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.
Beginning of the hike, random rock formations on the horizon
Rock formations
Following a sandy wash
Some random arches
Truck parked on the road
Crossing the head of a drainage
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.
Spire
Spire
Steep slickrock traverse to avoid losing elevation
Cliffs above a small overhang
The spire again
Sandstone domes
Sandstone dome
Alcove
Another alcove nextdoor
View toward Courthouse Wash
Another alcove
Alcove view
Rock formation 4535T
Peener
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 spire and alcoves
Small rock formation
Perfect canvas, perfectly blank
Tobacco tin
More blank patina
Sandstone domes
Yet more sandstone domes
The spire
Lunch spot view
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.
More alcoves coming up
Spires
Pair of alcoves
Alcove with metate
Metate
Alcove view
Rock fin
Interesting layer contact
Shallow alcove
Martinez inscription
Overhangs
Metate
Firewood pile
Broken metate
Broken metate
Alcove floor
Pillars beyond the alcove
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.
La Sal Mountains
Within sight of the truck
Worked chert
Holes in some rocks
Photo Gallery: Arches Backcountry VIII: More Petrified Dunes