DeBinky Wells Road Site

This past weekend Yeongmi and I went on a field trip with URARA down in Moab.  We only caught the first day, but what sights we saw!  My favorite was the very last site of the day, off DeBinky Wells Road, north of Dead Horse Point and the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands.  Dennis DeVore led us to the site and it was amazing.  Since this site is not well known and unvandalized, I am not posting any specific location information and the photos posted have no GPS information attached.

Most of the Panel in DStretch using the LDS filter

Nine Mile Canyon

The Pregnant Buffalo

This past weekend I took my first field trip with the Utah Rock Art Research Association (URARA) and got to see some of the rock art at Nine Mile Canyon.  The trip was every bit as spectacular as I had been lead to believe it would be.  The rock art is so extensive there it would take years to see it all, but I did get a good sampling of many of the well-known sites and quite a few of the lesser-known ones as well.

Parowan Gap

"The Zipper" at Parowan Gap

This past Saturday, my wife and I were in Cedar City to see a couple of plays at the Shakespeare Festival.  With some free time in the morning, we opted for a trip out to Parowan Gap to see the petroglyphs there.  It was worth the trip, though I wish I had brought a real camera.  Instead I had to rely on the iPhone for the photos here.

Dinosaur National Mounument Rock Art

Figure from the panel at Cub Creek in Dinosaur National Monument

In mid-August, I took a trip to Dinosaur National Monument with my two youngest children.  We visited three of the 5 well-known rock art sites in the park: Swelter Shelter, Cub Creek and Pool Creek.

Fremont Indian State Park

Sheep Petroglyphs at Fremont Indian State Park in Utah

Fremont Indian State Park is located alongside I-70 in Sevier County, Utah.  The site was discovered in the 1980's when the interstate was constructed in Clear Creek Canyon.  This site was the largest collection of Fremont houses at a single site ever discovered in the state of Utah.  Sadly, most of these were destroyed in the construction.  However there was a great deal of archeological work done and Fremont Indian State Park was created in 1987 to preserve what was left.

Colorado River Near Moab

Panel along the Banks of the Colorado downstream from Moab

Last June I had a visitor in town and took him down to Dead Horse State Park and Canyonlands National Park.  We drove back down the Shaffer Trail, past the potash ponds and along the Colorado River.

Rock Art Tour of the Swell

DStretch enhanced photo from Buckhorn Draw August 2014

I took a quick rock art tour of the San Rafael Swell last Saturday with a couple of friends.  We didn't hit any new sites, but revisited Rochester Creek, Moore Cutoff, Short Canyon, Black Dragon Canyon and Buckhorn Draw.

Provo Canyon Petroglyphs Revisited

This week on Tuesday I hiked back up to the boulder field near Johnson's Hollow in Provo Canyon and revisited some of the petroglyphs there.  I first visited this site in January 2011 and reported on it last August.  I was accompanied by my son, Alan, and my dog, Stretch, the dauchshund.  We saw several petroglyphs I have have seen there before.  And we found a new boulder I had not seen before.

The "new" boulder

This new boulder is further east and uphill of where I have looked before.  I suspect there are a great many more in this area one could find with a little time and patience.

Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs

Newspaper Rock is a Utah State Monument located on State Route 211 in San Juan County, Utah.  It is in the upper part of Indian Creek Canyon and very close to the road.  The site is similar to that at Rochester Creek in Emery County in that it contains a wide variety of rock art styles that span a vast amount of time.

Moab Golf Course Petroglyphs

DStretch YBK Filter

The petroglyph panel near the golf course in Moab, Utah is quite easily accessible and is literally located right along a paved road in a nice residential area.  The figures here are rather iconic of Moab and their reproductions, especially "Moab Man" (on the far left above) can be found on signs and merchandise in the area.  The figures are classified as "Formative Era" which generally means Fremont, but Moab was a sort of borderland between the Fremont and Ancestral Puebloans (aka Anasazi) during this time and the figures here show influences from both cultures.

Courthouse Wash Rock Art

The pictographs at Courthouse Wash are primarily Barrier Canyon Style.  There are also some smaller Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan petroglyphs here.

