IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Finally! I have wanted to get up to Dry Fork and check out the petroglyphs and pictographs on the McConkie Ranch for a while, so on Saturday Amanda and I headed up there for the day. These rock art panels are located on private property north of Vernal, but the McConkie Ranch has created two trails to view the rock art and allows the public to access them. I’d like to thank the McConkie Ranch for allowing the public to access the rock art located on their property!

Here’s a few photos I took in no particular order. Enjoy!

Circles & Shields

Looking up at a couple of the many petroglyph panels along the Three Kings Trail. Most of the morning was completely overcast, but luckily as we were headed back to the trailhead the clouds started to clear and blue skies were visible.

Red Spiral

A simple red spiral pictoglyph (petroglyph & pictograph) along the Main Trail.

Y-Man

One of the many large anthropomorphic figures alone the Three Kings Trail. I named this photo after the figure to the right that looks like the letter Y.

The Clock

This petroglyph & pictograph kind of reminds me of a clock. Actually, the long hand pointing towards the three o’clock position looks like an atlatl hitting the bullseye.

The Twins

The Twins are the last set of petroglyphs along the Main Trail.

Three Kings

The famous Three Kings Panel, also known as the Sun Carrier is pretty amazing. Unfortunately, it’s located pretty high and the trail does not get too close to it. Luckily I had my 100-400mm lens with me!

I’ve got plenty more photos to go through, and will be posting them as I have the time, so stay tuned for more!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

On Sunday I met my friend Marty who was going to take me to the Solstice Snake petroglyph. I have been searching for this particular petroglyph for a while and was hoping to find it before this year’s solstice. Marty had visited this particular petroglyph about 14 years ago and wanted to return. He had a general idea of where it was located, but not an exact location. Luckily his general location was close enough for us to eventually find it, even after going the wrong way and having to scramble around on many scree slopes…..adding an extra 2-3 miles to our hike for a total of 9.75 miles round trip. Even with the extra hiking, it was a great adventure and we had fun searching the area.

I, as usual, took a number of photos of the large snake petroglyph, so here are a few of them 🙂

The Big Snake

It’s a big petroglyph. I’ve been told it’s over 17 feet long. Here’s a photo with me (taken by Marty) for some scale.

The Serpent & I

…and now Marty with the snake.

Marty & the Snake

A different view.

Solar Snake

Face to face with the serpent.

The Serpent

After spending some time at the Big Snake, we continued our search for a pithouse and ‘Altar Table,’ as Marty referred to it, that was supposed to be nearby. We managed to find these after some searching, too.

We first came across the remains of a pithouse….and then I found these small petroglyphs on the cliff behind it.

Pithouse Petroglyphs

Next I found some more petroglyphs as we searched for the ‘altar’

Pithouse Panels

Closer views of each panel…

Pithouse Second Panel

Circles Panel

Finally we found the ‘Altar Table’ hidden in a small alcove nearby that we had to scramble up to. This is certainly one of the more unique scenes that I have come across while out exploring. Marty has a photos of this same setup that he took 14 years ago and was surprised to see that everything was still there. There were some petroglyphs here, too.

The Altar Table

Marty at the Altar

Another small petroglyph panel located above the ‘Altar Table’

Curly Arms

The hike pretty much took us most of the day and we were pretty worn out by the time we reached our Jeeps again, but it was certainly worth it. I’m looking forward to heading back in June for the solstice!…..minus the heat….

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

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Yellow Comet Alcove

On Saturday, Jackson and I headed back to the Moab area to hike to the Yellow Comet pictographs. After researching a way to reach them, I found that there were two different routes down into the canyon. The closest route is supposed to be difficult to find if you don’t already know where it is, plus there is supposed to be a very tricky section that I didn’t like the sound of. Luckily, I managed to find another route down into the canyon, but the hike in the canyon would be about 6 miles longer. A few weeks back I stopped by the area to see if I could find the route down and did manage to find it. This time, I parked the Jeep as close as I could to the route down and we set off on our hike.

It was a short cross-county hike to the way down. The route down is a very old constructed cow trail. At some point in the past, an unknown person created this trail by drilling holes into the sandstone and pounding in steel bars. Rock, stones, branches and dirt were used to build a trail on top of these steel bars. There’s not much left of the trail, but it was still possible for us to get down even if it was a little tricky in places.

The Way Down

After scrambling down some large boulders and steep scree the rest of the way, we were soon in the wash at the bottom and the rest of the hike was much easier.

Canyon Hike

After a few more miles we reached the large alcove that houses the Yellow Comet pictographs.

Yellow Comet Alcove

Yellow Comet Panel

Yellow Comet Above the Rocks

A photo of the panel with Jackson standing under it for scale…

Jackson & The Yellow Comet

Behold! The Comet

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Sunday, February 27, 2011

On Sunday the weather forecast called for 60% chance of snow in Moab. The same was true for Grand Junction and Moab on Saturday, so I figured they would be wrong again and I made my way over to Moab. It was a good decision because it turned out to be a perfect day for hiking……I’m glad I didn’t stay home… My destination for the day was to hike the Hidden Valley trail into the Behind the Rocks area to find some petroglyphs. This trail has been on my to-do list for a while, and now I regret not hiking it sooner. Besides being a nice hike, there were a bunch of petroglyphs to be found.

60% Chance of Snow

This is what a 60% chance of snow looks like in Hidden Valley…

Inside Out

One of the more interesting petroglyphs along the way…..a large shield-like figure with a smaller anthropomorph inside.

Line of Sheep Panel

This panel contains the longest and straightest line of sheep I have come across so far.

Moab Fighting Men

These two figures look like they might be fighting.

Breaking Sheep

As usual, there are plenty of bighorn sheep petroglyphs all around.

Cutouts Panel

This line of small anthropomorphs reminds me of paper cutouts.

Sheep Tracks

This bighorn has left some tracks behind.

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Presidents Day | Monday, February 21, 2011

Since I had Presidents Day off ffrom work and the weather was going to be nice, Jackson and I headed to the Moab area to search out some more rock art, plus to just do some general exploring and hiking. We couldn’t have asked for a better day in February and we managed to find quite a bit of rock art.

First up was the ‘Secret Grotto’ Hmm, what’s down in that crack?

Hey, look at that! Rock art hidden down here 🙂

Jackson in the ‘grotto’

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