ARARA 2025 Field Trips

Field trips
We hoped to provide a full three days of field trips to our participants this year. However, we were not granted permission for some of the sites we had planned to visit. In order to still provide you with at least two flexible options we are still spreading the trips over three days (the Friday before the main conference and the Monday and Tuesday following the conference). For planning purposes you may wish to organize your trips for Friday and Monday or Monday and Tuesday.

There is no cost for most field trips. There are a few field trips with additional charges that will be noted in their description. You can't register directly from this page but you can see all of the field trip options in one convenient location. The field trip numbers will link to the registration pages. So, if you want to attend the Friday Davis Ranch field trip, clicking on the F1 link will take you to the Friday field trip registration. Or you can go to the Friday field trip page, Monday field trip page, or Tuesday field trip page and see all of the trips/activities with their availability.

The field trip numbers (located after the field trip name) indicate what days the trips are available. So, for the Davis Ranch trip there are three field trips, one on Friday (F1), one on Monday (M1), and one on Tuesday (T1). Meeting time and location will be provided in your registration email along with contact information for your trip leader. Your trip leader may ask you to carpool with others. Please take advantage of carpooling to minimize impact to the locations.

Many of these sites are on private land. If owners or land managers happen to be present, please thank them for allowing us to visit. Access is becoming more and more difficult and a little show of gratitude is most helpful in our continued ability to visit these sites.

The terrain of the sites is mostly foothill grassland with areas of rocks and trees. The sites are not designed for tourist visitation. The ground is rough, with squirrel holes, gopher mounds and cowpies. In places the grass and weeds will be tall and dry. Poison oak and rattlesnakes are present at many of the sites. We ask that you come equipped for these conditions by wearing sturdy hiking boots with vibram type soles, sturdy long pants and lightweight long sleeve shirts. Gaiters may be helpful in keeping out stickers and protecting legs from rattlesnakes. It is peak snake season, and they have been observed at the sites. Walking sticks are also useful. Rubber tipped ones are suggested. 

Bring: A hat, appropriate clothing including footwear, plenty of water, lunch, snacks, and maybe a jacket, plus whatever you need to be out in the field for up to a full day and fees (cash) as noted in your trip description.  Binoculars or camera with telephoto lens is often helpful. We can’t predict the weather, and it can be hot in The San Joaquin Valley in late May. Equip yourself with a good hat and sunscreen. Everyone should stay hydrated. Bring plenty of water and snacks. Please be considerate of others on the tour. Look out for each other, share the space and have a good time. Make sure that your vehicle is full on gas and that you have used the bathroom before meeting with your trip leader. Don't bring a dog on a field trip. Not everyone is comfortable with them. Much of the rock art in the area is more visible using a program like DStretch. If you don't have that on your phone you may want to consider downloading it before you come.

Carpooling will be required on all trips. Many of the sites are on private land and do not have large parking areas.

When you register for the conference you will receive a confirmation email that will include a "password" in large, bright red font. This password will allow you to register for the fieldtrip of your choice as long as space is available. 

The fieldtrip registration page will show how many spots are still open. You cannot sign up directly as a group, other than you can use the guest option for a spouse or family member who is registered for the conference. So, if you wish to travel with other friends make sure that there is enough space for them to register as well.

Fieldtrips:

Davis Ranch (CA-TUL-173 and 31): F1/M1/T1
Site Description: Multiple sites around base of foothills adjacent to orchards, mostly red, some faded pictograph and one polychrome panel. An interesting panel of painted grooves that may have been a solar timekeeping device. The grooves remain but the capstone that cast a shadow on the grooves collapsed a few years ago in a wet winter. There are many bedrock mortars around the site. A striking large red figure on the hill overlooking the site.
Difficulty: Moderate. Up to two miles of walking, some through pasture on cow paths and some on orchard roads. 150-foot elevation change. There is poison oak guarding some of the panels as well as prime rattlesnake environment.
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 25 minutes
Distance (One Way): 18 miles
Max Number of Participants: 25
Fee: None


Twin Buttes and Venice Hills: F2/M2/T2  (Roughly a half day trip)
Site Description: This trip will visit two small sites with red pictographs Many are faint but they show well with D-Stretch. Venice Hills is the closest site to Visalia and consists of paintings on an outcrop up a slope a couple hundred yards along a cow path and less than 100 feet above surrounding citrus orchards. Twin Buttes has 3 or 4 panels of red figures. The site has been heavily vandalized, but some nice elements remain. One element in pristine condition has been characterized as a representation of a pregnant woman. Short, level walk of about 100 yards around an orange grove.
Difficulty: Easy/Moderate. There may be some Poison oak at Twin Buttes
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 20 minutes. Probably not much more than a half day.
Distance (One Way): 13 miles
Max Number of Participants: 20
Fee: None

