Petroglyph Lake - Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge (Lake County, Oregon)

My final destination for this little jaunt is a petroglyph site on the companion refuge to my early stop. The Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge, in conjunction with Sheldon, serve as a summer and fall home to thousands of pronghorn. The ancient Native Americans that inhabited this region knew this very well and hunted this area for millennia. In some cases, they left their marks to be scene for the generations to come. If only we could understand the stories their silent art recorded.

Leaving Plush, OR, the gravel road climbs up onto the high plateau of the refuge. The golden grasses expand across this landscape as far as the eye can see with no sign of man's interference except for the lonely road. Finding a small sign for Petroglyph Lake, I take a left turn only to find a locked gate barring my further forward progress. Oh well, I guess I'll hike it from here.

The "trail" is simply a dirt road parting the golden sea. With each step I take, a hundred grasshoppers take flight to remove themselves from my path. Honestly, I've never seen so many grasshoppers. They occasionally land on me as they try to escape. I giggle to myself as I consider how bad these long-legged creatures are at flight navigation.

After a mile or so, a distant cliff of basalt comes into view. Presumably, this borders Petroglyph Lake and I suspect I will find rock art scratched into these boulders that gives the lake it's name. 

As I approach closer, I see the depression contains a murky water, similar in color to the grasses surrounding it. The double-track turns to single-track as it heads towards the basalt cliff side. With each step, I carefully watch for rattlesnakes. It's mid-day and the temperature is just about right for the venomous slitherers to be active. 

I make my way to the ever-shrinking shoreline of the lake. The earth has dried and cracked as it bakes in the unrelenting sunlight. I note numerous antelope tracks and another set that I initially guess to be mountain lion, but later, as I realize how the cracking soil enhances the size of the tracks, I settle on coyote. As I look off in the distance, I see one of the buggers staring back at me, which re-enforces my identification.

I head back over towards the cliff and begin to examine the surface for petroglyphs. A few side trails lead up to the cliff. At first, I assume these are human trails, but as I reach the boulders and find small caves and openings at the end of each, I quickly realize these are well-worn coyote trails, each leading to their respective dens. No wonder the little guy was watching me so closely.

Above the dens, I see numerous panels. There are some unique representations of reptiles with delicate fingers and tales scratched into the stone with precision. As I walk along the cliff, I find several other figures, including some unique ornamented humanoid figures. After walking the length of the cliff, I turn and head back to the jeep. It was a sun-baked 4.2 miles through the grasslands, but it was definitely worth it and a nice finale to this trip.