IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

I’ve been anticipating the Solstice this year so that I could visit the Solstice Snake petroglyph to watch and photograph the arrowhead of light that appear on the snake’s head. For about two minutes on the Summer Solstice a dagger of light shaped like an arrowhead appears on the head of this very large and well executed petroglyph of a snake. It was an amazing experience!

Solstice Snake

Of course I went out searching for some new rock art while I was in Moab, too 🙂

Faded Petroglyphs

A new panel of petroglyphs I came across…..very faded, but there’s a lot going on here if you look closely.

Faded Designs

A closer look at the previous panel.

Colorado River BCS

A Barrier Canyon Style anthropomorphic figure found along the Colorado River.

Turtle Man Up Close

This Barrier Canyon Style anthropomorph found high up in a shallow alcove looks like a turtle to me.

I also made a return visit to the Golf Course Panel for a few photos…

Transparent Anthropomorph

Moab Man

On my way home I made a short detour into the Book Cliffs. Over the weekend when I was hiking with Philippe, he mentioned that he had gone to visit the Robidoux Panel when he first arrived in Utah and found that it was now broken…. I wanted to see just how bad the damage was for myself.

Time Takes it’s Toll

I last visited this panel on December 18, 2010 and it was still in one piece then. Here’s a photo I took that day…

My Last Robidoux Photo

Check out my other posts in the Moab Area Rock Art Series:

Moab Area Rock Art I | Colorado River Gorge / Golf Course / Kane Creek
Moab Area Rock Art II | Kane Creek Canyon & Potash Road
Moab Area Rock Art III | Mill Creek Canyon / Kane Creek / Bartlett Panel
Moab Area Rock Art IV | The Secret Grotto & More
Moab Area Rock Art V | Hidden Valley & Behind the Rocks
Moab Area Rock Art VI | Yellow Comet Alcove
Moab Area Rock Art VII | Solstice Snake
Moab Area Rock Art VIII | Dark Angel Petroglyphs
Moab Area Rock Art IX | Mill Creek Canyon
Moab Area Rock Art X | Stearns Wash

Sunday, June 19, 2011

This hiking trip in the San Rafael Swell turned out to be a very unique experience for me. I was tagging along with Phillipe on a hike he had planned for his long Southwest trip. I knew what general area we would be hiking in, but other than that I did no additional research on the route….I left it all up to Philippe. On top of that, I knew we were making a loop, but I didn’t even know how long we would be hiking for (it turned out to be about 12.5 miles round trip)….I just went….and it all worked out great in the end! We were planning to visit four different rock art sites along the way, but unfortunately we only found one of those four. We did, however, stumble across a new site that we were not expecting, which was very exciting!

Our first visit was to the Sunlight & Shadow Panel. This is a very unique Barrier Canyon Style Panel located high up on the canyon wall at the top of a very steep and loose talus pile. We climbed up and spent some time photographing the panels. The day was overcast, so we did not have any issues with one of the panels being in the sun while the other is in the shade.

Sunlight & Shadow Panel

Sunlight & Shadow Front Panel

Sunlight & Shadow Back Panel

Sheep with a Snakes Tongue

After visiting the Sunlight & Shadow Panel we went on and searched for the next three panels. Unfortunately, we had no luck finding any of them, and I now beleive we were completely in the wrong location to find them. I’ll have to return to the area when it cools off a bit and continue the search where I think they might be. After searching the canyon walls, climbing up and down steep talus slopes in search of the panels we were both getting a little frustrated and tired…..plus the on and off rain showers didn’t help any. Before heading back towards our vehicles, we decided to head down-canyon a little ways just to see how far we could go before it got too technical for us to continue. Along the way we continued to watch the canyon walls for signs of pictographs or petroglyphs. At one point the wash entered a small canyon where we couldn’t see the main canyon’s walls. Philippe decided he was going to climb up and take a look…at this point I had had enough climbing and decided to stay behind. A minute later he called for me……I almost didn’t go, but finally decided that I would make one final climb out. Once I reached the top of the smaller canyon…I was pleasantly suprised to catch a glimpse of some Barrier Canyon Style pictographs that I was not familiar with. This was not one of the panels we had been searching for…..this was something new. While photographing this site (I really wish I had dragged my long lens with me….I guess I’ll have to go back and revisit this site again in the fall), I did take notice that there was no footpath leading to this site, which are common for most rock art sites. I also noticed that there were no other footprints anywhere to be found, except for ours, which made me realize this was a special find.

