Searching for the Sunman
December 11-12, 2025
Oh joy! The perfect winter hiking weather has returned! Days in the 60s and 70s, nights in the 30s - 40s! Lately at the end of each hike, we kick ourselves for not packing just a little more gear so we could spend the night. So when fellow Gila Hikers requested a return to a well-known petroglyph site, we tacked on an extra day to once again search for the famous Sunman.
We've photographed this area multiple times, so this trip was just a meditative stroll around the mesa top, wondering as always what the artists' lives were like, and whether their creations were whimsical or practical. (Photo by Debra B.)
There were a few I hadn't photographed before, including this one I titled, "I stepped on a snake, and I'm sad."
It was the first visit to the area for Helena and Diane, and half the fun was relaxing in the shade and hearing their impressions. Helena and Lucie getting acquainted. (Photo by Debra B.)
After the hike, Dennis and I sent up camp in an area that checked all the boxes for a perfect campsite: no facilities, no hookups, dead quiet and not another soul in site.
In the morning, we explored every possible access to the canyon where we hoped to find the Sunman But the heavy rains this fall washed out what was left of our preferred route.
So we ended up repeating the long trek across the desert that we tried a year ago, pushing further up the canyon despite extremely rough terrain and vicious brush. We scrambled well past the waypoint my friend John W. gave me, but the prized glyph failed to show itself.
Here's John's photo of the Sunman. Chatting with him later that night, we realized that we had passed right by the glyph without seeing it. (Photo by John W.)
Rather than face another brush with death in the canyon bottom, we clambered up the sides and bushwhacked over a saddle and back down the draw. There, alas, we made the mistake of crossing the old reservoir, where we waded through shoulder-higher stickers — the worst we'd ever encountered. We may have to burn the clothes we were wearing!
Surprising touches of color in early winter: Desert marigolds, and what I've always called "Christmas cholla".
The sun was setting by the time we got back to the truck. We made it to Deming just in time for a feast of Southern comfort food at Elisa's House of Pies. We didn't find the Sunman, but it was a fine couple of days of tromping around in the desert. No regrets.
