Good Sight Mountains - BLM and State Lands

 There is a faint goggle-eyed image on the boulder at center

Cooke's Peak in the distance

I'd been wanting to make sure I made at least one trip to the Good Sights over the course of the winter/early spring desert hiking season as has been my wont for the last few years. We tried to go a couple of months ago, but the wind was just too damn fierce that day. I went out myself on Tuesday (3/22/22). Temps were cool. The wind mild. Although when I first got out of the car, there were a few gusts that put me on edge for minute or two.

After parking I trucked over to the cliffs where I knew the petroglyphs were. The cliffs are on a slant, so you start off low and end high on a very steep hillside with treacherous footing the entire way. Several people had messaged, emailed or otherwise let me know about this site complete with photos. So, as it turns out, familiarity, plus the difficulty of exploring the rock art here, does breed contempt. I did my best, but my interest just wasn't there. The fact the none of the images I saw were particularly compelling didn't help matters either.

 High up on the hill, after not seeing any  petroglyphs for some time, I came upon one, and decided it would be my last for the day. I made my way up through a break in the cliffs to the hillside above and starting heading  back to continue the second part of my hike.

 I explored up a wide canyon, just to north of the petroglyphs site, all the way back to a dry waterfall (like so many other canyons have on the steep western side of the Good Sights). On the way I found an area of bedrock I had spied on Google Earth and thought, " there could be bedrock mortars here," and lo and behold there was . . . one.  Bedrock mortars are like the consolation prize when one is exploring for archaeological sites, and one bedrock mortar is hardly any consolation at all. Still, there it was, and it was a no doubter.

 Nearby,  a large boulder held some promise, and I'm pretty sure I found two slab metates there, but I wouldn't bet the family farm on them. Back at the water fall, there were dead trees, and bedrock cisterns (waterless). 

I climbed up above and encountered a classic Good Sights scene with big junipers and golden grass on tilting slopes. Beautiful.

 On the way back I explored a sandy high spot in between two arroyos, and began finding debitage and broken pieces of groundstone. Eventually, I  did find these really nice manos which made me smile.

 It had been a longer hike than most of the ones I do nowadays, but it was good.