Bacon Hill (CA-TUL-17): F3/M3/T3
Site Description: Multiple painted panels on a large village site, Rock Shelter, recreational slide with historic inscriptions. The site has numerous bedrock mortars, cupules, painted grooves, a huge bear image, Mountain lion and Tule Elk. The site has been heavily impacted by agricultural development as well as gang graffiti. One visitor characterized the site as D-stretch heaven. 
Difficulty: Moderate/strenuous. There is a fair amount of walking, some through tall, dry grass, weeds and Poison Oak, some on orchard roads. It is a rattlesnake environment.
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 20minutes
Distance (One Way): 14 miles
Max Number of Participants: 24
Fee: None

Hospital Rock (CA-TUL-24), Potwisha (CA-TUL-28)/, and Hammond: F4/M4
Site Description: Hospital Rock - Large village site with interpretive panels. Large panel of red pictographs, rock shelter, and Potwisha: a polychrome panel on an outcrop above the middle fork of the Kaweah River. It is a beautiful walk of less than ¼ mile along the rocky bank of the river to the site. Both sites are in Sequoia National Park. The Hammond site is on private property just below the Park, in Three Rivers. It is on a large rock outcrop with red pictographs. D-stretch will be necessary for some of this panel.
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 60 minutes
Distance (One Way): 41 miles
Max Number of Participants: 15
Fee: National Park entrance fee
Comment: https://www.nps.gov/places/hospital-rock-picnic-area-exhibits.htm

Exeter Rocky Hill (Archaeological Conservancy) (CA-TUL-83): F5/M5/T5 
Site Description: If a place in Tulare County could be chosen as the quintessential site of the Foothill Yokuts, Exeter Rocky Hill would be a prime candidate. This Tulare County site lies at the edge of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the central valley of California. Exeter Rocky Hill, a prominent feature on the landscape, is a jumble of large granite boulders dotted with oak trees, creating a sharp contrast with the smooth grassy hills on each flank.
The Yokod or Yokol (“d” and “l” sounds are interchangeable in their dialect) were the subtribe of Yokuts people who inhabited the foothill area west and south of the Kaweah River from Limekiln Creek, east of Lemon Cove, along the foothills to about present-day Lindsay. Their head village was on the south bank of the Kaweah River five miles north of Exeter. The Yokohl Valley, which Latta (1977,21,396) describes as “an unbroken seed producing area,” was named after the group that lived there. The Yokado called Exeter Rocky Hill Chahka Shahnau or Live Oak Place. There were good springs at four sites although there were temporary camps elsewhere around the hill. Badger Hill, the ridge north of Rocky Hill, now a gated subdivision, was known as Hawshau Shido or Paint Place. The Yokodo mined the white paint which they used in their paintings and traded with other Yokuts tribes.
Rocky Hill was among the earliest recorded rock art sites in California. H. W. Turner wrote the first report in 1891, describing the pictographs at Rocky Point, the quarry site on the North side of the hill. Stewart recorded the site on Captain Thew’s property in 1929, calling it Echo Cove. The site is now owned by The Archaeological Conservancy.
Campbell Grant considered the most interesting Yokuts sites to be on Exeter Rocky Hill with what he characterized as the split-head anthropomorph the dominant motif of the area. Indeed, it is more commonly rendered and in more variations at Tulare 83 than at any other site. The pictographs are painted in shades of red, black and white. Variants of the human figure or anthropomorphs, zoomorphs and abstracts are all present in abundance.
The tour begins on relatively level ground, but eventually visitors will be led higher up into the boulder field in their quest to visit these incredible rock art displays. The walking distances are short, but in some places steep, with rocks to be maneuvered over and around.
Difficulty: Strenuous
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 20 minutes
Distance (One Way): 15 miles
Max Number of Participants: 12
Fee: None

Field Trip Exeter Rocky Hill (Archaeological Conservancy): F6/M6/T6 
Site Description: If a place in Tulare County could be chosen as the quintessential site of the Foothill Yokuts, Exeter Rocky Hill would be a prime candidate. This Tulare County site lies at the edge of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the central valley of California. Exeter Rocky Hill, a prominent feature on the landscape, is a jumble of large granite boulders dotted with oak trees, creating a sharp contrast with the smooth grassy hills on each flank.
The Yokod or Yokol (“d” and “l” sounds are interchangeable in their dialect) were the subtribe of Yokuts people who inhabited the foothill area west and south of the Kaweah River from Limekiln Creek, east of Lemon Cove, along the foothills to about present-day Lindsay. Their head village was on the south bank of the Kaweah River five miles north of Exeter. The Yokohl Valley, which Latta (1977,21,396) describes as “an unbroken seed producing area,” was named after the group that lived there. The Yokado called Exeter Rocky Hill Chahka Shahnau or Live Oak Place. There were good springs at four sites although there were temporary camps elsewhere around the hill. Badger Hill, the ridge north of Rocky Hill, now a gated subdivision, was known as Hawshau Shido or Paint Place. The Yokodo mined the white paint which they used in their paintings and traded with other Yokuts tribes.
Rocky Hill was among the earliest recorded rock art sites in California. H. W. Turner wrote the first report in 1891, describing the pictographs at Rocky Point, the quarry site on the North side of the hill. Stewart recorded the site on Captain Thew’s property in 1929, calling it Echo Cove. The site is now owned by The Archaeological Conservancy.
Campbell Grant considered the most interesting Yokuts sites to be on Exeter Rocky Hill with what he characterized as the split-head anthropomorph the dominant motif of the area. Indeed, it is more commonly rendered and in more variations at Tulare 83 than at any other site. The pictographs are painted in shades of red, black and white. Variants of the human figure or anthropomorphs, zoomorphs and abstracts are all present in abundance.
This trip will focus on the sites around the base of the hill and not go to the sites farther up the hill into the boulders. There is a ladder to climb to get to one shelter, but a fair amount of the paintings can be viewed from below.
Difficulty: Easy to moderate
Vehicle requirement: Any
Driving Time: 20 Minutes
Distance (One Way): 15 miles
Maximum Number of Participants: 15

