Brownstone canyon, short way

We started out today from one of the neighborhoods under construction on crossbridge drive. We navigated the construction zone and drove 3.3 miles toward the Brownstone canyon trailhead. It is on a dirt road that turns into a wash and ends at a fence and parking lot. We stopped about .5 miles short of the end of the road leaving a half mile of hiking to the petroglyphs and pictographs.

This is the end of the road and the parking lot. The destination is straight ahead before you reach the red rock.

Before reaching the main art area there is a set of rocks on the right. It is the first set of rocks on the right. By going past them and looking back toward the west side of the rock you can see this panel.

A little further, on the left are some pictographs near the mouth of the wash where the old stock dam is.

All along the rocks on the left are pictographs. Many are high on the wall requiring a telephoto lens to get close photos.

This is the alcove where the pictographs are. It is hidden behind a turtle shaped rock and several trees.

In the alcove manzanita was blooming.

Further past the tan sandstone rocks are an area of red sandstone. There is another stock dam on the far side of that rock area.

Looking back toward town.

The entire trail in in wash gravel.

 This is the route we took. From the fence the first set of rocks on the right have petroglyphs. The next ones are on the left near the mouth of the dam canyon. Then all along there are petroglyphs up high that require a telephoto lens, or binoculars. The 5th place mark are where the painted ones are.

Click this link to open a photosphere of the point right where the painted pictographs are. They are behind the trees on the wall.

valley of fire parking lot 1 east exploratory

A few shots of the birds around the feeders at the visitors center before getting on with the hike.

We drove to White Dome parking lot to see what we could see, and there were 8 bighorns at the trailhead.

Back at the trailhead for the day. This is from parking lot #1 looking east. We went straight and soon met a small wash that led left toward the main wash that crosses the road between parking lot #1 and #2.

This is the small wash looking north.

Same wash with a view of black cap straight ahead. That formation is also visible from the road from parking lot #2.

The rocks were colorful.

We came to one small slot section.

Further down the small wash with black cap still visible.

When we met the main wash we turned right (east) and passed by black cap.

The main wash passed through different sections of rock.

About one mile down the wash there were yellow rocks of a similar type as found at yellow spire.

Looking on down the wash from the yellow rock area you can see we will soon come to red rock. At the low red wall beyond the sand the path turns sharply left and twists around a little before a wash on the right leads in the direction we wanted to go. There was another wash near here (the photo) that went the right direction through whitish colored rock. Next time we might try that way.

This is a side trip up the yellow rocks to see what lay beyond.

This is what lay beyond.

After passing the sharp left turn and following the red rock wall to some S curves there were two areas of dry falls that were easy to navigate.

We turned right into the red canyon going our direction and followed it for about .3 miles before heading cross country in the direction of the car.

Unusual rock formation just before we left the wash.

Going cross country there were no direct washes to follow.

Looking back the way we came.

Small section of a wash we were able to follow a little.

The terrain continued like this until we reached a high point of open sandy desert where we should have been able to see the car but there was one more ridge and about 3/4 mile to go to the car.