and looking for obvious footpaths… which we did find. The footpaths are important, in that we were advised this area has a lot of rattlesnakes… and we wanted a CLEAR trail area to place each footstep.
Walking, searching on the backside of the Northern most cliffs. Hard too see in the picture, but very important and useful, are the narrow walking paths that network the Sears Point area.
Keeping walking and searching… we are slowly working our way to the top of the Basalt cliffs, following the footpaths that we found.
Walking, searching… looking.
After reaching the top, we could see side trails that slightly descended down the side of the cliffs… with some significant Petroglyph images.
After reaching the top on the Northernmost Mesas, we stumbled upon these great examples just over the cliff edge. Had to be careful getting down over the edge… this is about 50-60′ above the valley floor.
Same Petroglyph boulder… after stepping back a few feet. The view is to the North / Northwest. The images appear to represent… the sun… a man… a lizard… a coyote… an antelope… a person… and birds.
Same Petroglyphs, after having stepped back 15 feet.
Is the below… an Indian Winter Solstice Marker? After getting back from the hike, and researching a little bit on the internet… we are inclined to not think so – but it would be nice if we were wrong! š Note the line of small boulders… that align with a larger ‘notch’ boulder… and by ‘dead-reckoning’ looks to be directly lined up with where the Dec 21 Winter sunrise would occur… Well, we can always hope! We will be coming back next year, and certainly will be doing a little more preparation and research on this.
Is this a Winter Solstice Marker? On the top of the highest Mesa, at it’s highest point of Rock, we found this line of small boulders… that (more or less) line up to point across a natural ” V ” notched Larger boulder… that by dead-reckoning appears to point to where a Winter Solstice Sunrise would take place. December 21 this year (2016).
More Petroglyphs… they are everywhere.
Petroglyphs may be found at almost any location at the huge 4,000 acre site… These were found just walking along.
After finding a boulder with just the right angle… we placed the Cannon EOS Digital Rebel XT camera on the rock, set the timer, ran fast to get in position… and Eureka! A Selfie!
A Cannon EOS Rebel ‘Selfie’… Jim, Alice, Barbie and Al.
At this point we’d been hiking for a while… and we were getting hot, and tired. We decided to head back to the BLM Parking Lot… and came across this odd looking, desert hard surface. Later, we found out it is called “Desert Pavement” – Small rocks, sand, and sediment that has settled over hundreds of years into a hard surface.
Alice, Barbie, and Al walking on a packed desert surface called “Desert Pavement”.
We had noticed this beautiful Saguaro Cactus, standing alone, on the hike in… and on the way back out, we decided to get a picture. Its about 30′ tall.
Prominent Saguaro Cactus along the trail back… This is Arizona, after all.
After getting back to the BLM parking lot, it was early afternoon, and time for a picnic lunch that we had brought along. We were tired, hot… but happy.
End of the Hike! Taking advantage of the BLM posting board shade, Alice, Barbie, Al, and I enjoy a nice picnic lunch.
We hope you enjoyed our pictures and thoughts on this hike. This is beautiful country, that has been inhabited for thousands of years. The Petroglyph area was a LOT larger than what we had anticipated… and in this visit, we only saw a small part of the total BLM land reserved for Sears Point. For sure, next year, we will be coming back to spend more time. Perhaps even several trips… it is that big… and that fascinating.
Thanks,
Jim & Alice LaPeer
To view a full-screen, high-resolution slideshow of The Petroglyphs… of Sears Point, click the ‘curved arrow‘ just below the picture on the right. To return to normal display, hit [Esc] key. Otherwise, place cursor over the picture to display the slideshow control buttons. Comments are Welcomed!
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Very interesting. Thank you
Bill, we hope your travels are going well for you. Safe travels!
Jim & Alice
What an adventure! You really are experiencing it all! Great memories! Jan
Looks like a beautiful place. Rich with stories hidden with in the carvings..frozen in time. Very cool.
Hi, Jim ! Got together with Mikel last week.
This post of yours reminds me of a Bruce Cockburn song called “Wondering Where the Lions Are”. You could find it on Youtube. “Thousand year old petroglyphs point a finger at eternity…”
See ya.
Jim Townsend