This book chronicles my fascination with rock art, and as the subtitle implies, presents the best of the quest. That ancient people worldwide made compelling images on rocks piqued a lifelong interest—even as a geologist I eventually became less enthusiastic about mere rocks and was drawn instead to those containing enigmatic images. Those archetypal symbols got into my system; studying and photographing rock art became an unending, quixotic mission—an impossible quest to see all the sites. It peaked when I moved to Santa Fe and may be an example of what artist Georgia O’Keefe had in mind when she said, “If you ever go to New Mexico it will itch you for the rest of your life.”

For nearly thirty years I have enjoyed thousands of excellent adventures in remarkable places throughout the American west and the world in search of rock art. I have worn out numerous hiking boots in this pursuit and met very interesting people along the rock art trail. Although it has been an avocation, my rock art career evolved to being affiliated with the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, lecturing and leading field trips, and writing six peer-reviewed books about Southwestern rock art. Those books were enormous tasks but I think I was drawn to the subject in the first place because of the aesthetics and mystery of rock art, and endured all that scholarship and writing discipline in order to publish my photographs and drawings of these fascinating images.

Which leads to the book in hand. With the advent of self-publishing software and print-on-demand books I am now empowered to produce a book about rock art for myself, free of the demands of publishers, reviewers, editors and marketing directors.