Ruins & Rock Art: San Fernando Velicatá & Cataviña

San Fernando Velicatá

My next adventure was to check out the ruin of the mission San Fernando Velicatá, with its melting adobe walls.

Nearby is an extensive collection of petroglyphs and pictographs.

The remains of a mission-era aqueduct pass right below the petroglyphs.

Plant life in the area: a red mite running round his white puffball of a gall, gnarly roots, cholla cactus stuck in tire, palm trees

Cataviña

The pictographs of Cataviña are right by Highway 1, and while I've driven past the site perhaps ten times over the years I've never stopped in to see them. I've always been afraid it would be a big production of tourists, guides, and gift shops. Well, this time I finally investigated this rock art.

While there were plenty of signs and trail markings, I saw no people around! And the pictographs inside the Cataviña cave were surprisingly good.     29.7512, -114.7447 

I explored this ruin of a dome at Cataviña, still signed as "OPEN: Museum - Gallery".     29.7547, -114.7477 

Desert life at the Cataviña site