Round Trip Distance: 1.1 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4771 - 4908 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 2 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: 35.15521, -115.33494
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, historic ruins
Rock Spring is located off of the old Mojave Road in the vast Mojave National Preserve northwest of Needles, California. Being a key desert spring it has been visited probably for hundreds of years by native people who left signs of their passing on some of the boulders in the way of petroglyphs.
The trailhead is along the Cedar Canyon Road between Black Canyon and Lanfair. For turn-by-turn directions enter Rock Spring Loop Trail into your driving app. If coming from the direction of Hole in the Wall the trailhead is 5 miles east of the Black Canyon/Cedar Canyon Road junction. If coming from the east it is 9.8 miles from the Lanfair Road.
The Rock Spring Petroglyphs are easily accessible via the 1 mile Rock Spring Loop trail that begins near the remains of Bert Smith's rock house.
The well made Rock Spring Loop trail is easy to follow and pleasant to hike. At least when the temperature is only in the 70's.
The trail starts out heading in the direction of the wash. Right before it reaches the wash, only about 300 feet from where it started, it turns eastward to stay up on the benches above the wash. At this point there is a short unmarked side trail that leads down into the wash where you can spot a few petroglyphs.
The largest panel of petroglyphs are high up on the right side of a heavily graffitied slab of rock. Someone put their initials right over top of them. There are a few other faint petroglyphs higher up on another outcrop of rock and a couple all the way down in the wash upon some granite.
We explored the wash down to a dryfall and even below it before returning back to the main trail and continuing around the loop.
As the trail comes out of a narrow valley there is a spur on the right that leads past a kiosk about 'Desert Travelers' and then into the canyon below Rock Spring.
Here the right side of the canyon has quite a few petroglyphs pecked upon the granite boulders.
The first of them are down low right on the edge of the wash where you can walk right up to them.
More can be seen on the point right above Rock Spring.
These all show up well to the naked eye but are difficult to photograph. Largely because they are high up and out of reach.
More petroglyphs can be found on the bench that is above the wash but below the point. You have to get out of the wash and walk around the boulders to find them.
Just outside of the wash below Rock Spring there is a flat area off to the side of the wash that once served as the location of an Army post named Camp Rock. This post was occupied for the same brief period as the nearby Fort Piute with the purpose of protecting emigrants and the mail route. More petroglyphs can be found in this area.
