Cuevas Pintas rock art near Loreto
Originally uploaded by Jerry W. Lewis
While doing a little exploring in the desert on a recent trip to Loreto, Mexico in the Baja, we came across a small arroyo, lush with ferns, palms and other plants thriving from a small spring-fed creek.
It was the green foilage in the middle of the arid desert that attracted us, but we soon discovered this is also an area known as Cuevas Pintas, an archeological zone with some interesting ancient paintings on rock walls in a sheltered area near the stream.
Several paintings are scattered throughout the La Giganta Mountain Range, and these are the closest to Loreto, just about 15km to the west on the road that leads to Las Parras from Highway 1. The road is paved for part of the way now, and crews, as of April 2009, were busy working to complete the paving. We turned around when the paving ran out because of our small rental car, but the gravel road is passable.
You'll now see a sign posted on the side of the road for Cuevas Pintas, making it pretty easy to find. A small trail leads up the canyon and along several beautiful pools of water. There's only a small fence and information sign protecting these paintings, but the area was surprisingly clean given how accessible it is.
It's easy to see the appeal of the area to the ancient peoples of the Baja, and it's believed most of the paintings were probably done by shamen, possibly in some type of ceremony.
I haven't found a lot of information on this particular site, but did find a good site on petroglyphs and pictographs in the northern California Baja.
Photographing these paintings just makes me want to find some more next trip down to the Baja.
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