The Ridgecrest Petroglyph Festival is an annual weekend-long festival held in Ridgecrest, California , celebrating the Coso people , and specifically the 10,000-year-old petroglyphs of the Coso Rock Art District . The festival was founded in 2014, and attracted over 15,000 guests in its first year and was named one of Groupon 's "10 Most Unique Autumn Festivals in the Country". Events include an intertribal powwow , street fair, and guided tours to the local petroglyphs.
4-640: The festival is focused on petroglyphs, with several tours throughout the weekend, organized by the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest. Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons , the sites of the Coso petroglyphs, are located within the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake , creating an undisturbed home for over 20,000 documented images. Several tribes come together the weekend of the annual festival to be
8-462: A part of the intertribal powwow held the same weekend. The 2014 festival featured a performance by famed Native American flautist R. Carlos Nakai ( Navajo / Ute ). In 2014, a Petroglyph Park was created in Ridgecrest, featuring replicas of several of the famous petroglyphs in the area. A virtual festival took place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Maturango Museum Maturango Museum
12-638: Is located in Ridgecrest, California . The museum is best known for the guided tours of the Coso Rock Art District located on China Lake Naval Weapons Station . The museum offers exhibits and displays featuring both the natural and the cultural history and diversity of the Northern Mojave Desert with exhibits of animals , plants , rocks and minerals, Native American artifacts, and contemporary arts and crafts. This small museum
16-628: Was founded in 1962 and originally designed to highlight the history of Ridgecrest and nearby China Lake . The museum was named after the highest peak in the close by Argus Range . The town of Ridgecrest, where the museum is located, 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
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