Book Cliffs Rock Art

I rode along with Alan to the Book Cliffs between the town of Green River and the Utah-Colorado border to look for some rock art on Saturday. He’d done all the research and knew roughly where to look for the rock art we were searching for. Our first objective was a very interesting owl pictograph. We covered a lot of ground looking for it before finally spotting it. There were actually some other pictographs nearby that I saw first, and so we looked more closely in that area and found the owl. It really is an unusual and very cool pictograph.

Haha, yeah, right!
Haha, yeah, right!


The owl on its perch
The owl on its perch


The owl
The owl


Faint and indiscernible pictograph near the owl
Faint and indiscernible pictograph near the owl


Unusual pictograph near the owl
Unusual pictograph near the owl


Fremont’s Mahonia
Fremont's Mahonia


On our way out of the area in which we found the owl, we stopped to investigate some cliffs that looked, from a distance, like they held some rock art. There was a big blob of red pigment with a couple of petroglyphs nearby, and a grinding stone was sitting just below the rock art.

Faint bear print petroglyph
Faint bear print petroglyph


Smudges of pigment and a petroglyph
Smudges of pigment and a petroglyph


Petroglyph
Petroglyph


Grinding stone below some rock art
Grinding stone below some rock art


We moved along to a different area and found a small spot with a lot of petroglyphs. There were many boulders containing rock art, much of which was carved in relatively small gaps between boulders. We searched the area until the sun set and probably didn’t find all the rock art nearby.

Viewing rock art is scary business
Viewing rock art is scary business


Boulder covered in weathered petroglyphs
Boulder covered in weathered petroglyphs


Fat man
Fat man


Bat(?) petroglyph
Bat(?) petroglyph


Faint pigment lines over some petroglyphs
Faint pigment lines over some petroglyphs


Outstretched wavy arms and lichen
Outstretched wavy arms and lichen


Crevasse between boulders with a lot of petroglyphs
Crevasse between boulders with a lot of petroglyphs


Plain Emery gray pottery pieces
Plain Emery gray pottery pieces


Weathered and lichen-covered petroglyphs
Weathered and lichen-covered petroglyphs


Spiral
Spiral


Two bighorn sheep
Two bighorn sheep


Human figure with tiny fingers and toes
Human figure with tiny fingers and toes


Hand petroglyph
Hand petroglyph


Grinding stone
Grinding stone


Petroglyphs with faint pigment
Petroglyphs with faint pigment


Petroglyphs enhanced with DStretch to show pigment that was added to them
Petroglyphs enhanced with DStretch to show pigment that was added to them


Iron Man headhunter
Iron Man headhunter


Big hands
Big hands


Pictograph over petroglyphs
Pictograph over petroglyphs


Typical Fremont anthropomorph
Typical Fremont anthropomorph


Petroglyphs
Petroglyphs


Deer
Deer


After the sun disappeared behind the horizon we headed toward home with a stop in Green River to eat dinner at Ray’s Tavern. Once again we ate with Butch and Jeannie of Tavaputs Ranch, with whom we’d met there in January after a hike in the Sweetwater Reef area.

Sunset
Sunset


A great way to end the day
A great way to end the day


Photo Gallery: Book Cliffs Rock Art

1 thought on “Book Cliffs Rock Art

  1. My wife and I are traveling from NC in March and would like to find the owl. If you could give me some more help as I know it is near Hoy and Loy canyons.

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