page_title: Ridgecrest, California
section_title: Coso Rock Art District
hierarchical_section_title: Ridgecrest, California / Local features and activities / Coso Rock Art District
caption_attribution_description: English: Coso petroglyphs rock art in the Archaic abstract curvilinear style — at the Coso Rock Art District National Historic Landmark, in the Mojave Desert and Inyo County, California. More than 250,000 pre-Columbian rock art petroglyphs are located on 36,000 acres of the Coso Range, within the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
context_page_description: Ridgecrest is a city in Kern County, California, United States, along U.S. Route 395 in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. It was incorporated as a city in 1963. The population was 27,616 at the 2010 census, up from 24,927 at the 2000 census.
  Ridgecrest is surrounded by four mountain ranges; the Sierra Nevada on the west, the Cosos on the north, the Argus Range on the east, and the El Paso Mountains on the south. It is approximately 82 miles from the Lancaster/Palmdale area, 110 miles from Bakersfield, and 120 miles from San Bernardino, the three nearest major urban centers. Private air travel in and out of the city is provided through the Inyokern Airport. There are currently no scheduled commercial flights.
  The city has been near the epicenter of major earthquakes, including one in 1995 and a series of quakes in July 2019.
context_section_description: Coso Rock Art District, sometimes equated with the Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons is a site containing over 20,000 Native American petroglyphs now located within Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, near China Lake and Ridgecrest, California. In fact, there are several other distinct canyons to the Coso Rock Art District besides the Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons. The most popular subjects are bighorn sheep, deer, and antelope. Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964. In 2001, they were incorporated into a larger National Historic Landmark District, called Coso Rock Art District. In 2014, the Ridgecrest Petroglyph Festival, a celebration of the petroglyphs, native culture, and Ridgecrest as a California tourist destination was created as an annual event. It was named as one of Groupon's "10 Most Unique Autumn Festivals in the Country"
caption: Archaic abstract curvilinear-style petroglyphs near Ridgecrest, CA
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