Petroglyphs

Ancient images in stone

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Petroglyphs are images that are carved into the landscape. In this region, the images depict stylized human / animal forms. Some are thought to have been created a thousand years before colonization.

There are several petroglyph sites scattered around these parts – most notably on Gabriola Island, on the Harewood Plains, and at Petroglyph Park (see below) just south of Downtown Nanaimo.

For more information about where these petroglyphs came from, check out the Snuneymuxw's page about petroglyphs.

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Petroglyph Park

This is a small bit of forest just off the highway, two minutes south of downtown Nanaimo. There are several beautiful petroglyphs in the mossy bedrock beside a short trail.

A lot of people are disappointed when they visit this park, because there doesn't seem to be much effort to preserve the artifacts. They are a non-renewable resource, and completely vulnerable.

Is this park wheelchair accessible? Please let us know

And the context — it's just a tiny strip of forest with development on one side and a highway on the other. It doesn't seem fitting for a site that was once so still and powerful. (But you can still feel it if you want to.)

Parking is beside the highway, and then a short trail brings you to a small clearing where concrete replicas of the petroglyphs lay on the ground for people to use for rubbings. There are informational kiosks here. Then the trail continues around a short loop.

Harewood Plains

These petroglyphs are on Extension Ridge, just south of Harewood, most accessible via Harewood Mines Road.

Petroglyphs are not common on other inland sites around the Mid-Island, so it's possible that this site was chosen because of the great crack in the earth a couple hundred meters away. A lot of rock art worldwide is found in places that could be thought of as transitory between our world and another one (hence their interest for the shaman artist). Caves, fissures, overhangs, waterfalls, tidal shorelines – usually near water.

The sites are near the powerlines, with the glyphs appearing on bare stone where the bedrock isn't covered over by soil and foliage. It looks almost like a paved road.

Unfortunately, it IS the road, for hikers and bikers and ATV riders. Boots and wheels are compounding the natural processes that already erode these non-renewable heritage resources.

For more discussion of these issues, see Gerry's blog post: Nanaimo's Archaeological Treasures: To Showcase or Hide?