Golf Course Road Petroglyphs

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.5 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 5074 - 5157 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 1 hr. 30 mins.
Trailhead: 34.91236, -110.19702
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs

Along the Golf Course Road, in Holbrook, Arizona, on the way to the Hidden Cove Petroglyphs, are 3 other panels of petroglyphs that are well worth visiting. Getting close enough for good photos of 2 of the panels requires scrambling up moderately steep slopes while the 3rd, and best, of the panels is much easier to reach.

All 3 of the panels can be seen from the Golf Course Road with a pair of binoculars. The first panel is up near the rim due west of where we parked. To get there you can enter the GPS location 34.91236, -110.19702 into your driving app. The Golf Course Road begins on the north side of I-40 Exit 283 where it is just over 1 mile to what we used for a trailhead.

The left side of the 1st panel is a wavy line that perhaps is a map.

To the right of that are several serpents and this interesting 'snail like' image that might actually be meant to represent a coiled rattlesnake with ears or the head of a deer. Looking closely at the image there is what faintly looks like the tail with its beads of rattles protruding on the right and what might also be an anthropomorphic image grasping the tail.

To the left of that panel is a boulder with a dotted man image that makes up a 4th panel that we didn't indicate.

The other 2 panels of petroglyphs are on the point of the cliffs just to the north.

One of them is also up near the rim of the cliffs.

These images, which are located near a cave, are faded making them appear older. If we were to give a name to the arced images in the middle it would be 'Serpent Rainbow'.

The best images by far are on a boulder that is down closer to the road.

We're guessing that this would be the image of a macaw.

Here is an interesting solidly pecked circle with some sort of appendage.

There are 2 anthropomorphic images that have bodies that look like shooting stars. This one might be holding a star.

On the right hand side of the boulder are a couple of geometric objects that we have seen elsewhere.

We've also seen websites, (that we can't find at the moment), that assign meanings to these images.

This Freddy fingered image is the other anthropomorphic image that we suggested had a body like a shooting star.

There isn't anything that looks like a commonly used pullout near these panels of petroglyphs but there are a couple of places where the bar ditch is level enough for you to pull off the road and get out of the way of all of the golfers that pass by on the Golf Course Road. The absence of trails leading to the petroglyphs seems to indicate that they are seldomly visited. If you would like to see them for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.