Round Trip Distance: 0.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 818 - 888 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: 33.22951, -112.77448
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
Gillespie Dam is located along Old Highway 80 north of Gila Bend, Arizona. On the bluff overlooking the dam there are a large number of petroglyphs that for description purposes we are dividing into a North Site and a South Site.
For turn-by-turn directions you could enter 'Gillespie Dam' into your driving app but that will direct you to the dam at the bottom of the hill and that is probably why people miss most of the petroglyphs. The best place to park is on top of the mesa where you can get to both of the north and south areas of petroglyphs. For that enter the GPS coordinates 33.22951, -112.77448 into your driving app. If you are approaching from the south then cross the dam, drive to the top of the hill, and pull into the large open area on the east side of the road. If coming from the north pull into the open area before dropping off of the mesa to the bridge.
In the large open area there is plenty of room for turning trailers around and for primitive camping which is what we did.
There is an old road or cut that wraps around the south side of the hill that is a little over midway up from the bottom.
If you hike around on this road you can look up and see some of the petroglyphs from below.
Some of them like this dotted sheep or deer will require a zoom lens for photos.
Parallel snakes in two's and three's seem to be a recurring theme here and at a couple of nearby sites.
From below it is hard to get a clear view of many of the petroglyphs.
The image at the top of this boulder looks a lot like a teepee.
After looking at the images from below you can go up to the crest of the hill and scramble around on their level for a closer look.
Of course, up around the boulders the side of the hill is pretty steep and precarious in a few spots but on the other hand the bushes aren't in the way.
Some of these are the same panels that could be seen from below but there are others that can only be seen from here.
Perched on the side of the hill overlooking Gillespie Dam is an old skateboard bowl for which I'm sure there is some interesting history. Looking over the top of the bowl you can see the Enterprise Road running along the side of the canal. To the right of the road there is a line of volcanic bluffs where hundreds more petroglyphs can be found that we will post as the Enterprise Road Petroglyphs.
Looping around across the crest of the hill there are a handful of rocks with a few more images.
