Nine Mile Canyon IV

For my fourth and final trip to Nine Mile Canyon of 2014, Chris and I took Karin and Katie and our dogs on an easy tour of some of the better rock art. We made a quick stop in the upper part of the canyon to see a pit house that I’d driven past many times but had never stopped to look at. It turned out to not be very interesting, but the dogs appreciated getting out of the vehicles for a few minutes.

The remains of a pit house

Cooper running along a ridge

All four dogs

WJ and WK2

Next we hiked up to some of my favorite petroglyphs, one of which I found on my first trip there in 2014. We also saw some new-to-me petroglyphs during the hike. I’d noticed some of them from far away on my earlier trip but had descended well below them and didn’t feel like climbing back up at the time. Now I know that it would have been worth my while to climb back up! There were a lot of really well-made and interesting petroglyphs spread out across the cliff line, along with a couple of small slab-lined granaries at the base of the cliffs.

Tethered sheep, one of my favorite petroglyphs in Nine Mile

Torrey, Chance, and Karin carrying Cooper

Long-necked sheep

WJ and WK2 parked below

Katie has the dogs’ full attention

Petroglyphs

Guy with small arms holding something

Figures and dots

Hands up, don’t shoot

Hiking along a cliff line

Slab-lined granary

Sheep and dog

Petroglyphs

Karin and Cooper

Hiking back down

We drove to another spot to check out some rock art that Alan had told me about but I hadn’t visited yet. Just a short distance from where we parked, Katie’s dog Chance got caught in a leg-hold trap. I freed him from the trap and luckily he was unharmed. We leashed our dogs up and continued hiking toward the rock art, keeping a wary eye out for more traps. There was more good rock art at this spot, along with a very cool 1888 inscription by Enoch Rhoades.

Trap that Katie’s dog, Chance, got caught in

Torrey and Boulder on-leash

Chris and a petroglyph

Full curl

Tethered deer

Another tethered deer

Chris coming down from a sketchy climb

Petroglyphs

Faint zig-zag pictograph

Zig-zag pictograph enhanced with DStretch

A faint 1888 Enoch Rhoades inscription

Enoch Rhoades initials

View up Nine Mile Canyon

To wind down the trip we stopped at a few well-known, touristy locations, but I still managed to spot some rock art I hadn’t seen before. Some snowy weather started moving in to the canyon as we were driving out. I’d had a very fruitful trip and I hope it was a good intro to Nine Mile for the others.

White pictographs