Round Trip Distance: 800 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 3944 - 3951 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Tinemaha Cutoff Rd.
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
Fish Springs Site I is one of four easy to get to petroglyph sites that are in the Fish Springs Area south of Big Pine, California. Each site has at least a few petroglyphs that were pecked onto basalt boulders.
To get there from Big Pine head south on US-395 for 4.8 miles and turn right onto the Fish Springs Road. Continue for 2.1 miles and go right onto the Tinemaha Road cutoff. After turning right site 1 will be an hundred feet or so off of the road on your left where there is a small basalt outcrop. The best place to park where you can get out of the way is near the first tower on the powerline road.
There isn't really a trail at present from the powerline road, or anywhere else, to the petroglyphs but if you head in the general direction it's not difficult to work out a suitable route. Most of the petroglyphs are on the lower, or Fish Springs Road, side of the outcrop. There are also a few to be found up above that are on the same level as the powerline road.
While hiking around on the north side of the outcrop there is a spot where there may have been a rock shelter.
A lot of the petroglyphs are easy to make out but as it is with basalt that can always depend on your viewing angle. It is always good to look at each boulder from a different angle to see what might appear. In this photo there is actually a long line that goes all the way across the rock with some fist sized, or larger, circles bunched up at one end.
Most of the petroglyphs are on the south side of one of the rocks.
Circles, lines and wavy lines make up most of the images.
We outlined a string of circles on our computer that are fainter than the other images on this side of the boulder and easy to miss.
On the top of the little mesa above the petroglyphs there are some short walls made from stacked rocks.
Nearby, as you head back to the powerline road, there are also a few very faint petroglyphs on several of the boulders.
