IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

May 14-15, 2011

Here’s the continuation from Set 1 of my Nine Mile Canyon rock art photos.

Parallel Snake

A good sized snake petroglyph off all by itself.

Sandhill Crane Site

The famous Sand Hill Crane petroglyph panel.

Horned Shield Site

Another site consisting of a dot matrix, snake and some shield-like figures with horns.

Petroglyph Wall

A canyon wall just covered in petroglyphs.

Outlines

The outlines of two figures, one much larger than the other.

The anthropomorph in the middle of this petroglyph panel found in Daddy Canyon looks like he’s juggling to me.

Daddy Canyon Eagle Man

This figure in Daddy Canyon appears to be wearing a large headdress.

Long Line

A long line of sheep and elk.

Elk on Dots

Mickey Mouse

The petroglyph on the left reminds me of a head with Mickey Mouse ears on…

Still more photos from Nine Mile Canyon to come…

May 14-15, 2011

I’ve wanted to get back to Nine Mile Canyon for quite a while. The last time I was there was in 2007 and I kind of rushed through the canyon on my way elsewhere, so I missed a lot. I had wanted to go to Nine Mile Canyon back in November or December, but the weather prevented me from doing so. Then I planned on going in March, but that never worked out either. Finally, this weekend Amanda and I were able to spend the weekend there searching out many panels of rock art!

We left bright and early on Saturday morning and made a quick stop in Wellington to top off my fuel tank before making our way into the canyon. Our first stop was at the Nine Mile Ranch so that we could setup camp before starting our search. After leaving the ranch we spent the rest of Saturday and much of Sunday searching the canyon for rock art and taking many photos. Unfortunately, many of the rock art panels are located on private property and you can only take photos from the road. Luckily I had my 100-400mm lens with me, so I was able to get decent photos of most of the panels we found. We managed to find well over 50 different rock art sites, many which contained multiple panels….and I’m sure there are a ton more that we missed. I’m looking forward to getting back and finding many more in the future!

Since I took so many photos on this trip, I’m going to break this report up into a few sections with plenty of pictures…so enjoy! I’ll try to keep them in the order I took them.

Long-Necked Sheep Panel

An overview of the Long-Necked Sheep Panel.

Long-Necked Sheep

A close-up look at the Long-Necked Sheep….a very interesting petroglyph.

Ladder Man

An interesting anthromorph that is part of the Long-Necked Sheep Panel.

Another Long-Necked Sheep

The right side of the panel with another long-necked sheep.

Cheer Leaders

These figures remind me of cheer leaders….though they are probably holding shields.

Leading A Horse to Water

A man leading a horse with a rider.

Colorful Faded Figure

Located alone on a boulder near the balanced rock, this anthropomorph is fading away but on a colorful section of the rock.

Another Hunting Scene

Hunting scenes are common in petroglyphs, this one has a figure with a bow and arrow in the middle.

Decorated Torsos

A line of decorated pictographs.

Staring Sheep

More photos to come…

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!