Round Trip Distance: 0.4 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 4232 - 4399 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Happy Boulders
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, grinding slick
Happy Boulders is a very popular bouldering venue for rock climbers along the Chalk Bluff Road in Bishop, California. One of the boulders that they don't climb on is covered with petroglyphs. Other boulders in the area provided enough cover to be used as rock shelters by the same people that made the petroglyphs.
For turn by turn directions you can enter 'Happy Boulders' into your driving app. If you are already going to the Sad Boulders site then the Happy Boulders trailhead is only 0.85 miles further up the road.
From the parking area the trail climbs steadily around the shoulder of the hill on a moderate slope.
Before going a quarter mile the boulder with the petroglyphs is easily viewable in the middle of the drainage.
This photo was taken using a zoom lens without leaving the trail. Most of the petroglyphs can be clearly seen even from that distance.
Once you are about level with the boulder there is a fairly easy route where you can scramble over to the boulder for a closer look.
Most of the images are grouped near the bottom of the boulder.
If our information is correct the petroglyphs are Paiute in origin.
Images along the top of the boulder are harder to make out but there is a rake symbol on the right which symbol usually represents rain.
Once here you might find it interesting to hike up the trail through the boulder field to see any rock shelters and search for more petroglyphs.
We did notice a well worn, rather large, grinding slick in one place between some boulders.
