Round Trip Distance: 0.25 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 5254 - 5484 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: 36.96309, -112.86747
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
Rosy Canyon Site 1 is located just off of County Highway 237 near the end of Parshont Point northeast of Colorado City, Arizona. Found at the site are several large panels of what look like Paiute petroglyphs. One of the panels reads something like an ancient, somewhat lewd, comic strip.
To get there, turn off of AZ 389, east of Colorado City, onto County Highway 237. Continue for 5.9 miles and turn right onto a dirt road.
After turning off of the pavement the dirt road comes to a 'T' within about 100 feet where you will want to go to the right. Continue for 4 tenths of a mile and take the left fork. Depending on the road conditions you might need a vehicle with a little more than highway ground clearance and you could even need 4WD. If you have to pull over and park you will be adding less than a mile to the total round trip distance.
The left fork of the road ends on a little hill at a loop that serves as the trailhead. The petroglyphs are high up on the cliff to the right of what looks like a cave a little over 500 feet away and about 150 feet higher in elevation. The petroglyphs are hard to make out from below. At present there isn't an established trail up to the petroglyphs so work out whatever route seems best to you. If over time a trail does begin to develop try to follow it so that there becomes one distinct route.
When you get up there you will find the main panel of petroglyphs on the left, or cave side of the cliff. Some of them extend rather high up along the slope on the left.
On the far right is a figure that might be holding a knife. Looking closely at the face you can see eyes and a wide mouth that is either grinning or snarling.
Another set of images shows a woman giving birth over a snake. The figure on the lefts head is elongated. If you think of a cartoon where someones eyes are bugging out of the face and apply that to the figures head you can picture it as the figures entire face lurching forward. Looking closely you can make out the wide eyed face on the right of the lurching head staring at the woman giving birth.
Here is another comical set of images. The figure on the right we are guessing is a woman. Beneath the poofy hair you can see a pair of eyes, a nose in profile, and a big grinning mouth. To the left is a figure that is pointing at her crouch that is either aghast or laughing.
Most of the rest of the images seem more normal like this figure beside a pair of connected opposite turning spirals.
There may be more intended humor that we aren't picking up on. Some of the images are a little blotchy and hard to make out.
In the top center here there is what looks like a bighorn sheep with anthropomorphic figures under it, behind it, and over it. They all seem connected in one manner or another including with a pair of concentric circles. The bighorn appears to be speaking to a snake. Also present are a couple of rayed circles and several more anthropomorphic images.
There are quite a few other images that can be seen in the following slideshow besides those that we've shown here.
