Round Trip Distance: 0.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 5964 - 6099 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hr. 15 mins.
Trailhead: Peninsula Petroglyphs
Fee: $10/vehicle
Attractions: petroglyphs
The Peninsula Petroglyph trail is located 17 miles north of Springerville, Arizona in the Lyman Lake State Park. Hundreds of petroglyphs can be found on many of the boulders both above and below the west rim of a short peninsula that juts out into the lake that was formed by damming the Little Colorado River. The Little Colorado River was a major migration route for the Hopi and other earlier indigenous people.
For turn-by-turn directions you can enter 'Lyman Lake State Park' into your driving app. The park is right alongside US Highway 191 which runs north through eastern Arizona and up through Moab, Utah.
The very first petroglyphs are on a rock near the trailhead right where a loop begins. There is a turkey track on the left side of the rock that is easy to miss.
A well constructed trail climbs the side of the hill to where most of the petroglyphs can be found.
On the back of the kiosk at the trailhead there is an explanation of this panel. It points out the Hopi water serpent and a woman giving birth among other interesting things.
Lower down on the hill is this interesting snake panel that is also explained on the back of the trailhead kiosk.
Upside down figures such as this often times represent death or that someone died.
Continuing on around the hill below the rim there are lots of other interesting images on many of the boulders. Here is an interesting image with another serpent.
This maze of interconnected lines might be a map.
Bear paws that might be clan symbols occur in multiple places.
Back up on top of the mesa the rim is lined with the smooth surfaces of rocks that were used as canvases for even more images.
There are various geometric designs that look like they should mean something.
The one is a rectangle with 'X's' inside and 5 ray lines and this one is the same but a circle.
A little like a field of stars. The line might represent the dense plain of the Milky Way.
There are at least 3 more boulders with images on the rim of the mesa just to the south that overlooks the trailhead that are worth seeing. Other than the inscription with the name 'Tom' and what looks like a cattle brand this boulder has a couple of bear prints.
