My annual southwestern Utah trip occurred just about as COVID was hitting the fan in early March, 2020. It was basically five days of rock art overload! Traci and I drove down on Tuesday afternoon after I got off work and we stayed at Paul and Pam’s place the rest of the week. On Wednesday Paul and I did several short hikes, visiting some rock art near Apple Valley and then checking out the ghost town of Grafton. The rock art was pretty good stuff, and there was a particular motif of human figures with two, three, and even four heads.
Paul’s WJ and a windmill near Gould Wash
White pictographs and a carved face
Yellow Man
Red and white pictographs
Stick figure and concentric circles
Three-headed man
Peener man
Two-headed man
Four-headed man
Large boulder with petroglyphs
Rake/comb glyph
Killed by Indians
Cedar Pete, Paiute leader circa 1830-1890
Grafton church
Thursday brought Paul and I to several petroglyph panels in and around Snow Canyon State Park. We only hiked about four miles total, but with temps in the 80s it wore both of us out. It didn’t help that I was having problems with one of my shoes that caused a great deal of pain in my foot, and I ended up throwing them away after this hike–I’ll never buy another pair of Merrell shoes again. With a lot of private property in the area, it took us a while to find a place to park where we could begin our hike. The first panel we visited was just inside the park, in a crack in the Navajo Sandstone. After the hike across open country, being inside the crack was cool and refreshing. The petroglyphs were mostly weathered and without much contrast between the surrounding rock, but still very interesting. We explored another similar crack in the area and did some sketchy climbing to get above a couple of boulders wedged in a dryfall, but didn’t find anything in there.
Trail near Snow Canyon State Park
Descending the slickrock
A good sign
Twisted tree in a slot
Paul in the slot
Airplane overhead
We turned around just above those two wedged boulders
Skirting around a small canyon
Next we checked out a large wall covered in petroglyphs. There were a lot of lines and squiggles there, but the most prevalent design seemed to be that of hand or paw prints. We passed below some multi-million dollar homes to reach one last petroglyph panel. It wasn’t nearly as great as the others we’d seen that day, but there was some nice shade to rest in before the hot hike back to my Jeep.
Wall of petroglyphs
Wall of petroglyphs
Wall of petroglyphs
Wall of petroglyphs
Wall of petroglyphs
House above a petroglyph panel
Pine Valley Mountains above a small dam
Dam in a small sandstone wash
Um, uh-oh
Chris arrived on Thursday evening, and on Friday we drove to Cave Valley in Zion National Park to look for some rock art. I thought I knew where the rock art was based on some photos I’d seen online, but luckily a local friend had seen some of my photos online from the previous two days and asked what my plans were for the rest of the week. When I told him, he responded with better directions. I’d been off by about four miles, so he likely saved us from a fruitless trip. Paul was still beat from the previous day so it was just Chris and me this time. We hiked to two different caves within close proximity to each other and saw some pretty good pictographs at both. The second cave had a ledge in the back covered in animal(?) bones, but surprisingly not a lot of rodent nesting material like I’d expect to see closer to home, so I can’t say for sure whether they were placed there by other animals. My friend referred to this as “Altar Cave,” and I can see why.
Yucca in Cave Valley
No, no, no, no, and no
Cave Valley cliffs
Leave no trace
Checking out another cave
Lots of animal bones
View out of the cave
Red Butte
Upper Kolob Plateau
On Saturday morning there was a large gathering of geocachers at a buffet-style restaurant in St. George–the last time I would eat out in many months. After breakfast a large group of us set off for Rosy Canyon. We drove to the upper end of the canyon on the Utah side and looked at some petroglyphs in side canyons. The drive into the side canyons was very sandy and the clutch on Kenny’s lifted Subaru Baja started slipping and smoking. It took a train of two Jeeps to pull him back to the pavement. After letting the clutch cool off he was able to drive home uneventfully.
Mine and Tom’s rigs parked near Rosy Canyon
Hiking up to a crack
End of the first crack
View toward Rosy Canyon
View up out of the crack
A stuck Subaru
A train with two Jeep engines and a Subaru boxcar
Almost back to pavement
Next we returned south and visited four more rock art sites in the Arizona side of the canyon. Chris and I set off alone to hike to one of the panels which was nearly inaccessible, and I had to settle for zoomed-in photos from far below.
Sandstone buttes
Vehicles parked below some rock art
Rock shelter
It was time to head home on Sunday, but not before one last rock art visit at Parowan Gap. For several of these annual trips I’d wanted to go there on the way home, but usually a late start or bad weather prevented it. This time we got an earlier start and I didn’t let the rain stop me this time. Chris and I just walked around the canyon with umbrellas and enjoyed the great rock art before parting ways and heading home.
Parowan Gap petroglyphs
Parowan Gap petroglyphs
Parowan Gap petroglyphs
Parowan Gap petroglyphs
Parowan Gap petroglyphs
O.E. Waldram, D.O., Chiropractor, October 7, 1943
Parowan Gap petroglyphs
Parowan Gap petroglyphs
Parowan Gap petroglyphs
Photo Gallery: SWUT 2020