Painted Rock, Ancient pictograph site in Carrizo Plain, California.

Painted Rock is a smooth, horseshoe-shaped marine sandstone formation about 250 feet across and 45 feet tall, rising near Soda Lake in the Carrizo Plain National Monument. Its alcove interior holds pictographs in red, black, white, yellow, green and blue, painted with yucca pigments using rodent-tail brushes or fingers.

The Chumash populated the Carrizo Plain around 2000 BCE and largely left by about CE 600, after which the Yokuts moved through and added their own pictographs. The rock also bears later marks, including "Geo. Lewis 1908" left by the founder of Atascadero. In the 1920s a shotgun blast irreparably damaged the large pictogram, and volunteers removed some damage in 1991.

The rock art comes from the Chumash, Salinan, and Yokuts peoples, who expressed their spiritual beliefs through painted images on stone. These communities used simple tools and techniques that remained visible for thousands of years.

Painted Rock is reached by footpath from the Goodwin Education Center off Soda Lake Road, an unpaved route that can close suddenly during and after rain. The site is closed from March 1 through July 15 for raptor nesting, with access otherwise limited to guided tours. Carry fuel, food, water and medical supplies; there are no services and cellphone coverage is sparse. Rattlesnakes and hidden burrows make walking hazardous.

The paintings show multiple layers of artwork from different eras, with each generation adding their own marks to the stone. These overlapping images let visitors see how the artistic style changed across thousands of years.