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tommy750 Posts: 1071
5/13/2012
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According to Manfred Knaak's "The Forgotten Artists," ABDSP has three main rock art styles: Western Petroglyph, San Luis Rey and La Rumorosa. I've never actually seen the first style and like many, have only seen the Little Blair Valley example of San Luis Rey. Have enjoyed the wonderful Indian Hill and Carrizo Canyon examples of La Rumorosa style and decide to investigate this style further. The name comes from a Kumeyaay site in Northern Baja with "La Rumorosa Style" being coined by Ken Hedges in the early '70s. He described it as:
"characterized by the presence of digitate anthropomorphs (human figures with the fingers
and/or toes represented), sauromorphs (lizard forms), sunbursts, circles, and rectangular
grids as defining elements. Although both representational and abstract forms are present,
it is the occurrence of the representational elements, particularly the digitate
anthropomorph, which sets this style apart from others in southwestern California.
Designs occur in at least four colors – red, black, white, and yellow – with most sites
having at least two colors."
(Rock Art in Southern California. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 9(4):1-28)
Decided to head down to La Rumorosa (El Vallecito) site and see what he was talking about. The girlfriend and I made our way south through Mexicali and headed west on Hwy 2. If you enjoy the I-8 grade entering/leaving the Imperial Valley, La Rumorosa grade is that times 5. Here's a link to a 2 min video from yesterday while driving down the grade:
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The exit sign from Hwy 2. You'll need to head north on an unmarked dirt road for about a mile and will arrive at the archeological site. It's open Wed-Sun till 4pm. The caretaker said Sunday is crowded. We saw two other small groups the entire time we were there on Saturday. The fee is a few bucks each. You're given a simple map of the site and off you go. Expect 1-2 miles of walking and containers are not allowed although the locals all had them. The site was quite clean and well-ordered (Daren, even the morteros were poop-free).
Vallecitos Exit by tomteske, on Flickr
Vallecitos Exit by tomteske, on Flickr
There's about 14 named sites but only five are accessible to the public: El Tiburon (the rock looks like a shark), El Diablito/Solstice Cave, El Hombre Enraizado (man with roots), El Indio/El Hongo (again, the rock looks like a mushroom) and Los Solecitos (little suns)/Wittinnur (someone's name?). The last two sites are stupendous.
The Shark Cave. Only a few glyphs including one that reportedly looks like a butterfly.
Cueva de Tiburon by tomteske, on Flickr
Diablito/Solstice Cave. Apparently, the winter solstice sunrise illuminates the little devil's eyes.
Cueva del Diablito o Solsticio by tomteske, on Flickr
Cueva del Diablito o Solsticio by tomteske, on Flickr
El Diablito by tomteske, on Flickr
El Diablito DStretched.
El Diablito o del Solsticio by tomteske, on Flickr
Cueva del Diablito o Solsticio Panel by tomteske, on Flickr
Rooted Man Cave. This figure looked like a pictograph/petroglyph combination. A strange symbol is present in an adjacent cave.
Cueva del Hombre Enraizado by tomteske, on Flickr
El Hombre Enraizado DStretched.
Cueva del Hombre Enraizado by tomteske, on Flickr
Cueva del Hombre Enraizado by tomteske, on Flickr
On the way to the next cave, a couple of rock circles were obvious. The caretaker said these were original to the site but other rocks arranged into symbols were later additions.
Rock Circles by tomteske, on Flickr
Didn't see any snakes this trip.
Cuidado by tomteske, on Flickr
The Indian/Mushroom Cave was stunning. Here's a few DStretched images.
Cueva del Indio o El Hongo West by tomteske, on Flickr
Cueva del Indio o El Hongo West by tomteske, on Flickr
Cueva del Indio o El Hongo West by tomteske, on Flickr
Scotoma_lds by tomteske, on Flickr
Cueva del Indio o Hongo East by tomteske, on Flickr
The last cave was The Little Suns/Wittinnur. Also an amazing site.
Los Solstices o Wittinnur Panel by tomteske, on Flickr
Solstice Cave by tomteske, on Flickr
Kind of a long post, but there was an incredible amount of cave art to see. Although now artificially separated from the Kumeyaay sites we routinely encounter on our side of the border, El Vallecito is only about five miles due south of Blue Angels Peak and 15 miles south of Indian Hill. Would definitely recommend a visit if you're looking for a great day trip. Here's a link to more Vallecito pics if you're interested. Tom
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommy750/sets/72157629714899716/
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