Round Trip Distance: 300 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 2415 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Black Canyon Narrows
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
The Black Canyon Petroglyph Site is on the edge of the Black Mountain Wilderness Area about 17 miles north of Hinkley, California. The site includes one large panel of geometric images and a handful of smaller panels and individual petroglyphs.
For turn by turn directions you can enter 'Black Canyon Petroglyph Site, California' into your driving app. From Exit 227 of CA-58 at Hinkley you will be directed north on the Hinkley Road for 9.4 miles before turning left onto the Orchard Road. At the 12.3 mile point from CA-58 go right onto the Black Canyon Road. Continue for another 4.9 miles to the petroglyphs.
Due to loose sand a 4wd vehicle is recommended. If you continue driving beyond this point, maybe to visit Inscription Canyon, you will need a high clearance vehicle.
At one time the main panel of petroglyphs had a metal post with a plaque presumably providing some information about the petroglyphs. Presently the plaque is missing while the post remains.
The left side of the panel looks like blanket or pottery patterns.
Whatever the meaning since the lines of the images touch one another the overall meanings must be related.
More images can be found here and there along the same side of the wash as the big panel. The vertical lines at the top of this panel probably represent rain. The solid circle the sun or moon. The man and animal are obvious. The squiggly lines below the animal are probably a watering place with an atlatl to the left of that. In other words the hunter probably lies in wait for the game to visit the waterhole after it is replenished with rain.
On the opposite side of the wash there are a number of sheep grouped together.
And a group of anthropomorphic images also.
The gunslinger.
