Intricate "track" petroglyphs

I find this small panel of petroglyphs pecked carefully into a huge desert varnished sandstone wall - - intriguing and highly interesting. First there are the tracks indicating which direction the various subjects are traveling. Then there is the vertical chain of five diamonds and two hearts. But what really brings a smile to my face is the small human figure on the left who appears to be throwing something. The "dog" figure behind the human either has two big ears and a pointy nose, like a coyote, or has his jaws agape and is getting ready to take a big bite out of somebody's behind, or the ambiguity is intentional - - a petroglyph...pun.

Sunday morning, after a wonderful visit to the Head of Sinbad rock art panels, we drove east on I-70, did a U-Turn and exited the interstate to visit the Black Dragon rock art panel, then hike up nearby Petroglyph Canyon to view the small but intricate petroglyph there (as well as the pure enjoyment of hiking a San Rafael Swell canyon).

When we passed through the gate on the dirt road leading to Black Dragon and Petroglyph Canyon, I missed a turn. The guide book copy I had said that the way headed up a dry stream bed. So instead of taking a sharp hairpin route across the wash, I blissfully drove straight up a wash.

I traveled the “wrong” route for a couple of miles and ended up following the San Rafael River. When the only tracks ahead of me where ATV tracks and I had passed through a couple of tough spots in four wheel drive, I decided to “reconnoiter”. I took out my maps, grabbed my GPS and climbed to the top of the highest slickrock outcropping I could fine. My wife was smart and stayed in the pickup sipping a cold diet Pepsi from our cooler.

Well, I figured out my mistake and got a few great photographs from my perch, before we retraced our route and took the correct way to Black Dragon Canyon. There is an embarrassing epilogue to this tale. While in Black Canyon we talked to some nice folks, one of whom had a two wheel drive van. They had followed SOMEBODY’S, tire tracks up the wrong wash as well and had got stuck in the sand. No. I didn’t fess up.

After visiting the Black Dragon panel, we drove to the mouth of Springs Canyon, where a well traveled trail leads south along the San Rafael Swell to Petroglyph Canyon. That was a fun hike. The petroglyphs in Petroglyph Canyon were small but unique. The hike was well worth the effort with or without the small rock art panel.
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Basics: Petroglyphs were "pecked" into a rock surface. Pictographs were "painted" onto a rock surface.

Some of the pictographs found in Utah are over 3,000 years old. The paint the native American used to make many of the Colorado Plateau pictographs consisted of ground hematite mixed with animal fat and and bird eggs. The paint was absorbed into the sandstone matrix and when protected from the elements (and morons - modern vandals); have lasted thousands of years.

Dating petroglyphs can be tricky, even for trained scientists, who many times must depend on "style" and other clues associated with the rock art to date the rock art. Pictographs have the advantage of having organic materials used in their creation, which may aid dating.

NOTE: If you have a deep interest in rock art (pictographs and petroglyphs) of the American Southwest then get the excellent book titled: "Legacy on Stone" by Sally J. Cole. This is not "page turner" reading and gets pretty technical at times, but if you want some well researched facts and information on the rock art and their presumed creators, then get her book.
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Road Trip - Utah April 17th - 24th, 2010: My wife and I headed for Southern Utah, just before midnight on Friday the 16th of April (after she got off work at her part time job). We drove straight through to Southern Utah, to take advantage of the good weather forecast early on in our trip. Storms were forecast for later in the trip and in fact we got a pretty good taste of same on Wednesday the 21st.

Here in outline form are the places we visited and hiked:

Saturday 4.17.2010
> Rochester Rock Art Panel near Emery, Utah
> The Moore cutoff road
> Sinbad’s head pictograph panel (we camped under a pinon pine near here)

Sunday 4.18.2010
> Black Dragon Canyon rock art panel (after first taking the wrong turn and doing some interesting four wheel drive travel way up the San Rafael River). Short hike.
> Pictograph Canyon pictographs. Short but interesting hike.
> Drive Hanksville, Torrey, Boulder, to Escalante (check into motel)

Monday 4.19.2010
> Drive out the Hole In The Rock Road. Visit Devil’s Garden and Metate Arch.
> Drive to Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch. Hike down to Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons. I hiked the loop up Peek-a-boo and down Spooky while my wife hiked with another lady hiker up Dry Fork and then down to the bottom of Spooky.

Tuesday 4.20.2010
> Hike Lower Calf Creek Falls (my third hike here and my wife’s second) and scramble up to two sets of pictograph panels.

Wednesday 4.21.2010
> Drive the Burr Trail road from Boulder to Notom (my fourth time on this scenic route and my wife’s second). Photograph in Long Canyon and along Waterpocket Fold. Race a rain storm north on the dirt (rapidly turning to mud) portion of this route.
> Hike to the Wild Horse twin caves across the slickrock. Hit with hailstorm as we arrived and watched a “mud storm” (thunderstorm falling through a dust storm), travel across to the east of us. The wind caught up with us at Goblin Valley State Park.
> Revisit the pictographs on Temple Mountain.
> Visit Goblin Valley State Park (my second visit and my wife’s first). Howling winds.

Thursday 4.22.2010
> Drive from Hanksville (we had a motel room there) to South Mule Canyon.
> Hike two miles up South Mule Canyon photographing “house on fire” ruins along the way.
> Check with Kane Ranger Station. Decide to skip a hike down Kane Gulch (too much water and mud on route).
> Take short, but beautiful hike to Yellow House ruins.
> Drive Valley of the gods loop from west to east.
> Drive up through Bluff to Monticello, Utah (cold winds). Stay in motel there.

Friday 4.23.2010
> Drive Monticello, Price, Salt Lake City, Wendover, Wells, Jackpot (where my wife got to spend a couple of hours at the penny slot investment center at Cactus Pete casino - while I slept in the truck canopy bed and read). Drive through the night through Boise, Baker City, Pendleton, and on to our home in Eastern Washington.

Saturday 2.14. 2010
> Arrived home at 5:30 am.

Note:
As long planned (discussions started back in November of 2009): we met a couple, also from Eastern Washington in Escalante on Monday night. These nice friends, whom we met through flickr, joined us on all the hikes and drives we took on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the South Mule Canyon hike on Thursday morning.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Jason and Lusha. Their company added greatly to the fun we had on this trip. We took different routes down to Escalante as well as back home, so we could all customize a portion of this road trip to fit our individual “must see/must do” priorities. A good time was had by all.

Visit Fly Flipper’s flickr photo stream to see their photographs from this road trip: www.flickr.com/photos/lushaevans/sets/72157623754464683/

My wife and I visited Southern Utah and Western Colorado at exactly the same time of the year in 2009. Here are three sets of photographs from that trip, which includes a wonderful backpacking trip into Coyote Gulch, in the Escalante River Canyon Country:

Capitol Reef, Red Canyon, Burr Trail April of 2009:
www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/sets/72157617350799426/

Coyote Gulch backpacking trip April of 2009:
www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/sets/72157617350433766/

McInnis Canyon/Rattlesnake Canyon Arches trip April of 2009:
www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/sets/72157617259181215/

There is an old saying that “firewood” warms you twice. Once when you cut it and the second time when you burn it. I feel the same way about a road trip or a hike. I enjoy it three times: Planning for it; doing it; and sharing the memories with others afterwards.