Painted Rock Petroglyph Site

The Painted Rock Petroglyph Site is a collection of hundreds of pre-Columbian petroglyphs near the town of Theba, Arizona, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It is operated and maintained by the Bureau of Land Management and includes an improved campground and a walking trail with interpretation of the petroglyphs. Before 1989 the site formed part of Painted Rock State Park, which also held camping facilities on the nearby Painted Rock Reservoir, known as the Lake Unit. When the state handed control of the park to the Bureau in 1989 the Lake Unit was closed over concerns about pollutants in the Gila River, and there is no public access to it or to Painted Rock Dam.

Where it is

Painted Rock Petroglyph Site is a historic site near Dateland, in Maricopa County. It is one of the historic sites in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikivoyage(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
• Official site: http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/recreation/camping/dev_camps/painted_rock.html(opens in a new tab)

Record last verified 2026-08-12.