“Rock art” is the collective term for a variety of forms of visual representation made on natural rocky surfaces (boulders, cliff faces, cave walls, etc.) and are found throughout the world. Pictographs and petroglyphs represent the two main techniques used to make rock art. Pictographs are made through an additive process, where they are applied to the rock surface, and include paintings, charcoal drawings, stencils, prints. Petroglyphs are made by a reductive process, in which they are cut into the rock by engraving, pecking, incising or abrasion.

Hickison Summit is located on Highway 50, around 30 miles southeast of Austin at the northern end of the Toiyabe Range and situated within a pinyon forest. The site is located on the road to the ranch of John Hickerson (also an alternative spelling of the site name) after whom the site was named. This site was interpreted as a hunting locality by Trudy Thomas because the most common motif at the site was thought to represent “hoof prints.”