While visiting a few rock art sites around Escalante this past weekend, I unfortunately encountered plenty of vandalism to some of the panels. This panel, above the Escalante River, was one of the worst. As you can see, someone decided they wanted these petroglyphs to themselves (or to sell) and tried to remove them, damaging the lower portion of the panel in the process. It’s troubling to me whenever I encounter something like this.
In a short canyon near Escalante there are a number of alcoves grouped together known as the Weavers Caves. They have received that distinction because of the many needle-like pictographs painted within. The above photo shows just a very small portion of the fine pictographs found in these alcoves. It truly is amazing just how many figures are painted here, but a lot of them are now pretty faint and hard to see. The most interesting thing to me about this site besides just how many figures are painted in these alcoves is how small each of them are. Many of them are abstract shapes and are painted in very fine lines using multiple colors.
These pictographs are nothing like anything else I have seen in Southern Utah. I am not sure what style these would be considered, but there were parts of them that reminded me of Barrier Canyon Style. I have read that some people believe they might be Espalande or Pecos styles? Whatever their style, they are certainly uncommon for the area and were a pleasure to visit.
When we headed down to Escalante this last weekend, it was one of my main goals to try and find this particular pictograph panel. I had seen a photo of this pictograph a while back, and because it was so unique I just new I wanted to find it and see it for myself. I have seen many petroglyphs and pictographs, but nothing like this one before. It’s very interesting that each person around the circle is different from one another…no two are exactly the same.
Unfortunately, I have no clue what style this pictograph is, but if I had to guess it would be from a later culture, after the Fremont/Anasazi were gone from this area. Perhaps it is Ute or Paiute? There is a small rainbow off to the right (just out of the frame) so maybe I am wrong and it is Fremont? If anyone out there has some thoughts or information on this pictograph panel, I’d love to hear them in the comments below.
This weekend, Amanda and I headed down to the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument so that we could search out some rock art and ruins in the area. Our first stop yesterday was to visit the Hundred Handprints near the Escalante River. Unlike the last cave that I visited which claimed to have 100 handprints, this one actually delivers. This panel of many white handprints is located high up in a shallow alcove, which makes them very visible if you know where to look. The steep slickrock to to access this panel was much too steep for my climbing ability, even if I hadn’t been wearing sandals!
