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A petroglyph panel at Mesa Verde National Park. NPS photo
Petroglyphs (carved) and pictographs (painted) are windows into life hundreds or thousands of years ago. Their human figures, animals and designs linked everyday life to the natural and spiritual worlds. They may look familiar, but their meanings remain a mystery; clues come from their setting, from archeology, and from stories and traditions passed down through generations. Treat these places with the respect you'd give any home or religious site.
Before you go, ask the park's visitor center or website: What's known about the rock art? Who made it, and why? Are any areas damaged or closed? Are there safety concerns, such as weather or rough terrain? How do you report vandalism? A printable guide is available to take along.
1. Why here?
Look around: the landforms, the sun's path, rocks and soil, plants and animals, how light and shadow move over the rock. Where and when rock art was made gives it meaning. Some accumulated one image at a time where people gathered; some track the sun, moon and stars; others mark routes or destinations, such as travel corridors and water sources.
How the sun reaches the petroglyphs at Puerto Pueblo. NPS
- Puerto Pueblo, Petrified Forest National Park: at the summer solstice, sunlight falls through a crack between boulders onto a small circular petroglyph; for about two weeks around June 21, light and shadow cross its rings as the sun rises.
- Nampaweep Canyon, Parashant National Monument: a passage native peoples used between the Grand Canyon and the ponderosa pine forests of Mt. Trumbull. Thousands of petroglyphs on its smooth basalt are thought to record events, memories and stories of ancestors who passed through.
Petroglyphs in Nampaweep Canyon. NPS photo
2. How did people get there?
Some sites are easy to reach; others meant hiking, climbing, ladders, scaffolding or boats. Could you reach the images from the ground?
Human figures at Canyonlands National Park, with a person for scale. NPS photo
- Canyonlands National Park: the tops of these painted figures are just within arm's reach — painters may have stood on rocks at the base, stepping back now and then to see their work. The human scale may be deliberate, and a clue to meaning.
- Virgin Islands National Park: the Taíno carved petroglyphs at pools and in or near caves, easy to reach on foot, to communicate with ancestors who gathered there — symbols, human figures and animals.
Taíno carvings at Reef Bay Waterfall. NPS photo
3. How were they made?
- Petroglyphs were carved, chipped or ground with handheld stone tools — smashing or grinding one rock against the surface, or striking a rock with a hammerstone. Blunt, pointed and edged stones left different marks.
- Pictographs were painted with brushes, stencils and other tools — sometimes paint was blown from the mouth. The longest-lasting pigments were ground minerals in a binder; plant washes faded faster. You're probably missing part of the picture.
| Park | What to notice |
|---|---|
| Hovenweep National Monument | spirals whose relation to the sun shows they were solar calendars |
| Yosemite National Park | animals made with thin lines, thick lines and blocks, carved through the dark, oxidized surface into lighter rock beneath |
| Dinosaur National Monument | red-painted representational images of lines and shapes |
| Canyon de Chelly National Monument | horses and riders |
Spiral petroglyphs at Hovenweep National Monument. NPS photo
Animal petroglyphs at Yosemite National Park. NPS photo
Red pictographs at Dinosaur National Monument. NPS photo
4. Depth, dimension, movement
Pictographs at Canyon de Chelly National Monument. NPS photo
Which riders look closer, which farther away? Are they stacked like lines of writing, or spread into the distance? Makers used tricks of perspective — painting on bulges and hollows of the rock so figures jut out or recede, and varying size to suggest depth. Images can seem to move: lizards sunning, riders galloping, bighorn sheep leaping, a hunter stalking a deer, a crowd dancing. Step closer, step back, try other angles, even squint.
5. What do they remind you of?
Lines and shapes form motifs — human figures, animals, sky phenomena, symbols. They might mean just what you think, or stand for ideas and traditions; no one living today is sure. A deer might be a deer — or mark good hunting, represent a shaman or ritual, or express a feeling. Meaning depended on time, place and the people who made and saw it.
A buffalo warning sign at Yellowstone National Park. NPS photo
Think of a Yellowstone road sign: a yellow diamond on a post with a black buffalo means watch for buffalo — but only if you know American road signs and a buffalo's silhouette. Symbols communicate only to those who can decode them.
6. Do you see vandalism?
Pictographs and modern graffiti at North Cascades National Park. NPS photo
Vandalism shows up as modern paint or carving over the old images — initials, names, dates, even phrases. Never add your own marks. Vandalism is illegal, makes these fragile images harder for everyone to learn from, and disrespects the descendants of the people who made them, for whom the markings are ancestral heritage.
Share what you saw
Draw it, write about it, photograph it; learn about the people and cultures who made it; tell someone — and explain why rock art should be preserved.
Sources
Based on "Learn to Look at Petroglyphs and Pictographs," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licencia: CC0 1.0 (dominio público) · Adaptado de www.nps.gov
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