From the Maze to the Mesa | Day 4
Day 4: From the Maze to the Mesa
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
On our forth day Under the Ledge, we awoke to an awesome sunrise. The colors in the sky were just amazing! I quickly hopped out of my tent and grabed my camera for a photo. When I got my shot composed, I realized that I had taken the battery out the previous night to charge in the Jeep…and hadn’t replaced it! I ran back to the Jeep and grabbed the fully charged battery, but missed the best colors of the sunrise in the process. Here’s the shot I managed to get before all of the colors disappeared.
After the colors over the La Sal Mountains were gone, I turned around and took a few more early morning shots.
Standing Rock bathed in golden early morning sunlight on our last day in the Land of Standing Rocks.
Lizard Rock and The Plug glowing in the early morning sunlight.
The first light of the day strikes Ekker Butte and the rims of the canyons that make up The Maze.
After sunrise we had some breakfast and packed up camp so that we could move on. We would have a long and full day ahead of us, since we would be leaving The Maze and heading to Cedar Mesa…but there would be plenty of stops along the way.
Before leaving The Maze we parked near Mother and Child Rock so that we could hike a little way into into Ernie’s country. We dropped down into Range Canyon so that we could visit Cedar Bark Ruin and Lou’s Spring.
There has been some disagreement as to how old this ruin actually is, however, after seeing it in person, in my opinion, the ruin itself looks pretty old and not recently made, but the roof certainly looks newer, like someone may have added it. I’m no expert and these are just my impressions from my visit to the site.
These very faint pictographs found on the ceiling of the alcove that contains Lou’s Spring kind of remind me of the one’s located across the Colorado River in Cave Spring in the Needles District.
After reaching the Jeeps again, we finally started to head out around Teapot Canyon. Along the rough road we met some of Canyonland’s rangers in 4×4 training. We had to wait for a few minutes to let them pass. They were driving the roughest stretch of road in the park’s 4-door Jeep Rubicon Wrangler.
Just a photo of my Jeep as we head out of The Maze.
A photo of Dave’s Jeep as we leave The Maze.
The 4-Wheel Drive High Clearance Only sign just before you get to the roughest section of the road into the Land of Standing Rocks around Teapot Canyon.
After leaving The Maze we made our way over to pick up Jared’s car before heading over to Cedar Mesa for the rest of the week. Along the way we stopped at a few rock art sites. Here’s a bunch of photos from the sites we visited.
The Hollow Boulder Panel:
An overview of the Hollow Boulder Panel. I’ve seen a lot of rock art, but this panel is certainly in one of the more unusual locations, especially for a Barrier Canyon Style panel. As you can see, these pictographs are located inside a large boulder that has a naturally hollowed out area big enough to stand in. Step inside and you are treated to an almost 360 degree display of rock art!
One of the more interesting figures in the Hollow Boulder is this anthropomorph that appears to be holding five snakes.
A better look at the back of the boulder.
There are a lot of pictographs hidden inside this boulder.
North Wash Pictographs & Petroglyphs:
On the road in North Wash.
This photos shows just a small part of the very large alcove these are located in.
A closer look at the large anthropomorph and it’s attending dog.
An interesting anthropomorph petroglyph set within some varnish-stripes.
The full petroglyph panel over the stripes.
The Perfect Panel:
One of the most amazing pictograph panels I have visited. In the following photos, just check out how detailed these pictographs are. You can also see quite the resemblance to The Queen pictograph pictured just above.
A closer look at the ‘hitchhiker’ figure of the Perfect Panel reveals that it’s fifth finger pointing down is not actually longer than the rest. There is actually a small quadruped figure just below the lower finger.
A closer look at the two figures on the right side of the Perfect Panel. Just check out all the details these figures have. If you look closely at the figure on the left, you can see it has some long skinny legs and feet, too.
The largest figure on the panel also appears the most ghost-like.
Overview of the figure known as The Hitchhiker.
Jared and Dave hiking ahead of me in the canyon.
While searching a Basketmaker alcove located not too far away from The Perfect Panel, Jared found this nice arrowhead just sitting on top of the sand. We left it in place, of course.
The Imperfect Panel:
Not too far away from The Perfect Panel is another pictograph panel that hasn’t survived quite as well. I have seen this one called the Imperfect Panel elsewhere. If you look closely, you can see that these figures were once as detailed as those found in The Perfect Panel.
Just a closer look at the panel so you can see the details. Click on the image to view a larger version.
We eventually reached our campsite on Coyote Flat of Cedar Mesa just as it was getting pretty dark out. We setup camp quickly and had a late dinner. We turned in early since Wednesday was going to be an early start for us.
Day 5 to be continued…