On a previous trip to Rock Springs, I think it was around 2012, I read about a volcanic plug called Boar's Tusk. Wanting to see it, we drove ten miles out of town, then started down a gravel road toward the "Tusk" some twenty miles away. After a couple miles of extremely rough road, I decided it wasn't worth it and gave up the effort. Next time I was in Rock Springs, I didn't even consider making that trip. Since then, however, I learned there is more to see along the road to Boar's Tusk, specifically some very old petroglyphs. With this added incentive, I decided to give it a try and found the road condition was much improved, in fact quite good.
I found three different web sites with directions and descriptions of the White Mountain Petroglyphs. One said the hike from the parking area is a quarter mile, another said a half mile, the third said it was two-thirds mile and uphill. When I arrived, I found the last description to be most accurate, and felt it was more of a hike than I was willing to do. However, the trail was wide and hard packed, a perfect opportunity to use my new electric bicycle. I can say it was a lot of fun breezing along under power, with no effort on my part. The photo below was taken from a secondary gate intended to keep cattle out. For perspective, the cliff was about 200 yards from end to end, with petroglyphs all along it.
There were several small caves in the cliff, most of which had some sort of nesting material inside, apparently used by animals. One cave had soot on its ceiling, suggesting humans had used it and had fires.
As for the petroglyphs, they are definitely different than most I've seen, being mostly straight lines used to represent the intended subjects. Stick figures were used to depict humans, although some human figures had parallel lines to give dimension to them. Angled lines could be interpreted as teepees or other objects.
Animals were made using curves, but they seemed more stylized than realistically shaped.
The most unusual items were deeply cut grooves that some interpret as made by fingers gripping the surface many times and with a lot of force. One theory has it that women in child birth would grip the wall in pain so forcefully as to cut these deep grooves. I don't buy that, especially since not all have five grooves, and why would child birth take place out in the open when caves are readily available?
Of course, there are some modern "petroglyphs", otherwise known as grafitti, that will probably cause visitors a thousand years from now to wonder what those primitives were trying to say.
The Boar's Tusk was also worth seeing, and different from every angle. A trail circles the formation so one can see those differences.
A few miles farther down the road is the start of the large sand dune field mentioned in an earlier travelogue. This section has been set aside as a playground for folks with dune buggies, ATVs, etc. The parking lot had numerous RVs set up for camping, giving enthusiasts convenient access to the dunes.
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