URARA 2016 Symposium

I just go back from my first attendance at the Utah Rock Art Research Association (URARA) annual symposium.  This year it was held in Delta, Utah.  It was one of the funnest experiences I've had in a long time.

Sheep from Miller Canyon

Familiar Motifs

I visited the U.S. Museum of the American Indian in Washington yesterday morning (April 4, 2015) and ran across this work of art on the third floor that contains lots of the same motifs one finds in Utah rock art.

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.

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.

Moore Cutoff Petroglyphs

The petrographs along the Moore Cutoff Road are quite easy to find and interesting.  There are a variety of styles to be found here cut into various boulders that have rolled down from the cliffs.  There is also a fossilized set of dinosaur tracks on one of the boulders.

The Moore Cutoff Road connects I-70 with Utah Highway 10.  The junction with I-15 is at the turnoff for the Eagle Canyon scenic viewpoint around mile marker 114.  The junctions with Utah Highway 10 are between mile markers 16 and 17 and between mile markers 21 and 22.  The cutoff road was paved a few years back so the site is accessible with any vehicle.

The map below show the turnout for the site.

The best way to explore is to first visit the few obvious glyph-covered boulders just to the northwest of the parking lot.  After that, start exploring and see what other hidden gems you can find.  There are many smaller ones here to find if you just look around.

View Larger Map

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.

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.

Black Dragon Canyon

Original Report - May 11, 2009

The Black Dragon?

 

I took a tour with my two youngest children this past Saturday. The Prehistory Museum at the College of Eastern Utah in Price does a regular series of expeditions through the San Rafael Swell, which they call "Saturday on the Swell". This last Saturday's was headed by Dr. Renee Barlow and focused on Native American rock art in the Swell. We visited 4 sites with the group and one of the most fascinating was the one in Black Dragon Canyon.

Rochester Creek

Original Report - December 10, 2008

The rock art panel at Rochester Creek is easily accessible and worth a trip. It is located east of Emery, Utah on a rock face overlooking the confluence of Muddy Creek and Rochester Creek. Take highway 10 and turn onto the road to Moore between mile markers 16 & 17. A half mile from the highway is a graded road headed south, it is an other 4 miles from here to the trailhead parking lot. From the parking lot the trail to the panel is a half mile or so.