Route of the painted rocks

My email brought me a new addition to the collection of big painted rocks you'll find around Yavapai County. This fellow is located somewhere in the Dells -- and I don't know if he is a casual, one-time fancy or an icon who will be renewed for decades. The other important rocks can all be viewed in one big circle route, starting down at Congress.

I'm all of 83 -- and I recall Frog Rock, along SR 89 down by Congress, from my childhood. One tale has it that a homestead wife, Sara Perkins, first painted it in 1926; according to a 1977 story in the AZ Republic, the rock was painted by a part time prospector, ex-sailor, and practical joker deluxe. As befits a folk art, the frog is periodically touched up and/or repainted by unnamed locals.

Once you have started your rock art tour at Frog Rock, turn left a couple of miles down the pike onto the Date Creek Road; it's a well graded dirt road, maintained by the county. A handful of miles in, a huge skull right next to the railroad track will grin at you. As I hear it, the skull is kept in shape by railroad workers. (BTW, the Date Creek at-grade crossing much further along can be dicey after a major snow melt or big downpour.)

Continue driving on the Date Creek Road which will eventually take you through the hamlet of Hillside and thence toward Yava. The duck is out in the middle of the prickly pear among the volcanic rocks off to your right. Past Yava at Kirkland Creek, a right turn in the highway puts you on the Thompson Valley Road to Kirkland, with a left turn onto Iron Springs Road, heading into Prescott via Skull Valley.

This stela is a feature at the high point on Iron Springs Road, just before the turnoff to Highland Pines. I've no idea of its history; I presume it is a clown. Like the other painted rocks, it is mysteriously maintained.

I know, I know -- it's a long, long haul from the top of Iron Springs Road down to the elephant bend on the Yarnell Hill segment of SR89 -- but then, I did declare this to be a great circle route and you're almost back to Frog Rock. Just incidentally, I was told that somebody/bodies recently mucked up the elephant, but that it was put to rights very soon thereafter. My only questions: why the elephant in the first place?

Here is another set of painted rocks, seen on one of my neighborhood walks. Nothing as elegant as the monumental folk art in the previous pictures, but a nice suprise at that.