Nine Mile Canyon MMXXIV

November 2, 2024

It’s been more than two years since the last time I was in Nine Mile Canyon, and I recently saw a photo of a Barrier Canyon style pictograph that made me want to go back. That photo showed just enough background scenery that I found its location after spending maybe an hour in Google Earth searching. I had some other destinations in mind for this trip and I drove to the furthest one first so that when I finished up for the day I had a shorter drive home. On the way in I was pleased to see some yellow leaves still hanging on to many of the cottonwood trees. My first stop was at a petroglyph panel close to the road that I spotted with binoculars on my last trip here. It was still in the shadow of the canyon walls, and it wasn’t possible for me to get up close so I had to shoot handheld photos from a distance. The photos came out a little blurry, and I totally missed seeing some of the petroglyphs on the right side of the panel that were heavily weathered and not easily visible in the dim morning light.

Yellow cottonwood tree

Yellow tree and the Mummy

Petroglyph panel

Bighorn sheep and archer

Big-headed figure

Next I went up Dry Canyon and scrambled up to a ruin that I found using Google Earth. I was cold when I started out but when I reached the ruin I’d worked up a sweat. The structure is partially collapsed, and it was probably a lookout for game or maybe other people, with good views up and down the canyon. On a ledge below the ruin was a small petroglyph panel.

Steep, rocky hillside leading to a ruin

Dry Canyon ruin

Dry Canyon trees

The Mummy above Dry Canyon

Petroglyphs below the ruin

Back in Nine Mile I went for a steep hike to some white pictographs I’d also noticed on a previous trip. The climb up looked straightforward from below, but as I got close to the bottom cliff bands I had difficulty finding a way up. Going back and forth searching for weaknesses I found a couple of good petroglyphs, though. I made a couple of climbs that I knew would be difficult during the descent, but then it was an easy climb to the bottom of the upper cliffs. At the base of the cliffs I found a dead fawn in what seemed like an unlikely place to die. I wasn’t able to climb onto the ledge directly below the pictographs but I got some decent shots from just below it. On the way down those lower cliff bands proved to be easier to downclimb than I expected.

Another steep, rocky climb ahead

Nine Mile Canyon Road

MOAC (Montgomery Archaeological Consultants) marker

Small horned figure and large centipede

Faint horned figure

Dead fawn in an unusual spot

White pictographs

Flavor Flav

View down the canyon

While driving up the canyon some more I stopped to see a granary that I’d recently discovered the location of after seeing a drone video of it, only to realize that I’ve seen it at least a couple of times previously. I guess it looked different from the air than from the ground.

See the granary?

Granary

My last stop of the day was the Barrier Canyon style pictograph that spurred me to go on this trip. I scanned the cliffs below through binoculars and saw some petroglyphs that I’d seen on a previous trip, but had never climbed up to. The pictograph doesn’t face the road so I could’t see it until I got up close. The best vantage point I could get was below the pictograph–if there was a ledge below the rock art when it was made, it must have fallen away since then. Seeing the pictograph was a nice way to cap off a fun and challenging day back in Nine Mile.

Lots of dots