Red Tank Draw

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 1.5 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 3902 - 3980 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 2 hrs.
Trailhead: Red Tank Draw
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs

Red Tank Draw is located north of Camp Verde, Arizona. There are a lot of very interesting images scattered along the walls of the shallow wash. Many of the images blend into the rock so well that they require a little study to realize all of what is present.

To get there take I-17 Exit 298 and head east on Beaver Creek for a half mile and turn left onto Blue Grade Road. The Blue Grade Road is a little rough in places but people do pull their RV's up it to the primitive camping areas.

At the 1.3 mile point of the Blue Grade Road turn right into the primitive camping area and follow FR 645A for a half mile. There are some very rough spots on this road but it's only a half mile further to the primitive campsite that we used for a trailhead so it doesn't add a lot to hike that part.

The approach that we took was to walk down the road towards Rarick Canyon and drop into the shallow end of the wash and then work our way downstream. This photo is very misleading as far as what the wash is like to hike in. Most of the time you will be stumbling over large cobbles and skirting around translucent pools of limpid water.

Most of the first images that you come to are small and some are so old that they are overgrown with lichen.

On the right of this panel is an owl perched on a branch to the left of which it looks like 2 men fighting.

One the left side of the wash in this area you can find the Sabertooth Panel. The panel faces north so it is easiest to find if you are using a GPS or GPS app or if you are walking down the wash and not up it.

Crossing back over to the west side of the wash are some bear paws.

This guy seems to have a thing for snakes. He appears to be holding at least one and there are 3 more on the left.

These might be hard to see but they are some of the next panels of very intricately pecked images.

Here is a close up of one of the images where you can see the huge number of pecks making up everything from the legs to the antlers.

Here is a large circular spiral, 3 inter-joined square spirals, and a couple of fat lizards (or maybe turtles).

Further down the draw there is a respect the past sign with what we labeled as the 'Main Panel' nearby. In the darker patina there are some spirals, fat lizards or turtles, and small anthropomorphs. We've seen the large elk like image on the left labeled 'Bullwinkle' in at least one place.

Here is a shaman with his staff.

There is a lot to see in Red Tank Draw. We turned around shortly after the Main Panel mostly because it was becoming tedious to hike any further. Just north of the main panel there is an old road that at one time came all the way down to the wash and that is what we followed back to our truck. As it turned out we were well rewarded for entering the wash on the shallow end and highly recommend that approach to others. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.