Sky Rock Petroglypy Gallery (Iny-363)

Sky Rock Gallery (Iny-363)
Volcanic Tablelands, N. of Bishop, CA

I visited the Sky Rock Petroglyph Site on the afternoon of Monday, May 24, 2021. This iconic petroglyph is located north of Bishop, California, in a draw on the southern edge of the Volcanic Tablelands. I put a lot of time and effort into locating and visiting this sacred place. To see the blog I wrote about the trip that included my visit to Sky Rock, look here. This petroglyph panel was very difficult to photograph, but I did the best I could. Below are the photographs I took that afternoon– I hope you enjoy them! By the way, for the directions I took to visit this site (and 13 Moons), go here.

These First Thirteen Photos Were Taken With My Nikon P1000…

DSCN8609 — Sky Rock is just below the ridge that these boulders are sitting on. I took this photo as I was walking to Sky Rock from across the draw at 13 Moons.

DSCN8611 — Can you see Sky Rock? It is in the center of this photo. It is difficult to spot...

DSCN8612 — I got more and more excited as I climbed around boulders and more of the panel came into view.

DSCN8614 — A closer view of the top center of the panel.

DSCN8615 — A closer view of the large circular element on the right hand side of the panel.

DSCN8616 — Details from the left hand side of the panel.

DSCN8617 — As I worked my way around to the south side of the rock, more of the panel began to come into my view.

DSCN8621 — This angle gave me a view of most of the panel, although the angle was not great.

DSCN8624 — Such a beautiful landscape and such a beautiful rock art panel.

DSCN8627 — This is my favorite photo of the site.

DSCN8641 — I took this shot from down below in the draw, to demonstrate that the rock art cannot be seen from below.

These Ten Shots Were Taken With My Nikon D7200…

These shots are fairly repetitive, so I will dispense with the explanatory captions.

Diagram of Sky Rock From Werlhof’s 1965 Report…

SkyRockDiagram — The diagram of Sky Rock in Jay von Werlhof's 1965 report entitled "Rock Art of Owens Valley, California".

From Werlhof’s diagram it is apparent that many of the elements below the second horizontal line cannot be seen from the areas I was able to climb to. As I mention in my blog, that was one vantage point that I think would provide a view of the entire panel, but I was unable to climb up it, due to safety concerns (yes, I am turning into a chicken in my old age!).