IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Bright and early Saturday morning, Amanda and I got up and headed west to the San Rafael Swell. We knew it was probably going to snow on us, but we didn’t realize just how much it was going to snow and for how long. We were meeting our friend Dave at the Rochester Creek Panel at 8:30am, and I gave us what I thought was plenty of time to get there. Unfortunately, once we reached the San Rafael Reef, we hit the snow. The interstate was covered, so driving was slower than I had planned. We finally made it to the Rochester Panel shortly after 9am, and I was expecting to find Dave waiting for us…..however he arrived about 20 minutes later because he got stuck driving slow in the snow much longer than we had, since he was coming from the Salt Lake area.

After he arrived we hiked over to the Rochester Panel in the snow. I pulled my camera out to take some photos and after a few minutes it was completely soaked, so I put it back away and didn’t really get any good photos there on this trip. When we returned back to the Jeep I grabbed my S90 and used that for the remainder of the trip 🙂

Snow Grill

Our next stop was to visit the petroglyphs along the Moore Cutoff Road near the Molen Reef…

Our Jeeps

Snow Snake

Petroglyph Boulder in the Snow

Snow Snake / High Contrast

The Circle

This is an interesting petroglyph on a nearby boulder that we found.

Snake in a Snowstorm

The Molen Reef towers above the large snake petroglyph in the snowstorm.

After finishing up there we bashed through the snow up into Short Canyon and then hiked the rest of the way. The snow was about 5-6″ deep at this point and had not let up on us once. We got soaked, but it was still a lot of fun….especially scrambling up to the rock art 🙂

Continue reading

February 11 & 12, 2011

Even more photos from Fremont Indian State Park in no particular order. Make sure to check out Set 1, Set 2 and Set 3.

Connected Spirals

We spotted this petroglyph panel when we first arrived at the park as it was easily visible from the road. We returned later to photograph it in the late afternoon sunlight.

Spiral Anthropomorph

We didn’t find these two good-sized petroglyphs near Radford’s Roost until our second day, even though they were near the road.

Sheep, Elk & Dots

We found this panel when were were exploring the Canyon of Life.

Clear Creek Canyon Petroglyphs 2

Another of the larger petroglyph panels located along the Rim Trail between the large anthropomorph and Newspaper Rock.

Arch of Art Boulder

A large boulder near the Arch of Art that has a few petroglyphs on it.

Top of Hunting Maps

A closer look at the top of the Hunting Maps panel along the Parade of Rock Art trail.

February 11 & 12, 2011

Some more photos from Fremont Indian State Park in no particular order. Make sure to check out Set 1 and Set 2.

Square Spirals

This petroglyph panel along the Rim Trail near Newspaper Rock contains a few square spirals. There’s even a small anthropomorph in the upper right hand corner that is separated from the rest of the panel.

Fremont Twins

These two faint figures can be found along the Parade of Rock Art trail near the museum.

Fremont Pithouse

Inside of a replica pithouse that was copied from varying features of the ones found on Five Finger Ridge.

Arch of Art Panel 1

The ‘Arch of Art’ contains many petroglyph and pictograph panels that can be spotted from the main viewpoint. The tricky part is actually locating them all. This is one of them. Notice the faint pictographs on the right side.

Arch of Art Panel 2

Here’s another panel found on the ‘Arch of Art’. It’s not really an arch, but the formation that houses these panels is arched.

Indian Blanket Pictographs

This blanket pictograph might look small, but it’s actually about 16 feet long and 4 feet tall. The pain was dated as being about 250 years old. There is a legend about this blanket pictograph: Many years ago a group of Indians passed through Clear Creek Canyon on the way to their winter camping area. While in the canyon the new baby of a young Indian girl died and was buried near the site of the blanket pictograph. During the winter the mother could not get the thought of her baby being alone in the winter cold out of her mind. The next spring she made preparations and returned to paint the blanket for her lost baby to use in the future cold winters. (The source of this legend is residents of the local towns near the park, not the Paiutes)

Panel 96

Just another photo of the largest anthropomorph in the park, and one of my favorite petroglyphs I came across while exploring the park.

Rock Art Jail

I’m all for protecting rock art, but this is a bit extreme for me…

Still more photos from Fremont Indian State Park to come…

February 11 & 12, 2011

Here are a few more photos from Fremont Indian State Park in no particular order. Make sure to check out Set 1, too

Black & White Shaman

The largest anthropomorph figure in Fremont Indian State Park in black & white.

Drought Panel

This petroglyph panel in Skinner Canyon is located here for a reason. It is thought to tell about the great drought which has been confirmed by tree-rings to have occurred in the 1200s. The lines of dots show the fields of corn that had been planted, but did not come up. The human with his hands in the air is praying for water.

The Spaceman

This petroglyph that looks like a spaceman along the Parade of Rock Art Trail has been identified as being carved there by Paitues, most likely in the late 1880s.

Hidden Secrets Panel

A large but faint petroglyph panel at the end of the Hidden Secrets Trail.

Glowing Hunting Scene

A hunting scene panel located in Skinner Canyon across from Spider Woman Rock. The figures are faint in the direct sunlight, but that same sunlight caused the rock to glow orange.

Hunting Maps

This petroglyph panel along the Parade of Rock Art is interpreted as being a map. The seven triangles are thought to be the mountains you see on the south horizon. Directions can be determined by the way that the two sheep face. The top one faces the setting sun and the bottom on the rising sun, if they were parallel to the mountains. Above the triangles, the sheep are arranged around a concentric circle. Similar circles are often seen in rock art and are thought to mean water. This corresponds to the features of the area since on the other side of the mountains there is water at Puffer Lake.

Still more photos from Fremont Indian State Park to come…

February 11 & 12, 2011

After driving to Richfield and checking into our hotel early, we headed straight for Fremont Indian State Park. We ended up spending the rest of the day there until it got dark and then we returned on Saturday for another full day of exploring the park. Instead of boring you with our movements throughout the day, I’m just going to post a bunch of the photos I took with a little info about each. These are in no particular order.

Sevier Shaman Figure

The largest anthropomorph in the park seems to be standing guard over Clear Creek Canyon. To the left there appears to be a hunting scene with thirteen bighorn sheep.

Fremont Newspaper Rock

Newspaper Rock is the largest petroglyph panel in the park. It contains over 250 elements carved into the rock.

Clear Creek Sheep

A couple of bighorn sheep right next to Newspaper Rock.

Clear Creek Canyon Petroglyphs

A petroglyph panel near Newspaper Rock along the Rim Trail.

Cyclops

This anthropomorph along the Court of Ceremonies Trail has been modified by a bullet hole giving it the name Cyclops.

A Hunting Story

A large petroglyph panel along the Parade of Rock Art Trail glowing in the early morning sunlight.

More photos from Fremont Indian State Park to come…