Sego Canyon Rock Art

Barrier Canyon Pictographs from Site 2

The rock art panels in Sego Canyon (aka Thompson Canyon) are some of the best Barrier Canyon Style art in Utah.  The ratio of impressiveness to difficulty of access is quite high.  There are also some very high quality Fremont figures here too

These rock art panels are easily accessible by car along a paved road.  Exit I-70 at the town of Thompson, exit 187, and drive north through the town and up the canyon for about 4.4 miles.  There is a parking lot on the left-hand side of the road.

Temple Mountain Rock Art Panel

There are several pictograph panels near Temple Mountain on the edge of the San Rafael Swell.  The best known of these is a BCS/Fremont panel within a few hundred feet of the Temple Mountain Road where it cuts through the San Rafael Reef, just before it transitions from a paved to graded road.  This is a popular camping spot, so be prepared to intrude a little if you want to see the pictographs.  If you are camping here, be prepared to be intruded upon.

View Larger Map

The panel is on the cliff face in the center top of this aerial view.

Escalante Canyon Rock Art

The stretch of the Escalante River between the town of Escalante and the confluence with Death Hollow has at least 3 good rock art panels.  Two of these are petroglyph panels located on cliff faces at bends in the canyon and one is a pictograph panel in a large alcove.  All are on the north side of the river.  The map below shows their approximate location (the second red dot is a bit too far to the right).  All three panels show a heavy Fremont influence.

Approximate Location of the Three Panels

Provo Canyon Petroglyphs

I went hiking near Johnson's Hole in Provo Canyon with my son, Alan, in January of 2011 and we finally found the petroglphys there. Back in Fall of 2005, my neighbor, Don Roberts, and I hiked through the same area looking for them, but couldn't find any. I'd been through the area again several times, but never stopped to look seriously.

They're carved into several boulder on the hillside to the southeast of Johnson's hole. They look very old, but that could be simply because they are carved into limestone boulders lying out in the open and they have weathered very rapidly.

Horseshoe Canyon

Holy Ghost Group at the Great Gallery

Horseshoe Canyon has been called "Louvre of the Southwest."  And for good reason; the Great Gallery there is perhaps the most impressive collection of rock art in the western United States.  Certainly it is the premier site in Utah.

Horseshoe Canyon was originally known as Barrier Canyon, and has given its name to the style of rock art found there.  Barrier Canyon Style (or simply BCS) rock art is found primarily in Utah and is centered in and around the San Rafael Swell and Canyonlands National Park.  However, examples are found in widely scattered locations throughout the state and in western Colorado. As the National Park Service website says, BCS artwork,  "is believed to date to the Late Archaic period, from 2000 BC to AD 500".

Neon Canyon

The petroglyph panels near the mouth of Neon Canyon are easy to find and quite impressive.  They are located several hundred yards north and south of the mouth of Neon Canyon where is meets the Escalante River.

From the Upstream Panel

Buckhorn Draw

The Buckhorn Draw panel is a well-known example of Barrier Canyon style rock art located in the San Rafael Swell in Emery County.  It is accessible from a well-graded road and is a popular stopping spot for travelers driving through the Swell for sightseeing or recreation.

While the style is primarily Barrior Canyon, there are also many Fremont figures and some of the main figures are clearly Barrier Canyon figures that were overpainted by Fremont artists.  The panel is located in Buckhorn Draw (hence the name) which is a natural route through the Swell.  It has been a widely-used route for millennia and was part of the Old Spanish Trail.  As a result there are many relatively modern markings alongside the native American rock art.  The site was refurbished in the late 1990's as part of Utah's state centennial celebration and the more recent additions are now largely obscured, but still visible.

 Barrier Canyon figures in dark red, overpainted by Fremont figures in yellow.

Short Canyon

Original report - May 17, 2009

The lower of two large rock art panels in Short Canyon

I went on a campout this weekend with the scouts. We had the 12-13 year-old group (the scouts) and the 14-15 year-old group (the varsity scouts) with a total of 16 people.

We drove down Friday night to the Moore cutoff road and stopped at Dry Wash to see the petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks.

Coyote Gulch

Original Report - April 30, 2009

The Central Figures

The pictograph panel in lower Coyote Gulch is located about half a mile downstream from Coyote Natural Bridge. It is located on the north wall of the canyon at the top of a sandy hill. There is a very clear path running up the hill to the panel.
 

I have posted all the photos I took here on Photobucket.