"Nine Whirl", Hohokam Petroglyph, Cerro Prieto, Az., 11/14/09 ... Howard Paley. I’ve been lusting after this sun-whirl ever since first seeing it in a video I purchased this past May. Joel Smith and I stumbled upon it, quite by chance. I knew we were in the right area ... but Cerro Prieto is a huge volcanic mountain with plenty of black rocks. We could have just as easily walked right past it. In fact, we did ... until Joel turned around and looked up hill.