Round Trip Distance: 500 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4284 - 4307 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Spiral Shelters
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, rock shelters
The Spiral Shelters are located along the Chalk Bluff Road in Bishop, California. Found at the site are a couple of rock shelters that show signs of habitation where among the few petroglyphs present there is an elaborately decorated boulder that is covered with spirals and concentric circles.
The unmarked trailhead is a small pullout near a cattleguard that is 2 miles past the Happy Boulders trailhead or 1 mile past the unmarked 13 Moons trailhead.
The rock shelter that is furthest from the Chalk Bluff Road is easy to spot from where you park near the cattleguard.
As you hike up the rocky wash toward the easy to spot rock shelter you will notice another one on the left.
The boulder with the concentric circles and spirals is right next to the trail and almost impossible to miss.
Right behind the Spiral Boulder is the first rock shelter with one little short wall of rocks that aren't in this particular photo.
Other petroglyphs can be spotted on the boulders around the rock shelter like this image of a lizard.
There are also more concentric circles in several places.
Here is a closer look at the prominent concentric circles on the top of the Spiral Boulder.
We didn't scramble all the way up to the second rock shelter but it was easy to make out it's blackened, soot covered ceiling, from a distance.
