I wanted to do more long-ish desert hikes while the weather was mild so I picked a couple from my inventory of already-planned trips, which turned out to be a minor mistake that caused me to completely miss the rock art I was planning to see! But it didn’t ruin the trip or anything, I still saw a lot of great rock art, just not the specific panel I went there to see. I left home early on Saturday and arrived at the dirt road turnoff leading into Robber’s Roost before sunrise.
Maybe my favorite turnoff
After quite a bit more driving I arrived at my starting spot on the side of a dirt road. I’d been nervous about road conditions because I still haven’t fixed the 4WD in my truck since it stopped working nearly a year earlier (and probably never will because it’s an electrical problem I can’t track down), but there were no significantly sandy sections so my worries were unfounded. I hiked across the flat and nondescript desert, with only the Henry Mountains for a landmark, until eventually I reached the edge of the canyon I intended to hike. I dropped below the rim, crossed a large slickrock area, and descended an old stock trail until I was down in the canyon proper.
Henry Mountains
Cairn at the drop-in point
Across the slickrock
Descent into the canyon
Old stock trail
Down a crack
View up the crack
The rest of the day was filled with the usual: miles and miles of walking the canyon floor, stopping often to investigate with binoculars, and photographing the rock art I found along the way. I was surprised to only see one inscription the entire way. There were a few alcoves but none had much of anything inside. I also saw several natural arches, including one that was quite large but which I couldn’t get a good view through due to a very steep slope covered in brush. It should have been easier-going but in a few spots I noticed trails climbing out of the canyon bottom so I followed them, assuming that they were bypassing pools or brushy spots, but on the way back up the canyon I skipped those bypass trails and didn’t see any major obstacles.
In the canyon bottom
P.S., December 12, 1925
Flowing water
A small drop in the canyon
Bypass trail
Tree reaching for the sky
Inside an alcove
Natural arch
Open canyon
Grassy canyon bottom
Another natural arch
Towering cliff
Oops, somebody lost their trail camera!
Trees beginning to green up
Difficult-to-see natural arch
A bare slit of sky visible through the arch
Shaggy deer
Green willows
Section I’d bypassed earlier
Skull stuck in a tree
Deformation bands in the Navajo Sandstone
Most of the rock art I saw I’d already known the location of beforehand. But one panel in particular I missed because I had planned this trip maybe a year or two earlier. I knew that somewhere in the canyon were some very faded pictographs, and I’d looked at photos of them when planning the trip, but when I was actually in the canyon I couldn’t remember at all what the pictos looked like. When I saw some faded pictographs at one of the panels I just assumed those were the ones, even though I didn’t think they looked as faded as I was expecting. It wasn’t until returning home and reviewing the photos that I realized the very faded pictos weren’t the same as the only slightly faded ones I’d actually seen. And I was able to match up photos of those very faded pictographs with some scenery photos I’d taken in the canyon to determine the exact location, so at least if I ever return I won’t have to search them out. Here’s just a small selection of the rock art I saw, but there are many more photos in the full album.
Enormous bighorn sheep petroglyph
I climbed out of the canyon using the same route I’d taken in, and back at the truck I enjoyed a snack and a drink before finding a place to camp for the night. The next day I planned to hike to Point of Rocks, just a couple of miles from where I camped.
Worked chert near camp
Point of Rocks
Blue hour over the Henrys
Sunset colors over Factory Butte and Boulder Mountain
Photo Gallery: Some Rock Art in the Roost