I returned to the Petrified Dunes in Arches National Park more than a year after my last trip there and had a remarkably similar experience. Basically I hiked a lot, poked my head into many alcoves, and found an intact metate and several broken ones but nothing else terribly exciting. I left home at 5:30 AM, and just before 8:00 I was in the park and beginning my hike. I’d planned a detailed route that followed the bottoms of washes and clifflines–all the places you’d expect to find the good stuff.
The route took me in a big loop, and one spire of rock was in the center of the loop so I had various views of it most of the day. The first several alcoves I visited had nothing inside them. Occasionally I had nice views to more distant areas of the park.
Some cliffs and rock formations looked like promising spots for rock art or inscriptions but they were a big let-down. At about the farthest point in the loop I saw a tobacco tin, the first human artifact I’d come across. After completing about two-thirds of the loop I stopped for lunch.
The next few alcoves were the most interesting. One had a metate, another had some metate fragments, but they were surprisingly devoid of any other artifacts such as potsherds or lithic flakes. One of the alcoves had an inscription on a small boulder but all I could make out was the name Martinez.
After leaving the last alcove and as I neared the truck I found one large worked piece of chert–the only lithic piece I’d seen other than very small scatterings of flakes out in the open. As I drove out of the park I had to pass through a parking lot that was jam-packed with cars and people, although when I’d arrived in the morning the place was deserted. I think there is no longer an “off-season” at Arches! But at least it’s still possible to spend hours and hours hiking in the park and not see another person.
Photo Gallery: Arches Backcountry VIII: More Petrified Dunes