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. Although it’s not readily accessible, it certainly isn’t a secret. Although the hike was presented to me with a few key notes that were bundled with not published petroglyphs, it’s no secret. It’s on the Petrified Forest web site. The rangers, if you get one that is enthusiastic about his or her work will discuss it with you.

Anyway, 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 traipse 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