Kumeyaay Rock Art in San Diego County. Another beautiful rock shelter of multicolored sunbursts. Southern California Rock Art.





With Summer just around the corner I was reminded of the migrations of the Kumeyaay to find a cooler climate, new food resources, and water.  This area offered all those prospects in a predictable or reliable way.  This small shelter resides above a creek and faces east towards the rising sun.

While I was growing up my father took me to sites in the area as we shared a growing appreciation for the Kumeyaay culture and its mysteries.  At that time there was a large and clean spring in the area.  Today it is befouled and polluted, sucked nearly dry by invading Tamarisk.  It is a sad site to see.  Steps are being taken by Anza Borrego State Park to eradicate the Tamarisk and restore the once beautiful landscape of the area.  If we are fortunate we can restore the useful harmony seemingly portrayed in the rock art at this site and other sites in the area.

My father took me on many walks in this area as a boy.  Once we walked up this granitic sand dune close to sunset.  It was early summer and it was still warm out.  He asked me, "Don, do you know how I know there is a God?"
"No", I said.
"Dig into the sand at your feet" my dad suggested.
After scooping out sand and digging a little hole, I came across a small sand dollar.  Then several more.  It seemed the dune was full of them.  It was like digging at the sea shore, yet we were more than 4000 feet above sea level in the mountains and nearly 100 miles away.  It didn't seem likely to me that these were trade items as they were spread over the dune.  All that was left was to think that the Creator had played a role in putting them there when the earth was much different.  Like so many things from the past, what actually happened is unknowable.

Click on photos to enlarge - copyright 2014.  Don Liponi.