Along the Upper Little Colorado River | Alternate Plans: Back on the Four Corners Circuit
Thursday – Friday, May 26-27, 2022
After spending two days in Petrified Forest National Park and then a brief stay in Pinetop, it was time to continue on our loop and start making our way back east and north with an overnight stay at Lyman Lake State Park. We were up and on our way early on Thursday morning as we went on a pleasant drive along the edge of the Mogollon Rim and through the White Mountains to the headwaters of the Little Colorado River. We took a break from driving to search some volcanic cliffs along the Little Colorado River for petroglyphs, and managed to find a couple.
This was the first panel we spotted along the road.
We weren’t having much luck finding any more as we started searching the area and almost gave up, but then we found a couple more panels as we climbed up to higher cliff bands.
Red Rock Panel
We continued following the Little Colorado River through Round Valley to Lyman Lake State Park, with a quick stop in Springerville for lunch.
After dropping off our gear at our reserved cabin, I grabbed my packraft and paddled across Lyman Lake so I could hike the Ultimate Petroglyph Trail on the other side. It took me about 30 minutes to get across and thankfully there was no wind.
Once on the other side of the reservoir I followed the trail up past a couple of boulders with petroglyphs on them. There were nice views of the lake and surrounding landscape along the way.
Diamond Bird Petroglyph
Ultimate Petroglyph Trail
At the end of the trail is Ultimate Petroglyph Rock.
This large bird found on the side of Ultimate Petroglyph Rock was definitely my favorite.
The views were looking nice as I headed back down the trail.
Ready to cross the lake back to the other side again.
Surprisingly, there were no other boats or crafts on the lake at this time of the day and I had the water all to myself.
I made it back to the other side without issue.
After resting at our cabin for a while, Diane and I headed out to explore the park some more with a stop at the Rattlesnake Point Pueblo.
Then we went for a drive along the lakeshore.
Later in the evening we went for a hike on the Peninsula Petroglyph Trail.
Peninsula Petroglyph Boulder
Most trails to petroglyph sites try to avoid the petroglyphs, but this one built steps using rocks with petroglyphs on them? There were actually a couple places where the trail went right over petroglyphs that were carved on top of the rocks, which I thought was a little strange?
Peninsula Point Panel
An evening view from the Peninsula Petroglyph Trail.
We returned to our cabin after the hike, watched a colorful sunset and then went to bed early.
Lyman Lake Sunset
I was up early on Friday morning to watch the sun come up from the front porch of the cabin.
We had a busy day ahead of us, so we packed up our gear, left early and headed over to the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico for our first stop of the day.