San Diego - Riverside Rock Art in Luiseno-Cahuilla Territory, Southern California. Neighbors of the Kumeyaay. Luiseno or Cahuilla Rock Art. Puberty Related Rock Art. Southern California Rock Art.

My friends, Joel and Rick, told me about this site and they warned me that it was a difficult and potentially dangerous hike involving steep drop-offs and a climb out, but that the rock art was extraordinary.  Well, they were correct on both accounts. The only difficulty I didn't have to overcome was Diamondback Rattlesnakes, thanks to the cold temperatures at night.  Scorpions, ticks, spiders, or centipedes may have been around the dark and dank shelters or the vegetation choked creek bed, but I did not have any interactions with them.  I did walk with some hesitancy to the sites thinking about all of these creatures!  One of the shelters is about 7 feet up a granite wall and is about 2 feet tall in most places.  The light is too low to shoot without flash.  Even a 10mm lens hardly did the rock art justice as the focal plane, at times, was about a foot.   Another feature that is unusual to me is that the paintings are on dark rock and to make them visible, unfortunately, requires a lot of computer work.  A prime example is the second pair of photos below - the one on the left is "as is" and the one on the right is DS.  Even with Photoshop and Dstretch [thank you to Jon Harman], I could barely pull out the figure.  As you can see, most of the rest of the rock art is made up of dots, zig-zags and intertwining or braided lines in white and red.  The blue is a DS artifact. 

Admittedly, I know very little about this area.  The Luiseno were known to have rock art paintings associated with young women puberty rites and these paintings below have elements that are related to such rites of passage.  It is difficult to ascribe this rock art to either the Luiseno or the Cahuilla.

Click on a photograph to enlarge it.  Photos are copyright by Don Liponi 2015.  See you on the trail!

Lots of Dots, Zig Zags and Braids.  The rock art itself is red, but both photos are DStretched.

Pre and Post DStretch - I am not sure if the right photograph actually shows an anthropomorph or not?

The blue elements are actually red - this is a Dstretch rendition.

Above are some Abstract elements - DS is used to bring out the faded red designs.

 

 

A DS version of this art, although the paint is a faded Red

 

The lower photographs are multicolored Braiding designs on the ceiling of a Rock Shelter.