Round Trip Distance: 440 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 3861 - 3880 feet
Cellphone: 2-4 bars
Time: 15 mins.
Trailhead: Tuttle Creek Road
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, rock shelter
The Tuttle Creek Boulder is located about 2 miles southwest of Lone Pine, California. The site includes a single boulder with a few petroglyphs and a small rockshelter.
Unfortunately the Tuttle Creek Boulder is right on, what we would call, a dangerous corner of the Tuttle Creek Road. It is easy to see traffic coming from the direction of Lone Pine but not from the other direction. On top of that there is barely enough room to park off of the pavement on the opposite side of the road and no room at all on the side of the road of the boulder. There is a little more room to park on up the road around the corner but on the day that we were there they were doing some backhoe work at that spot.
That said, a keen eye should be able to spot the boulder and rock shelter from the road. Some easy scrambling will get you up there.
All of the petroglyphs should be visible in this photo. Notice what looks like an atlatl image on the very far left near the edge of the photo.
A smaller atlatl, or dart thrower, might also be what the circle with the line down through it on the right represents.
What looks like a possible rock shelter isn't really big enough to be practical for more than a few huddled souls but it is what it is. Remember that it is illegal to do any digging or excavating of your own around these sites or to do anything intentionally or accidentally that would cause any damage.