Rocky Hill (Gill) (CA-TUL-26): F7/M7/T7
Site Description: See the description for Trip 6 above for information on Exeter Rocky Hill. Tulare 26 and Tulare 83 are less than a mile apart over a ridge.
This is a large polychrome pictograph rock shelter with several other nearby decorated panels, The main shelter has dozens of images of all sorts of animals and various depictions of humans and abstract figures. There are numerous bed rock mortars as well as a slide, cupules, a basket shaped rock and a prominent split rock slide, and another rock shelter. The site has some boulders suggestive of genitalia of both sexes. There are cupules on the rock suggestively female and nearby is a panel including small, delicate handprints.
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate, 1/3 mile walk up a slope on a ranch road. About 100 to 150 foot elevation change.
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 20 minutes
Distance (One Way): 15 miles
Max Number of Participants: 20
Fee: None

Round Valley: F8/M8/T8
Site Description: Rare access to a site cluster in a canyon in the foothills, located on a private cattle ranch. The trip includes multiple pictograph loci, cupules, and impressive mortars. The conference logo is one of the paintings on this trip. Access is difficult, especially to some of the higher sites, involving steep slopes, uneven footing, thick and thorny vegetation, poison oak, boulder navigation, and possible rattlesnake encounters
Difficulty: Strenuous: 2 mile round trip hike 200-250 ft elevation change.
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 45 minutes
Distance (One Way): 30 miles
Max Number of Participants: 12
Fee: None


Lemon Cove: Thanksgiving Site F9/M9/T9  (Half day)
Site Description: This is a small site within view, and about 1.5 miles, from Jim and Mary Gorden’s home. When the Gorden family was growing up, Mary would lead everyone on a hike to the site to “walk off” Thanksgiving Dinner. Thus, it became known to the family as the Thanksgiving Site. The site has several anthropomorphic figures in red, in various states of fading. The most dominant figure has a distinctly round mid-section and no evidence it is a male. The ceiling of the shelter is white, decorated with red dots, circles and angular figures. In a nod to our banquet presentation: “Are They Stars?”
Difficulty: Moderate. It is about 1/3 mile and maybe a 200-foot climb through a foothill environment with rocks, squirrel holes, gopher mounds and possible rattlesnakes. Some rocks to climb over to get close to the panel. No poison oak at this site.
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 20 minutes
Distance (one way): 18 miles
Max Number of participants: 12
Fee: None


Wind Wolves Preserve: Pleito Creek and additional sites as time allows: F10/M10  (Anyone interested in the Pleito site but unwilling to do the long drive should consider the Virtual Reality "tour" of this site being offered as one of our workshops.
Leader: Jack Sprague
Site Description: The Wildlands Conservancy owns The Wind Wolves Preserve and they are allowing us to visit this site which is not often open to visitation. The Pleito Creek site is known as among the most vivid and colorful rock art in California, possibly in the U.S. This rock art is Chumash in style but is on the extreme boundary of their territory with the Yokuts. The paintings in the largest cave at CA-KER-77 can be viewed and photographed fine from the cave entrance. No one will be allowed to physically enter the cave because of the sensitivity and condition of the pictographs.
Difficulty: Walking distances to view the rock art are short, but in some places a steep hill and rocks need to be maneuvered. Moderately steep hill of 300 yards to the site.
Vehicle Requirement: 4 Wheel Drive. Vehicles will be consolidated in Visalia. Limit of 4 vehicles
Driving Time: 1hrs 45 minutes
Distance (One Way): 110 miles to the Preserve gate additional distance within the Preserve
Max Number of Participants: 15
Fee: None
Note: Due to the long distance departure time for this trip will be 6:30 a.m.
Note: https://wildlandsconservancy.org/preserves/windwolves

Carrizo Plain, Saucito Ranch F11
Leaders: Tami Whitley, BLM Archaeologist
Site Description: This is a rare opportunity to visit the Saucito Rock, which is a part of a National Register of Historic Places archaeological district, and normally closed. Nearby Painted Rock is closed at this time of year due to nesting falcons. Saucito has similar pictographs as Painted Rock and the site is in much closer to pristine condition than Painted Rock.
Difficulty: Moderate
Vehicle Requirement: Any
Driving Time: 2 and ½ hours
Distance (One Way): 130 miles
Max Number of Participants: 20
Fee: None
Note: Due to the long distance departure time for this trip will be 6:30 a.m.
Note: https://www.blm.gov/visit/painted-rock