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El Vallecito: 10,000-Year-Old Kumiai Cave Paintings in Baja California

More than 10,000 years ago, Baja California was inhabited by hunting, gathering and farming tribes such as the Kumiai. They settled from the town of Santo Tomás to the coast of San Diego, in California. As a legacy of their passage through Mexican lands, they left a set of 18 cave paintings that make up the archaeological site El Vallecito, located in La Rumorosa.
The site is still bordered by pine forests that were exploited by the Kumiai Indians in summer. The fruit was considered sacred for this tribe and evidence of this are the rituals that were performed in the caves and rocks of El Vallecito. It can also be appreciated that they used rock art to mark the date when the winter solstice would come and, thus, be able to migrate to take refuge from the intense snow.
Six sets of paintings and petroglyphs are open to the public, which may be visited along a two-kilometer themed trail. To complement the visit, there is a site museum with the remains of ancient stoves and ceramic fragments found during the excavations of the archaeological zone.
El Vallecito is located at the junction of kilometer 73.5 of La Rumorosa (heading north). It has a camping and parking area.

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