“Baboquivari Peak Sacred Cave and Petroglyphs”

Marc Severson photograph of some of the petroglyphs at Picture Rock.

[TOUR FULL; waiting list started] On Saturday March 26, 2016 (Easter weekend), in an educational adventure into Native American culture, this tour meets in Tucson (Pima Community College, 401 N. Bonita Ave) at 8 a.m. and travels to the Tohono O’odham (Papago) Indian Reservation for visits to the Picture Rock petroglyphs archaeological site, the historic Baboquivari Camp, and a Tohono O’odham traditional sacred cave site. We will car-caravan from Tucson to Topawa, Arizona, then drive 12 miles east toward Baboquivari Peak (the legendary home of the Tohono O’odham Creator deity I’itoi). From our assembly point in Baboquivari Camp, a historic Civilian Conservation Corps camp site in the oak woodland just below Baboquivari Peak, we will take a moderate-difficulty, two-mile-roundtrip, 1,000-foot-elevation-difference hike up a trail that leads halfway up the peak, to visit a cave site traditionally believed to be one of the homes of the deity I’itoi. After returning from the hike to the campground we will have a bring-your-own picnic lunch there, after which we will visit Picture Rock, a small butte that contains petroglyphs and pictographs, bedrock mortars, and ancient artifacts. Modern Tohono O’odham offerings may be present in some of the visited locations. Artifact collecting is not permitted, and photos are not allowed in the cave but are OK outside of it. Registrants may either meet the tour group at 8 a.m. Saturday in Tucson and car-caravan onto the reservation, or may camp in Baboquivari Camp on their own the night before the field trip and meet the tour group at the campground Saturday morning. Campers must bring their own food and water, as there are no convenience stores or fast food nearby.
This car-caravan tour is from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. $40 ($32 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary members; no charge for members or employees of the Tohono O’odham Nation). Reservations required by Wednesday March 23: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.