I’ve decided to refer to this site The Unexpected Panel for two reasons. First, we were not searching for this panel…we were searching for other panels when we unexpectedly came across this one. Second, because this panel consists of a few different regional styles all in one place which is very unique and also unexpected.

Unexpected Panel

Rain Dance

Setting Circles Free

Lower Unexpected Panel

Over the Tree

My Favorite

When I arrived home from this weekend trip, I contacted a few of my friends who know a lot more about rock art and sites than I do. I figured they would recognize this panel and tell me what it was named. What I found out is that none of them had ever seen it before. Not even David Sucec, who is in charge of the Barrier Canyon Style Project and who probably knows the location of more Barrier Canyon Style sites than anyone else. While I am sure that we are not the first people to stumble across this beautiful pictograph site, it is pretty cool to find out you have come across something that probably very few people know about!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

This Saturday I was going to meet my friend Philippe from France at Goblin Valley in the evening before sunset. That gave me all day to do some exploring on my own along the San Rafael Reef. I started out driving south along the Reef to Three Fingers Canyon. I hadn’t been back there in a year or two and wanted to gets some better photos of the petroglyphs.

Light on the Reef

On my way to Three Fingers Canyon I drove south along the Reef. There were some early morning clouds in the sky that spotlighted the reef in this photo.

Three Fingers Canyon

The mouth of Three Fingers Canyon.

Three Fingers Panel

Looking up at the main panel of petroglyphs in Three Fingers.

Vertical Circles

Another panel of petroglyphs.

Wave of Petroglyphs

Here’s a few more petroglyphs, but what I like about this photo is how the sandstone kind of resembles the shape of a wave.

Painted Petroglyph

The anthropomorphic petroglyph here has the remnants of some paint.

After spending some time exploring the Three Fingers panels, I continued along the Reef so that I could revisit the Ochre Alcove again…..one of my favorite Barrier Canyon Style pictograph panels.

Transformation Scene

An overview of the main panel of pictographs in the Ochre Alcove.

Painted Twins

A closeup of two interesting figures.

Dreams

Three of the larger anthropomorphs….two of them have lines of dots rising from them…

Horned Serpent

A closeup of the largest anthropomorph and the horned snake.

Very Small

Here’s a very small anthropomorph that I missed on my first visit here…..it’s very small and very detailed.

Once I was finished examining this panel closely I finished hiking up the canyon in search of two other rock art panels that are supposed to be in the area…..but I came up empty handed on those. So when I got back to the Jeep I went out in search of another new panel in North Temple Wash…..which I did find!

North Temple Wash Panel

The new panel I found this trip……very faded.

North Temple Anthropomorph

A closer look at the above panel.

Old Car Under Temple Mountain

An old car near Temple Mountain.

After looping around Temple Mountain, I returned to the Reef and stopped by the Temple Wash Panel again.

Temple Wash Panel

Good Dog

Shot Up

From there I headed over to Hanksville for some dinner and to top off the tank in my Jeep. By the time I arrived back in the Temple Mountain area I finally met up with Philippe. We headed into Goblin Valley in hope of a nice sunset…..but that never happened. We did have a nice time exploring the further reaches of the park, though. Here’s one of the few photos I did take in Goblin Valley.

