Capturing the Art of Nature
Kaiyama Petroglyphs
For the past few years I have wanted to find the Kaiyama Petroglyphs as noted on the backcountry map books. Well today we finally succeeded in observing them.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2015
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I have tried on a number of occasions to find the petroglyphs but was never able to locate them. The map shows the location being on the east slope of Doctors Point just north of Doctors Bay. This area is quite steep and the details are not exact enough to make the task easy. Earlier this year I learned that the glyphs are only accessible by water and not from the road so I decided to try again from the water side. We had originally planned to canoe to the site in mid-March but the weather got in our way and it wasn’t until mid-April that things came together for us to attempt the adventure.Our day began much as usual with us heading out in the truck around 8:30 and making the requisite stops for coffee, fuel and some extra snacks.
Today however we had a canoe strapped to the top of the truck. I was a bit concerned how it would behave on the highway and then the long drive up the Sts’ailes Resource Road (West Harrison). I needn’t have worried, the many straps Geoff used to tie it down held well and we had no issues at all with the transport.
We planned to put in at the closest spot to the expected site of the glyphs as we weren’t sure how well we would handle canoeing in Harrison Lake. The best spot would have been in Doctors Bay itself but the road leading down to it is quite overgrown and one 10m section is washed out leaving a stretch of steep rock to get across. Knowing the state of the road from an earlier trip we decided to play it safe and drive past the point to put in at the small delta at Bremner Creek. This would give us a 2.7km paddle to the best known location for the glyphs. We felt that this was an acceptable distance if the weather was cooperating and the lake calm.
As we drove the mainline and reached the fork where the old road for Doctors Bay starts, we were seriously considering trying it anyways but reason prevailed and we continued along through the freshly logged area and down the steep drop to lake level and the Bremner Creek delta. The last two kilometers of the road were very rough and shook up the truck and us quite nicely, I was very happy to see the branch off the mainline to the small camping area at the mouth of the creek. We arrived to find the two best spots occupied. This surprised me but it really shouldn’t have, as they are both excellent camping locations. We pulled into a small section next to the largest camp site and parked the truck.
As we exited the truck we were immediately investigated by three friendly dogs from the neighbouring campsite. While Geoff unloaded the canoe I chatted with our neighbor who became quite interested in our plans. He had been coming to the area as a kid 40+ years ago but had never seen the glyphs. After a few minutes of packing up the truck and moving needed supplies into the canoe, we were off on the water leg of our adventure. The water was almost a glassy surface so we were very happy to see that and it allowed us to make good progress towards the point to the south.
As we canoed along, the shoreline got more rugged and there were many vertical rock faces covered in various types of moss and lichens. They made for interesting patterns and one large rock appeared to have a large face on it. I had our target coordinates stored on my gps and as we approached the location we still could see nothing of interest. Finally right at the spot the painted rock art was visible! There was also a fancy designer cairn placed on a rock outcrop in front of the petroglyph. We paddled past the glyph and looked for a place to tie up the canoe. The rock here presented us with a vertical wall but a bit past the cairn we found a narrow channel just wide and long enough to hold a canoe! It seemed like a planned moorage location, we pulled in and tied off the canoe and clambered over the rocks to get back to the petroglyph.
The glyph itself is not all that spectacular in that it seems to be just a painted rock and not carved but the shape does give it a rough body/head look. The white paint seems to have been recently redone as the glyph is still maintained by the local nation using traditional paints. I have seen it called Dr. Rock but I am not sure if this was a misquote. According to the cultural history of the Sts’ailes Nation, a powerful shaman – the doctor - was defeated here and turned to stone with parts of his body scattered throughout the region which is how the area received its name. So this stone body would match the historical record. We also spotted a faint red hand print below the main figure and the rock to the right seemed to hold a barely visible figure obscured by lichens. Once we had looked over the main site we explored the rock face both north and south of the main figure to see if there were any more art works to be found. About 40 meters south we did spot one other group of red figures painted on the front and underside of a rock. So that gave us 4 glyphs to consider as possible members of the Kaiyama Petroglyphs.
The site is actually very scenic and we enjoyed the beauty of the location before starting on the return paddle. The entrance to Doctors Bay was just around the bend from the glyph and would make a very short paddle if the bay was more accessible. Once we got back out into the lake we noticed that the glassy smooth surface was now a bit rolling and choppy. Fortunately the wind was still mild and at our backs so the return went fairly easily and we made decent time despite our stiff muscles. Once back to the truck we stopped to eat some lunch and then ended up chatting with the couple camping next to us for some time. They told us some of their interesting adventures enjoying the area over the years while we shared some of our pursuits.
Finally taking our leave, we made our way back up the rough section of the mainline and made for the easy miles of road ahead. We stopped at a few spots that caught our interest as we drove out but didn’t drive any long roads as the day was getting on. We did want to explore the road with the beaver dam that we have looked over our previous two trips. Today the road was repaired again with the creek flowing across it in a wide shallow section. We crossed over it and explored a short section of the road on the far side of the creek just to prove we could. By now we were getting quite tired and decided to head straight out, I had to do the last 20km of the drive as Geoff was just not up to it. He resumed once back on pavement after a short rest. The rest of the trip went without incident.
Well we finally saw the petroglyphs. For those 4x4ers out there – get a canoe if you want to see them. I felt that the adventure was a fun one, we accomplished our goal and tried a few new things in our back-country adventures. I think we will do a bit more canoeing in the future.