San MarinMultiple PCNsElevation 174 ft.A form of rock art known as the pecked curvilinear mucleated (PCN) petroglyph survives in a number of North Bay locations and can be found throughout the Coast Range mountains from the Oregon border to Santa Barbara.For an in-depth study of PCNs see Donna Gillette’s 2011 dissertation Cultural Markers on the […]
Stromer Spring25 bedrock mortars, cupules, and PCN-style petroglyphsElevation 2023 ft.We used to drink from Stromer Spring in the not-so-distant past. The Park District warns against doing it now.A nice, single-track trail passes near here. We followed it many times without ever stopping to examine these rocks. If we considered them at all, we dismissed them […]
Sulphur Spring18 cupule rock; 5 bedrock mortars; slick 70′ away.Elevation 722 ft.The cupule rock. The use of cupule rocks here and elsewhere is, for the most part, shrouded in mystery. See Cupule Petroglyphs in the Diablo Range by E. Breck Parkman in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. […]
Upper Crow Creek3 bedrock mortars and a PCN.This sure looks like a Pecked Curvilinear Nucleated petroglyph to us. If it is, does that mean this site had some special significance?
ALA-4812 shallow bedrock mortarsElevation 655 ft.We finally discovered this site after years of looking for it. The mortars are on separate rocks near the creek. We know there’s a circle-within-a-circle petroglyph here somewhere, so we’ll be back..
Alvarado Park2 bedrock mortars, 275+ cupules, 2 PCNs, and midden behind gazebo.This chlorite blueschist outcropping on Wildcat Creek has more cupules on it than any other we know of in the Bay Area. Was it just the blueschist found here and on Baxter Creek that attracted cuple-makers, or was something else at work?Jim and Heather […]
Black Hills Trail.Three bedrock mortars, a possible PCN, and a slick.Elevation 1520 ft.Pecked curvilinear nucleated petroglyphs are not supposed to occur in Contra Costa County.We’re not so sure.
Camp Confluence1 bedrock mortar on the north fork of Kaiser Creek.There’s supposed to be a petroglyph boulder on the upper reaches of Kaiser Creek, but we’ve never been able to find it. We did find this single mortar and little camp though.
Canyon Trail Park Petroglyph Boulder20+ bedrock mortars and 175+ cupules on one chlorite blueschist boulder.Elevation 141 ft.CA-CCO-152This rock is in Canyon Trail Park on a branch of Baxter Creek. Baxter Creek flows into the Bay near Stege, a long-vanished neighborhood on the old shoreline of San Francisco Bay, northwest of Albany hill. Some of the […]
Chitactac75 bedrock mortars and a petroglyphBay Area Rock Art Research Association (BARARA) members view the restored village site.Remember: Stay on the pathway and no daylighting!
