There are many spectacular petroglyphs located at the McConkie Ranch in Dry Fork, but this one really seemed to stand out to me as we hiked past it on our way to visit the Three Kings. On our way back, the sky had cleared up just enough to show some blue and I took a few photos of it that I think turned out well. This is probably my favorite of the bunch.
I’ve realized that I’ve been posting a lot of Barrier Canyon Style photos lately (well, they are my favorite ones), so here’s a look up at one of the many petroglyph panels in Shay Canyon. These are believed to be Anasazi, but there are certainly figures in the area the look Fremont, too. Shay Canyon contains quite a few excellent petroglyph panels that are easy to access and great to explore, which are also very well preserved. When I visited Shay Canyon earlier this year, the sky was overcast almost the whole time, but shortly before I left the area there were a couple of small breaks in the clouds. This was one of the few photos I got that included some blue sky that day.
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.
A simple Fremont anthropomorph is carved perfectly between two lighter colored vertical stripes on the sandstone in North Wash. This figure is part of a larger panel of petroglyphs near Hog Springs.
I’ve seen many bighorn sheep petroglyphs while out exploring the desert, but for some reason this one has always seemed to stand out to me. I consider it one of my favorite sheep petroglyphs, and have visited it a number of times. It’s carved on a canyon wall along Kane Creek near Moab that has many other petroglyph panels nearby, including some that are quite large and impressive- but for some reason I always gravitate back to this precisely pecked petroglyph (say that three times fast!).
