Round Trip Distance: 2.7 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6627 - 6725 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 1 hr. 30 mins.
Trailhead: Picture Canyon Preserve
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, pueblo
The Picture Canyon Natural and Cultural Preserve is located in Flagstaff, Arizona. Besides a scenic hike in a riparian environment the site includes a few petroglyphs and the remains of a small pueblo or similar structure.
For turn-by-turn directions to the trailhead enter Picture Canyon Natural and Cultural Preserve into your driving app. Fortunately it should pop up before you get all of that typed in.
A short distance from the parking area the trail splits and begins a loop. The pueblo and petroglyph overlook are to the left. To the right there is a nice viewing place for the waterfall and a good cross canyon view of the petroglyphs. More petroglyphs are visible from the cross canyon view but you can get a closer look at some of them from the petroglyph overlook.
From the rim on the south side of Picture Canyon there is a nice view of the waterfall and the inner canyon itself.
More of the petroglyphs that are down in the canyon are visible from the south rim than there are from the overlook on the north side of the canyon. This is a large boulder upon which there are quite a few images.
A few more petroglyphs, like this small anthropomorphic image, can also be spotted on some of the other rock surfaces.
Along the trail on the north side of the canyon there are several signs that mention protecting the site. It's always nice to see these reminders at archeological sites. We couldn't tell whether the sign was also meaning to imply that the inner canyon itself was off limits or not. Lots of places say to keep off of the petroglyphs but still let you get close enough to take good photos. The sign seemed a little ambiguous to us.
That said, pretty much every spot that we noticed that led down into the canyon had a restoration sign that made it almost impossible to get down there anyway.
At one point along the trail on the north side of the canyon there is a short spur that leads over to the remains of a small structure that was built right on the rim of the canyon.
A little further along there is another short spur that leads to the Petroglyph Overlook.
From the overlook you can get a closer look at some of the petroglyphs that are on the large boulder but there are quite a few of them that aren't visible from this vantage point.
Here is another sign that added to the ambiguity of whether you can hike down into the canyon for closer views of the petroglyphs. It seems to say that all you need is a current Arizona State Land Trust permit which we had. Since this isn't our backyard on this trip we decided to error on the side of politeness until we can learn more.
