It's a BLM campground, featuring nice big spots with space between the sites and pretty level as well. For the $8 camping fee, there's pit toilets and a garbage dumpster along with a camp host. Not bad. It wasn't crowded, perhaps slightly less than half full.
It's right next to the Painted Rock Petroglyph site itself.
From wikipedia: LINK
The Painted Rock Petroglyph Site is a collection of hundreds of ancient petroglyphs near the town of Theba, Arizona, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The site is operated and maintained by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and includes an improved campground as well as an informative walking trail showcasing the petroglyphs.
I went a bit overboard on the pics of the petroglyphs, but instead of a bunch of pics to bore you with, here's a movie of them instead...hopefully a bit more entertaining.
A view of nearby Oatman Mountain
from the petroglyph site
I parked Uma, the URRV, pretty close to the mound
of rocks that is the petroglyphs site
One can see a trail going all the way to the top of Oatman Mountain so after setting up camp I rode Scarlett to see how far up I could get.
Turns out, not that far. There's a locked gate, the shot below is as close to the base of Oatman Mountain that I reached.
Near the locked gate to the trail up
Oatman Mountain
A view of the top of Oatman Mountain
from the access road
After leaving the Oatman Mountain area, I wandered over to the Painted Rock Dam but it too can't be reached due to locked gates put up by the Corps of Engineers.
Returning back to the campsite, I took a slight detour onto what I think was BLM land (but not listed as camping area by allstays.com) to pose Scarlett with a nearby hill.
Sunset was a short wait after I returned, not a cloud in the sky, went for artsy shots instead.
I am unsure if I'll stick around one more day, and explore nearby Gila Bend. I guess I'll make up my mind in the morning.
3 comments:
Nice Petroglyph video! And artsy sunset. Today was the first time the sunset was colorful…
Thanks RichardM, you guys in AZ?
Yep! Arrived late at night on the 9th.
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