Goblins

Once the sun was down, we left the park and found a campsite so we could rest up for our hike on Sunday 🙂

Sunday, June 12, 2011

On Sunday morning I slept in just a bit later than on Saturday…..not because I wanted to, but because I was planning on photographing through the doorways of Pueblo Bonito during the early morning sunlight, and the park would not be opening the gates until 7am…..so there was no use for me to get up earlier than I had to. I arrived at the gate a few minutes before 7am in hopes that it would be opened early. It wasn’t. They actually didn’t come open it until 10 minutes after 7…..which means I was sitting in my Jeep anxiously waiting. Once the gate was opened, I went straight to Pueblo Bonito and started shooting…..I didn’t have much time before the sun would be too high.

Pueblo Bonito T

Nice light through the big T-shaped doorway.

Typical Doors

A typical doorway photo in Pueblo Bonito.

Once the sun was too high, we made our way over to check out the Casa Rinconada Community.

Casa Rinconada Kiva

The large kiva at Casa Rinconada.

Gallo Camp

When we were done exploring there, we went back to camp to pack up. Here’s a photo of the ruin behind our campsite.

Once we were all packed up and ready to go we stopped to take one last hike to Wijiji before starting the drive home.

Wijiji Hike

Hiking along the old closed road to Wijiji….Fajada Butte in the background.

Wijiji Pueblo

Wijiji Pictographs

Faint pictographs near Wijiji. There are a number of faint negative handprints, faint spirals and red lines, plus a couple of zoomorphs that appear to be standing in the middle. I wish I had brought my telephoto lens with me on this hike, but I wasn’t sure how close we would be able to get to these pictographs when we started…

Wijiji Pictographs Closer

A closer look.

Wijiji

A nice sky over Wijiji.

Follow the Old Road

Hiking back from Wijiji in Chaco Canyon.

Thankfully, the drive home was uneventful with no further issues with the Jeep. We both had a great weekend and lucked out with great weather that wasn’t too hot (especially for this time of the year) and are looking forward to our next trip to Chaco Canyon in the future!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

On Saturday morning I got up a little earlier than Amanda and headed out to try and get a photo of Fajada Butte at sunrise (since they don’t open the gates to the main park until 7am). When I arrived there were some nice clouds behind the butte, but they cleared out before the sun finally came up.

Fajada Butte

Early morning sunlight on Fajada Butte.

Once the sun was up, I made my way back to camp and found that Amanda was awake and ready to go. We had a little breakfast and then went into the park just after 7am. We wanted to get an early start since we were going to hike the longest backcountry trail in the park to Penasco Blanco….and we wanted to do it before it got really hot out. Along the way we took the Petroglyph Loop trail and searched the sandstone walls for petroglyphs. We ended up finding quite a few.

Sheep Designs

A well defined sheep petroglyph overlooks some faded designs that are rather unique. I see the heads of two sheep below the designs facing each other, too.

Sheep & Pictograph

A bighorn sheep petroglyph with some more recent scratchings. Above the sheep is a faint pictograph that might represent a rain cloud?

Spiral Serpent

A spiral with a head…plus some more recent scratchings.

Curly Tail Sheep

This one was located high above and hidden. I would have missed it if Amanda hadn’t spotted it!

Chaco High Panel

My favorite petroglyphs along the loop…also located high above us.

Lizard Men Panel

The last panel along the loop trail.

After finishing the loop, we continued on and eventually crossed Chaco Wash. Once on the other side we reached my main destination for hiking this trail; The Supernova Pictograph.

1054 Supernova Pictograph

Some believe that this pictograph in Chaco Canyon represents the supernova that created the Crab Nebula on July 4, 1054.

Shield & Claws?

After passing the Supernova Pictographs there’s another .8 miles until you reach Penasco Blanco. Along the way we passed a large boulder that had this large shield-like petroglyphs on it. Maybe it is more recent as I’ve not seen anything like it before, but I don’t know? I do know I saw some similar claw-like hand petroglyphs near the campground, too…

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