Talk about an interesting petroglyph! I’d been looking for this petroglyph panel for a while, and even though I knew the general area it was located in, it seemed to elude me. When I finally found it last month, I realized that I had been within 20 feet of it in the past, but just didn’t hike quite far enough to reach it. It appears that these petroglyphs have been re-pecked more recently than some of the surrounding ones that aren’t pictured here.
An amazing panel of Basketmaker petroglyphs found along the San Juan River near the mouth of Butler Wash. One of the largest panels around, and a popular stop for rafters on the river. This is just a very small selection of all the petroglyphs found at this location.
I finally got to return to this amazing petroglyph of a duck-headed man this morning. The last time I visited this panel was a few years back…before I even owned a DSLR. At the time I just took a few snapshots with my point and shoot camera and then moved on. I have wanted to return for quite some time so that I could get a better photo, but it just never seemed to happen…until today!
A small lizard-like stick figure with large hands and feet carved into a canyon wall near Butler Wash. Getting through all of the thick tamarisk to reach this and a few other panels near the San Juan River was an adventure, but it was worth it.
Here’s a portion of an amazing Basketmaker petroglyph panel located along the San Juan River near Butler Wash and known as the Shamans Panel. Currently, this is probably the best portion of the panel, however, if you walk along the cliff face you will find hundreds, if not thousands, of other petroglyphs in this same area. Unfortunately, a lot of the other petroglyphs are very faint and hard to see and photograph. This area must have been very important in the past.
