Old Woman Wash, San Rafael Reef

Lately I've really enjoyed looking for rock art in the San Rafael Reef. On my past two trips there, I found some pictographs that I was previously unaware of, and I know of nobody else who has seen or heard of them as well. This past weekend, I went on another trip to the Reef and hiked up Old Woman Wash to find some rock art known to others, though I didn't have any specific location information. I used three photos (1, 2, 3) I found on Flickr to help locate three different rock art panels, and I was elated to find all three pretty easily.

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I headed out with a friend on Friday afternoon, and we made a side trip up and back down North Temple Wash before heading to camp at Garvin's Chimney at the mouth of Old Woman Wash. It was around 20 degrees during the night, but it stayed around 28 degrees in my tent. We took our time getting up and preparing for the hike the next morning, waiting until we were warmed up before setting out up the canyon.


Driving through North Temple Wash
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Y...0/IMG_3019.JPG

Sunset on the way to camp
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Y...0/IMG_3025.JPG

Around the fire at Garvin's Chimney
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-s...0/IMG_3033.JPG

My tent
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5...0/IMG_3035.JPG

Ice crystals on the inside of my tent flap in the morning
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...0/IMG_3039.JPG

Camp
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1...0/IMG_3045.JPG

Starting the hike up Old Woman Wash
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-u...0/IMG_3049.JPG

Old Woman Wash
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...0/IMG_3050.JPG

Torrey getting a drink
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G...0/IMG_3147.JPG

Old Woman Wash
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-T...0/IMG_3152.JPG


I was surprised how little we'd hiked before running into two of the rock art panels. They were easy to find, and we spent quite a bit of time scanning the cliffs for all of the faint pictographs and petroglyphs that were there. There were also some historic inscriptions there, including a Spanish writing that probably predates any permanent settlements in the area. After checking out all the rock art, we decided to hike up the canyon as far as we could. I knew we'd eventually run into a dryfall that would prevent us from going further, but we made more progress than I expected before we had to turn back.


"Paso Por Aqui" inscription
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h...ZyM/s640/1.JPG

Pictographs near the Barnes Panel
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-t...xiw/s640/3.JPG

J.C. Beck inscription
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-T...UrU/s640/4.JPG

Barnes Panel
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-U...0Vw/s640/5.JPG

R.F. Drake inscription
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Z...Ivo/s640/7.JPG

Perhaps the "old woman" of Old Woman Wash?
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--...V9E/s640/9.JPG

Large pictographs across the canyon from the Barnes Panel
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-J...xI/s640/16.JPG

High Alcove panel
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-O...zk/s640/18.JPG

High Alcove pictographs
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...NE/s640/19.JPG

High Alcove pictographs
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-F...24/s640/20.JPG

Continuing up Old Woman Wash beyond the rock art
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-f...0/IMG_3172.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q...0/IMG_3173.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Z...0/IMG_3184.JPG

The dryfall that stopped our progress
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-G...0/IMG_3201.JPG


After turning around and descending the canyon, we took a side canyon that took us on top of the Reef so we could look for the Ekker Panel. I wasn't optimistic about finding this panel. The photo I had to go on was weak at best, but I'd done some previous research in Google Earth and found a faint trail leading to a cliff that looked likely enough. I was very surprised to arrive at that cliff to find that the coordinates I'd guesstimated were dead-on. The Ekker Panel was much more extensive than I expected--there is some really awesome stuff there. Unfortunately most of the cliff was in direct sunlight, and some figures were partially in sun and shade, so my photos aren't great. I plan to return another time to catch this panel in the morning for better lighting.


Side canyon leading out of Old Woman Wash
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-v...0/IMG_3234.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4...0/IMG_3236.JPG

Ekker Panel
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-D...gQ/s640/26.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1...5k/s640/27.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U...7g/s640/28.JPG

This figure was huge--probably at least eight feet tall
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-M...mk/s640/30.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6...10/s640/31.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3...e8/s640/32.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-I...Sk/s640/33.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...YU/s640/34.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-G...Ps/s640/36.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...wE/s640/37.JPG


Here's a link to the full photo gallery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Udink/OldWomanWash

And a link to my blog entry:
http://udink.org/2012/02/20/old-woman-wash/

cool art thanks !!!

Thanks for the pics, Dennis

Holy @#^&! You always have the coolest pics and TRs on here. Thanks for the awesomeness. :popcorn: That rock art is amazing! The Fremont were an interesting people.

That old woman has some curves!!! :lol8:

Excellent TR as always. Love reading these. :popcorn:

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

Great pics. Thanks for sharing. I'm no expert, but the last pictures remind me of the Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon, which are some of the oldest known, I think. Archaic Period? Earlier than Fremont and Anasazi. I might be totally mistaken, but that's how they look to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mudcat

I'm no expert, but the last pictures remind me of the Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon, which are some of the oldest known, I think. Archaic Period? Earlier than Fremont and Anasazi. I might be totally mistaken, but that's how they look to me.

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I'm also not very knowledgeable about the different styles, but yeah, I think these are mostly Barrier Canyon style from the Archaic Period. I was surprised to see a lot of incised rock art here, too. There's one entire panel at the Ekker site where all the figures are incised rather than pecked like petroglyphs, and many of the pictographs have incised lines on them. This area definitely seems to have its own take on the style.

I hiked in to the Eckert Panel in September, blazing hot and crappy light for photos. I think late afternoon would be a better time to revisit, as the sun on the panel pretty much washes out most of the art.

Thanks UDINK for posting this hike. I over look the san Rafael reef all the time and head down to cedar mesa/Butler Wash.......... I appreciate the info on a beautiful new area for me to explore

Nice! Thanks for sharing. I just climbed around on Buck Horn and took some photos of the rock art there. I was mostly interested in the American writings and less so of the Indian. It's COLD out here today in the Swell.

Nice report.

If interested, my brother and I did the entire canyon (including above the falls) the same time of year, but four years ago. In 2008, the canyon was filled with snow and ice water. It was freezing. Here are some photos if you are interested:

http://www.summitpost.org/farnsworth...l-swell/382036

A few photos:

http://www.summitpost.org/images/medium/382100.JPG

http://www.summitpost.org/images/medium/382104.JPG

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scott P

If interested, my brother and I did the entire canyon (including above the falls) the same time of year, but four years ago. In 2008, the canyon was filled with snow and ice water. It was freezing.

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Thanks Scott. I'm so grateful for this warm and dry winter (though I'm sure we'll pay for it this summer) because so far I've been able to get out on a few trips in relative comfort. I read your trip report on SummitPost a few times before heading to the canyon, since there's relatively little information out there about it. This year I might make a full descent just to say I've been through the entire canyon.

Nice work :cool2: