PDA

View Full Version : Trip Report Rock Art Road



IntrepidXJ
10-29-2012, 07:52 PM
Arizona Strip & Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 6
Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Original Trip Report on ADVENTR.CO (http://adventr.co/2012/10/rock-art-road/)

After sleeping in a little later on Thursday morning, we had a little breakfast and hiked down the old road past the washout in search of rock art. After looking at the washout closely, I'm pretty sure I could have driven my Jeep across if I really wanted to, but we were more interested in hiking today, so that's what we did. We managed to find plenty of petroglyphs on the scattered boulders along the way, some were better that others, but they were all fun to discover as we hiked.

This large boulder had a few footprints pecked into the top of it like tracks.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8334/8123810331_9f4cb10026_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123810331/)
Footprints (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123810331/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

This was one of the better petroglyph panels we found.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8047/8123798039_5c2ccf9c24_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123798039/)
Hands (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123798039/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

Two atlatls and another duckheaded man.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8465/8123501203_209bff5ac1_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123501203/)
Atlatl Boulder (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123501203/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

A large panel on the side of a boulder. There's certainly no shortage of duckheaded figures around here.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8189/8123674787_9064cb8222_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123674787/)
Tracks & Family (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123674787/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

A closer look at the right side of the panel above.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8331/8123602095_fef5b5f6c9_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123602095/)
Family (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123602095/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

Hiking along the old road on the large bench high above the San Juan River.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8468/8123601026_70882fb27c_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123601026/)
Old Road Hiking (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123601026/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

Two small petroglyphs on a small boulder scattered along the road.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8045/8123610650_2fb0fb5b3d_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123610650/)
Scattered (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123610650/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

An interesting anthropomorph pecked into the lighter stripe on this boulder.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8330/8123573133_3841acac0c_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123573133/)
The Man in the Stripe (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123573133/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

Another large panel found near the end of Johns Canyon.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8327/8123562331_a9c8d79667_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123562331/)
Squiggly Lines (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123562331/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

I like the different sized sheep in this panel.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8472/8123554296_99f50b93c7_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123554296/)
Three Sheep (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123554296/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

Hiking back to our starting point in Johns Canyon as some storm clouds began to blow in.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8475/8123864296_457cdaae4d_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123864296/)
Hiking Back (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123864296/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

Can you spot my Jeep in this photo? It sure gives some scale to this impressive canyon.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8471/8123873702_846eca5a08_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123873702/)
Spot the Jeep (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123873702/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

As we were driving back out of Johns Canyon we stopped by this broken petroglyph along the road.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8326/8123545911_0539812ea6_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123545911/)
Broken Piece (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123545911/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

After driving back out from Johns Canyon we headed back to Mexican Hat for some dinner before driving up the Moki Dugway onto Cedar Mesa.

The view over the Valley of the Gods from the top of the Moki Dugway.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8046/8123841570_f3d91c8cb9_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123841570/)
Valley of the Gods (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123841570/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

Before calling it an evening, there was one more destination I wanted to visit. Back in June I managed to find a special ruin (http://adventr.co/2012/06/cedar-mesa-ruins-rock-art/) that I had been looking for for quite a while. While I was able to get some nice closeup photos of the granary, the light was pretty bad for wider shots, so I knew I would need to return. It looked like this evening would be the perfect opportunity.

A close look at the textures in the tafoni of the ceiling above this small granary. It's even better when there is reflected light bouncing off the ceiling, like during my previous visit (http://adventr.co/2012/06/cedar-mesa-ruins-rock-art/).

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8050/8123852420_5744286acc_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123852420/)
Small Granary (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123852420/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

Here's the wider shot that I was after. When we first arrived there were no clouds in the direction this photo was taken, however, after patiently waiting for a little bit these nice clouds finally moved into the sky shortly before the sunset. Things couldn't have worked out much better!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8472/8123924266_ede1cc7da3_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123924266/)
Caprock Ruin (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rlngstrt/8123924266/) by IntrepidXJ (http://www.flickr.com/people/rlngstrt/), on Flickr

When the sun was down, we hiked back to the Jeep and then drove to our desired campsite for the evening. We got our tents setup in the dark and went to bed shortly after. We could tell that it was probably going to storm this evening...and storm it did!

>> Rock Art Road Photo Gallery (http://flic.kr/s/aHsjCAHTbx)

sixstringsteve
11-01-2012, 07:22 PM
Fantastic report, thank you! I was just there two weeks ago and I can't wait to go back and find more of these ruins.