Gila Bend, AZ petroglyphs

Yesterday the day dawned absolutely BEAUTIFUL in Arizona and my Wing was calling me! So I decided to head off on a ride. I had heard about some Native American (Indian) petroglyphs near Gila Bend. Petroglyphs are etching in stone done by the natives many moons ago and pretty cool.



Here is my scoot on Vulture Mine Rd. near Wickenburg. Lots of motorcycles use this less traveled route through the desert! It comes out near Interstate 10.



Here is the staging area to hike Vulture Peak! But since I was riding just kept moving on...



Stopped in Gila Bend for lunch at the Space Age Cafe. Here I met a Harley rider and we ended up having lunch together then headed out on our separate ways!



View of inside of cafe; note the small gift shop in the center. Food OK but not great.



Here is where I got nervous. The sign says 11 miles to the park and according to internet links the last 10.5 miles is on dirt roads. Tried to ascertain road status in Gila Bend but the people I talked to had never been out here... (sigh)

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I made it! Actually the internet was wrong, the road was paved all the way to the park; the only dirt road was the driveway into the Petroglyph parking area. Color me happy!



Next couple of pictures are the actual petroglyphs:








One of the information boards; there are many about to give information! I left shortly and headed back home.





Back on Vulture Mine Rd. Here is a picture of the Arizona state tree!



Almost home! The sun was going down and I thought this picture of the moon was neat.

I hope you enjoyed this account; I rode 226 miles total and averaged 53.3 MPG on fuel usage. Hit the super-slab twice for brief periods both on Interstate 10 and Interstate 8.

Did you ride any Dirt roads? I tryed one here, but it didn't feel right on it.

In that part of the world, pavement is scarce. You learn quickly to ride on gravel and/or dirt and like it, or don't ride at all.

Thanks for the photos. Brings back memories of a long time ago.

Jon

Windrider wrote:

Did you ride any Dirt roads? I tryed one here, but it didn't feel right on it.

Only about 1/4 mile this trip. But yes I do sometimes ride on dirt roads. As long as it is a firm good road no problems.

A lovely day out, so to see.
Over here (Belgium) we had some bad weather with heavy winds - up to 9Bft, this weekend. Not as bad as in some parts of the UK though, where there were severe floodings (once again).

These petroglyphs remind me of a similar kind of rock carvings, I once visited in Sweden. In Tanumshede there are more than 1000 of these to be found, and there are plenty more across Scandinavia.

I guess it was a kind of 'facebook' version 0.0.0.1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanumshede

And talking of 'dirt tracking' on a SW: on one of my rides I took a shortcut, that I believed was a paved road. After a while it turned into a kind of sandy trail, between sanddunes. Managed to stay upright, but the SW was a handful to say the least. The track was too narrow to turn, and I didn't risk to stop, so I continued, 'sliding it forward'. Fortunately it was only for a Mile or so. For a moment I thought of stopping and taking a picture of the SW on the trail, but as I said, I was too afraid the rear wheel would 'dig in' after coming to a full stop.

Back in the late 70's, my wife and I with our two daughters spent a summer night in Gila Bend. We were passing through heading back to Santa Fe, NM. I remember icing down the cold water to make it warm enough to bathe our two girls. The water coming out of the cold tap, was very hot. The motel also recommended we only drink bottled water. Brings back good memories. Thanks..

Hey "Glenn"
That picture of the 'state tree'... is that the state tree because of the type or because it's the only one in the state??? Oh yeah... and that site that charged $2.00 per vehicle... I don't suppose they let you in for half price did they??? Great tour and great pictures!

DickO wrote:

Hey "Glenn"
That picture of the 'state tree'... is that the state tree because of the type or because it's the only one in the state??? Oh yeah... and that site that charged $2.00 per vehicle... I don't suppose they let you in for half price did they??? Great tour and great pictures!

No the Palo Verde is the state tree but haven't see a lot of them LOL. And as to the $2.00 it is an "honor" system so I could have left nothing. But it is a nice place and the restroom was worth the 2 bucks!!! :lol!: