Martha’s Butte

I sat there at the base of Martha’s Butte, exhausted. I just finished circumnavigating it, taking pictures of the rock pecked images, contemplating, “The choice of rocks is not random…” I have been to enough sites to know, to understand that the artists making the art are thinking more of just choosing a big desert varnished rock, then pecking out an idea, no, there is way more to it. This place is a prime example to take note.

Martha’s Butte is not a hushed secret among petroglyph photographers. The hike was presented to me with a few key notes. It’s on the Petrified Forest web site. The rangers, if you get one that is enthusiastic about his or her work, will discuss the site with you.

It’s about a mile hike without a designated path. You can’t see the butte from where you park so a little bit of homework is going to help you orient yourself to the terrain. The butte has a big block that is split on top giving it a distinctive feature to keep in site as you hike across the open desert.

You can see in the images below, it looks like a long mile and with the soft sand in the wash, it’s even longer. I hiked it on a particularly hot day, 91 degrees. I’m not heat tolerant from all the years of desert hiking in AZ but it was manageable.

Walker’s Stump comes into view as well, it’s an exposed petrified tree stump that appears otherworldly. There are areas of cryptobiotic soil that should be avoided, choose to walk on the hard pack if possible.

I suggest walking counter clockwise around the butte. Circle the boulders that have rock peckings, often there are more than one surface that have Tapamveni.

Walker’s Stump on the L, Martha’s Butte on the R

Transcript from a voice recording at the base of the site, resting, after photographing the area.

I’m at  Martha's Butte. 

It's March 20th, the equinox. I hiked over from my car, it's about a mile, long mile, sandy soil. There are petroglyphs all around the base of Martha's Butte. They are not... put in just any place. They're put in specific areas. It's not random where they place the petroglyphs. There are big, huge rocks that are just primed for a petroglyph. But they're not there. But right next to it is a small rock. And on a side of the rock that you wouldn't expect, the petroglyph to be on. And it's not about comfort, because there's... there are... rock peckings that are close to the ground. that you would have to lay down to do. And, as I said, they're... in chosen spots. They're not, uh, just on any spot.

I walked around the entire butte, and they're on, uh, prominent sides. I'm not sure. I think it's west and south sides. And some on the north, too. The biggest rock panel, uh, was pretty deeply incised, and it looked like there were rock peckings in there, because some of them were patinaed over. And maybe that has something to do with it. I don't know. But it's very cool. I'm just sitting gathering my breath. Cooling down a little bit before I trek back to the car, and I wanted to get these notes down. The rock peckings are not random. They are in chosen spots, special spots. I think Martha's Butte has been my favorite excursion so far out of all of them. 

I hope, I just hope that my photographs do it justice.