Monterey County, California rock art site...

Hi All -

My second post.

Up in Big Sur along the Central California coast are some steep mountains that seemingly jut right out of the ocean. If one were to explore the back country, he might find hot springs, swimming holes, deep canyons and archaeology sites.

I was able to locate one of the rock art sites in this area awhile back. It has been reported that the area in which the site is found was once home to the Esselen tribe.

There is a large rock formation nearby that appears to resemble a sculpted hand. There are MANY 'hand print' pictographs inside several caves. It is easy to imagine that the tribe identified with the 'sculpted hand' rock formation and perhaps assumed it's identity for themselves?

I have read that on an old road construction project on which natives from the four corners area were employed as laborers, each native used a stylized bear paw design as his 'signature' when he picked up his paycheck. Is it possible that each of the handprints might represent an individual of the 'hand' tribe?

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Monterey and Big Sur are such great areas! I was able to hike Soberanes Canyon and Rocky Ridge early this month. I'm going to have a little time to play again there in 3 weeks, I'd like to look into checking out this rock art.

Jessica