After hiking at Paradise Flats all day, Chris and I found ourselves near Park’s Pasture on the east side of Boulder Mountain for the night. It’s one of my favorite places to camp, having spent six nights there over the past four years. After settling down at camp, Chris talked to his fiancée Dollie on the phone and we learned about the riots in Salt Lake City just a couple of blocks from their home near the state capitol. Luckily she wasn’t in any danger as long as she hunkered down in their apartment, so while we felt helpless there really wasn’t any need to go rushing home.
Camp spot near Park’s Pasture
Chris talking to Dollie, learning about the riots near their home in SLC
On Sunday Chris and I drove a short distance down the road and hiked along all the cliffs at Jorgenson Flat. I’d heard about some great rock art there and at Pleasant Creek Flats, but we were sorely disappointed after a full day’s worth of exploring the area. We walked along all the cliffs on the south and east sides of Jorgenson Flat and didn’t really find that much of interest. There were a couple of potsherds, some mediocre petroglyphs and pictographs, and a single inscription.
Fence on Jorgenson Flat
Happy birthday!
Potsherds
Cliffs
Jorgenson Flat
Bird shit
Chris examining some cliffs
Broken point
Jorgenson Flat petroglyphs
Jorgenson Flat petroglyphs
Corral against some cliffs
Dead deer
Sam F. Allen
Pictograph lines
Barrel below an overhang
Shaped stone
Faded pictographs
Next we drove farther down the road and hiked along an old road that crosses Pleasant Creek and climbs up to Pleasant Creek Flats. After crossing the creek we found a lichen-covered rock with “BR HES 164” carved into it. I later found out that it was a bearing rock for a land survey, and we ran across two others during the hike. We hiked along all of the cliff bands along the north side of Pleasant Creek Flats and found many inscriptions, a little bit of rock art, and several alcoves with metates inside. The petroglyphs were pretty good but still not what I had been led to believe was there, so I suppose there’s something I missed.
Old road leading into Pleasant Creek
BR (Bearing Rock) H.E.S. 164
Pleasant Creek crossing
Pleasant Creek Flats
Overhang with many inscriptions
Austin Hiskey, May 24, 1936
Robert Allen, May 29, 1950, Teasdale
Elmer Thompson, May 27, 1938
Broken metate
Carving of a bull
Pleasant Creek Flats petroglyphs
Pleasant Creek Flats petroglyphs
Fake petroglyphs
BR (Bearing Rock) H.E.S. ???
1 BR (Bearing Rock) H.E.S. 191
Chris checking out some petroglyphs
Glen Canyon Linear style petroglyphs
Glen Canyon Linear style petroglyphs
Yet another alcove
View out of an alcove
Broken metate
Broken metate
Metate
Pleasant Creek Flats
Metate
Metate
Alcove
As Chris and I reached the north side of Pleasant Creek Flats and exhausted all the possible rock art locations, we headed back across the flat and got absolutely dumped on with rain. I had my rain jacket in my pack so we stopped to shelter under a large juniper while I donned it, but Chris wasn’t as prepared and ended up getting soaked. I never got my camera out again during the downpour, and after we reached the Jeep we just high-tailed it toward home. We never did see any of the supposedly great rock art we were expecting, but I wouldn’t say the day was wasted. We saw some things that few people do and got a little exercise in as well.
Walking across Pleasant Creek Flats before a big rainstorm
Photo Gallery: Jorgenson and Pleasant Creek Flats
Thanks again Dennis! Perhaps of interest, Austin Hiskey was my Dad’s “older” cousin. Dad, as a young boy, idolized Austin in every way, but especially for his cowboy skills. The story goes that while young (teenager) Austin was riding a bucking horse he ruptured his appendix. He died as a result. My father honored his memory his whole life. H (Harold) Hiskey passed away last year in his 90’s.
Austin shared his name on the quakie trees behind the Wildcat RS, in a prolific manner, on the east end of the Boulder.
Elmer Thompson was a sheepherder for Emery King. His name is inscribed on the rocks adjacent to the “The Blind Trail” to the Henry’s.
Thanks, again.
That’s some great info, thanks Lyman. I always enjoy knowing more about the people whose marks I find out there.
Did you make it to Image Cave?
No, at least I don’t think so. A friend told me about a couple of rock art sites in the area but nothing I found matched her descriptions. I went back twice after this trip and still didn’t find any notable rock art.
https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:53737128$31i
Above is a link to the Morss Report. There is a pic. of Image Cave. Does it look familiar?
I wasn’t able to locate it very well on Google Earth.
Thanks
Ahh, yes, I did go there. Here’s my photo from below the same alcove. That was the last alcove I visited on that trip, and there wasn’t much inside except for several broken metates and some charcoal writings, none of which really looked prehistoric.
The photo link doesn’t work. I just get a minus sign in a circle. According to the report there is some RA but it might be hard to see. There is a pic in the Morss report that is chalked. They evidently found quite a lot of clay figures there. Was the cave in that long cliff area N of Pleasant Creek Flat?
I think the link should be fixed now. Yep, that’s the right location–we walked the length of that entire cliff.
Thanks. You might want to check this out:
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4317&context=etd
There is a map on pg. 12. They mark 3 sites on the long cliff above Pleasant Creek Flats but don’t call any of them as Fremont.