IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

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 🙂

May 6 – 8, 2011

After work on Friday I stopped home to finish loading the Jeep and then made my way to Arches National Park. I would be spending the weekend with a group of photographers from the Rocky Mountain forum on the Nature Photographer’s Network. Bret Edge was nice enough to setup the Spring Fling event for the group in Moab.

After setting up camp just outside of Arches I headed into the park and over to the Windows Section. There were a lot of people wandering around over there, so I decided to keep going and stop at Double Arch, where there was almost no one. There were some clouds in the sky, so I was hoping that as the sun set they might get some color to add to the background behind the arch. That never happened, but just after the sun set, the sky cleared up and I took this photo of the arch in the twilight.

Twilight at Double Arch

When I finished up at Double Arch, I went over to Balanced Rock to meet the rest of the group for a little night photography led by Scott Bacon. While standing around in the parking lot talking and waiting for it to get dark enough out, some more clouds rolled in and it appeared that we wouldn’t be taking any night shots after all. Half of the group decided to leave since the conditions weren’t looking good, but those of us who decided to stay got lucky and the clouds did end up clearing out. I took a few photos of Balanced Rock, but unfortunately I wasn’t getting the focus right. So instead I turned my camera to the right and illuminated the sidewalk with my headlamp. The lights from Moab highlighted the horizon behind the butte in the distance.

Sidewalk to the Stars

If I remember correctly, I think I made it back to camp around midnight. I quickly went to bed, but didn’t sleep very well that night. My alarm went off at 4:30am so I could meet up with the group at Dead Horse Point State Park to shoot the sunrise.

Colorado Bend

Once the sun had come up, a few of us headed over to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park to catch the last of the good light.

Mesa Arch

Washer Woman

After the light at Mesa Arch was gone, I had a little free time before we would be meeting up at the Moab Library for a little workshop, so I stopped to revisit a few rock art panels.

Supplication Panel

FishMan

After our little workshop we headed over to the park and hung out for a while until it started getting closer to sunset. That’s when we headed back over to Arches and hiked out past the Marching Men and then to Tower Arch. I didn’t get any good photos here, so I have nothing to post…..but once the sun was down I made my way to the Moab Maiden so that I could take a photo of it with some star trails. Here’s my attempt, which I think turned out pretty well (especially the lighting on the petroglyph), but I think I can do better…..I just need to head back any try it again when I have a chance.

Maiden Under the Stars

Then it was back to camp again……it was a long day on less than four hours of sleep. I ended up sleeping in on Sunday instead of trying to catch the sunrise again……but before heading home I went searching for some new rock art. I looked for three different panels, but only managed to find one of them…..

Book Cliffs BCS

I had a great weekend, met some cool new people and learned a lot from some really great photographers 🙂

Sunday, May 1, 2011

After spending a long weekend in Salt Lake City for Amanda’s birthday, we headed home through the San Rafael Swell so that I could stop at a few easily accessible rock art panels at the base of Cedar Mountain that I had not been to before. Here’s a few photos I took.

Silent Sentinel

Our first stop was at The Silent Sentinel. It’s hard to tell scale from this photo, but it’s a pretty good sized petroglyph.

Cedar Mountain Petroglyphs

Next to The Silent Sentinel was this boulder that had a bunch of petroglyphs on it.

Daisy Chain

Next up were the Daisy Chain petroglyphs.

45 Degree Rock

The next stop was at a slab of rock sticking out of the ground at about a 45 degree angle.

Duck Panel

At a set of rocks named Railroad Rocks, after some historic inscriptions carved into them, there are a few more petroglyphs. Some say that one of them is of a duck….but I’m not so sure about that?

The Duck and the Snake

A closer look that the figure that ‘might’ be a duck above a snake-like figure.

Loner

This lone anthropomorph is high on the front of Railroad Rock.

Scorpion

What looks like a scorpion-like figure found along Buckhorn Wash.

Spiral Arm

A larger anthropomorph next to the scorpion posted above.

Cattle Guard Panel

Then I made a stop at The Cattle Guard Panel.

Of course we also stopped at the famous Buckhorn Wash Panel along the way, but I’ve posted plenty of photos from there before and didn’t get anything better this trip, so I won’t bore you with anymore from there this time 😉

Saturday, April 23, 2011

The weekend after getting back from my week in The Maze and on Cedar Mesa I was ready to head back out and search for some rock art. This time Amanda and I headed back to the San Rafael Swell so that we could attempt to visit the Ascending Sheep Panel and the Ferron Box. Back in March Dave and I had attempted to get to the Ascending Sheep Panel, but the snow we got that day slowed us down and we ran out of time after spending most of the day in Short Canyon. This time we also got snowed on in the morning, but not enough to slow us down too much, just enough to get my Jeep dirty and our shoes muddy.

The Juggler

Our first stop was at The Juggler. Unfortunately, it was still snowing a bit when we were here and the ground was pretty muddy…..it was that bentonite clay that sticks to your shoes and eventually dries like cement. I hate that stuff!

Small Snake

A small snake petroglyph near the large snake petroglyph at the base of the Molen Reef.

Molen Snake

Face to face with the large snake.

Slithering Away

The Molen Reef Snake Petroglyph slithering away

Ascending Sheep

This is an amazing pictograph panel! It’s not very big, but the details are just stunning! The main figure is anthropomorphic, but has a bighorn sheep’s head with a snake’s tongue and what looks like a bird’s feet. It’s also holding a bird-like figure on it’s outstretched hand. Not to mention all of the small bighorn sheep in this panel.

Rainbow Panel

Besides the Ascending Sheep Panel, this was the other main pictograph panel that I wanted to visit on this trip. It’s a very cool pictograph and petroglyph (pictoglyph) panel along Ferron Creek. Unfortunately, at some point in the past someone ruined the left side of the panel with plaster…

Ferron Line Up

A line up of small anthropomorphic pictographs high above. They remind me of the small clay Fremont figurines that have been found.

Line of Spirits

A closer look at the pictographs from above.

Red & Black Snake

A red and black snake-like pictograph located along Ferron Creek.

Feet of Sinbad

A pictograph panel located at the Head of Sinbad. The top part of this panel hasn’t survived.

Barely Visible

To the left of the Feet of Sinbad are a few faint pictographs, including this anthropomorph.

Typical Shaman

Just the ‘typical’ photo of these pictographs at the Head of Sinbad through the tree in front. Figured I might as well have a shot through the tree in my collection. 😉

Skeleton Shaman

Here’s my take on the Skeleton Shaman at the Head of Sinbad.

Copyright

A very detailed panel at the Head of Sinbad. It looks like the anthropomorph has a copyright symbol on it’s chest.

The Snake and the Clock

A closer look that the snake and the circle (that looks like a clock) above the Skeleton Shaman.

Gremlin

Just a closer look at one of the interesting figures of the Head of Sinbad pictographs.

Lone Warrior in the Rocks

Before heading home we made a quick stop at the Lone Warrior pictograph.

We had a great day exploring some new rock art panels and revisiting some others, and I’m looking forward to heading back to the San Rafael Swell in search of some more!