One of the many scenes found on Newspaper Rock along Indian Creek on your way to Canyonlands. The hunter on horseback appears to have just shot an arrow at a deer or an elk and hit their target. I love visiting this site and seem to stop at it at least a few times each year. It always seems like I discover something new on this panel every time I visit.
Here’s another of the rock art panels I visited this last Saturday in the San Rafael Swell, known as the Cowboy’s Secret. This is an amazing petroglyph panel hidden among many large boulders with a great view of the surrounding area. The main figure kind of reminds me of The Guardian figure painted in Canyon Pintado of Colorado which makes me believe that this could be of Fremont origin. The large snakes carved in the stone above frame this figure nicely.
Shortly after arriving in Chaco Canyon last month, we hiked up to the Una Vida Great House near the visitor’s center. Una Vida is in a near-natural state of preservation with no major vandalism, and with only minor excavations and preservation repairs. Time and the forces of nature have collapsed the roofs. Walls have fallen. Centuries of blowing sand have covered the rooms with a protective blanket of sand.
A short walk up the slope behind Una Vida will take you to a few petroglyph panels. This is one of the better panels that we found in the park. I actually ended up returning to the panel later in the evening so that I could photograph this site bathed in the warmer late evening sunlight.
Of all of the many awe-inspiring petroglyph panels located near McKee Springs in Dinosaur National Monument, I would have to say that this one is probably my favorite. Heck, it’s one of my favorite petroglyph panels in all of Utah! I’ve put it on my calendar to get back to Dinosaur this fall to get some new photos of this site, plus to visit a few new sites as well. I’m looking forward to it!
Rock Art depicting owls doesn’t seem to be very common, but the few pictographs and petroglyphs of owls that I have come across so far seem to really stand apart from the rest. This amazingly preserved petroglyph of an owl is carved high above the canyon floor near the Colorado River and Moab. It’s hard to see from below without the use of binoculars. It’s a steep loose climb to reach this panel, which contains many more petroglyphs than just this owl, but it’s well worth the climb so you can sit back and view this great site.
