Book Cliffs | Udink.org

On a cold Thanksgiving morning I took my motorcycle for a ride, hoping to find a little snow in the Book Cliffs to ride in. While riding randomly along a dirt road near Deadman Creek I saw a large boulder that I remembered seeing about 15 years ago while driving my ’79 Ford in the snow.

’79 Ford near Deadman Creek
'79 Ford near Deadman Creek

This time, however, I took notice of the dark patina on the boulder and decided to stop and look for rock art. It had seemed very unlikely that I’d find anything, but there were, in fact, a few faint petroglyphs there! I didn’t have my camera so I took a photo with my phone and then headed home.

Two bighorn sheep petroglyphs

I returned on Black Friday with Mark and we looked at the rock art, then explored the area on foot hoping to find more rock art or possibly some pit houses along the wash. We also did some poking around the base of the Book Cliffs near the mouth of Deadman Canyon. We didn’t see much of interest other than the one boulder with petroglyphs, which aren’t especially unique other than their proximity to home in an area otherwise devoid of rock art.

Double helix