Petroglyph Point is a tuff cliff in a detached unit of the monument holding more than five thousand carvings, one of the largest concentrations of rock art in California. The images were cut when Tule Lake stood high enough for people to reach the cliff by canoe.
Details
- Type
- Historic Site
- Accessibility
- Limited accessibility
The carvings
The bluff is volcanic tuff, soft enough to carve. Native peoples paddled out in canoes with sharp sticks or stones and cut images into the cliff when the waters of Tule Lake reached its base. The art is dominated by geometric patterns rather than figures of people or animals, and its meanings are largely undocumented. A chain-link fence was installed in the 1930s to protect the carvings from damage.
Birds at the cliff
The face is nesting habitat for cliff swallows, which build clusters of round mud nests, and for falcons, hawks, and owls present from spring into early fall. Hundreds of bald eagles winter in the surrounding basin.