Parowan Gap & Little Black Mountain
Arizona Strip & Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 1
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Saturday was the start of my annual ‘Southern Utah Wanderings’ trip that I usually go on in October. This year is a little different since I wanted to venture a little further south so that I could start exploring the Arizona Strip. Like last year, my friend Jared joined me on this trip. He headed down from the Salt Lake area after work on Friday and stayed at my house over night so that we could get an early start driving on Saturday morning.
Saturday would mostly be a driving day, but we did manage to make a few stops along the way. The first of them being a short side trip to the Parowan Gap. The Parowan Gap is one of Utah’s best-known petroglyph sites, which is located in a 600-foot-deep notch through the Red Hills on the eastern edge of the Escalante Desert. I’ve been looking forward to visiting this site for some time.
The ‘Zipper-Glyph’ is probably the most well known petroglyph panel at the site. Some believe the main design that resembles a zipper is a map or a calendar….or maybe even both. All I know is that it is shaped just like the Parowan Gap that it is located near.
Zipper-Glyph by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
A closer look at another petroglyph panel located next to the ‘Zipper-Glyph’
Snake-Man by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
We walked through the gap keeping a lookout for petroglyphs along the way. When we reached the west side, this is the last boulder we found containing some petroglyphs.
West Boulder by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr