Hiking well-beyond the area in which the red buffalo rock art was certain to be found, I cut across the desert (in the daylight this time). I climbed the rocky peak that sunset had forced me to abandon the previous evening.
But don’t let the beguiling scene pictured above mislead you. This is not an easily-strolled, unobstructed expanse to cross. It would take over an hour just to reach the road beside which my car is parked (a shiny speck in the picture just left and down from center). The terrain just below camera view, for example, is so steep it’s hard to remain upright while ascending or descending. I would venture to guess the elevation changes by as much or more than fifty to one-hundred feet. Ravines, plants with sharp needles and thick desert growth are but a few obstacles along the path you must find for yourself—because there is no trail until you reach the dry riverbed (and even then you need caution).
As for the red buffalo rock art… Well, the only thing of which I am 99% certain is this: The red buffalo rock art is in the image below—somewhere between where I stood to capture the photograph and my automobile parked in the distance. Finding that particular item of rock art is reportedly not difficult insofar as the effort required. So, if you find yourself expending anywhere near the sort of effort I have, you’re looking in the wrong place.
The resting place of the red buffalo rock art remained unknown to me until 2011 when I did, at last, find it. Others have found it by accident or intentionally by having better directions. As for me in 2010, I decided I would give it another whirl upon my next visit and headed further west.
The original image is a Tagged Image Format File (TIFF) with a file data size of 35.1 megabytes (MB).
For display on this web site the TIFF was duplicated and the duplicate re-formatted as a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG/JPEG) image with a file data size of 14.6 MB. To approximate detail visible at the time of capture the image was sharpened as necessary and resampled via the Photoshop Bicubic Sharpen algorithm. The re-sampling increases the image resolution from 300 Dots Per Square Inch (DPI) to 360 DPI.
Unless otherwise noted the image was corrected to offset color shift and balance. This restores black (shadows), white (highlights) and neutral gray (neutral mid-tones).
• An unnumbered image is the only one of the subject matter.
• A number corresponds to the sequential order in a subject-matter-related sequence.
• The letter “B” indicates color correction to approximate what was visible when the image was captured.
• The letter “C” indicates enhancement beyond an approximation of what was visible at the time of capture.