Round Trip Distance: 0.2 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 744 - 826 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: 33.22195, -112.77384
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
Enterprise Road I is the first of four petroglyph sites that are close to each other north of Gila Bend, Arizona. The site includes numerous petroglyphs on basalt boulders near the rim of the plateau.
The Enterprise Road is at the west end of the Gillespie Dam Bridge. For turn-by-turn directions you can enter 33.22195, -112.77384 into your driving app. Short of that drive north from Gila Bend on Old Highway 80 for about 22.6 miles and after crossing the bridge turn left onto the Enterprise Road.
Follow the Enterprise Road for only about a quarter mile and turn right. There are 2 places where you can turn right. The second turn is the more direct route. The first 3 sites are on the bluff a short distance away. After turning off of the Enterprise Road the route gets a little sandy so 2WD vehicles might want to park in the area of the second turnoff and walk the remaining quarter of a mile to what we marked as the trailhead.
After parking you will want to hike at an angle up the side of the hill to the right. A keen eye can probably already see some of the petroglyphs from the road.
Once you reach the saddle in the ridge begin hiking north just below the summit.
Petroglyphs immediately become visible in abundance. Some of them are faint enough that they don't make good photos but others like these show up very well.
Stacked circles seem to have had some special meaning as they recur several times in one form or another.
Concentric circles with maybe a turtle on the left.
This image is kind of interesting. There are two male figures here, one on top of the other. The top one has his arms bent upward signifying that he is alive while the bottom one's arms are bent downward implying not living. The phallus of the top image is touching the head of the bottom one showing a relationship between them. Given that there is a snake touching both of the images the two male figures are probably the same person who was bitten by a snake and died.
Probably a field of stars. There are quite a few of these in the area.
Here is a sheep with a little man standing on one of his legs. The sheep's mouth is open as though talking. Maybe some type of hunting magic.
The photo has a glare but the image is of 3 parallel snakes. While it didn't happen here I can think of several places where we could hear rattlesnakes that were down in the hollows beneath boulders or even peering out from beneath them. Sometimes even coiled up sunning themselves on the rocks when the temperature was right.
These images appear to be upside down so maybe the rock tumbled over after they were created.
