IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

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.

Color Over the La Sals

After the colors over the La Sal Mountains were gone, I turned around and took a few more early morning shots.

Standing Rock on Fire

Standing Rock bathed in golden early morning sunlight on our last day in the Land of Standing Rocks.

Lizard and The Plug

Lizard Rock and The Plug glowing in the early morning sunlight.

First Light

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.

Cedar Bark Ruin

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.

Lous Spring Pictographs

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.

Leaving the Maze

Just a photo of my Jeep as we head out of The Maze.

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Day 2: Pictograph Fork & The Harvest Scene

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Our second day started out cold with plenty of wind. None of us slept very well since the wind was noisy all night. After some breakfast we bundled up and started our hike down Pictograph Fork to check out the Harvest Scene pictographs.

Hiking Pictograph Fork

If you look closely you can see Dave and Jared in the canyon ahead of me as we hike towards Pictograph Fork.

Along the way we stopped at a petroglyph panel.

Pictograph Fork Petroglyphs

Pictograph Fork Anthropomorphs

Then we continued on until we reached the Harvest Scene, which was one of my main reasons for going to The Maze this trip.

Near the Harvest Scene

The canyon near The Harvest Scene Panel.

The sun was shining on the panel and washing it out pretty good, but luckily there were a few puffy clouds in the sky that blocked the sun for a few minutes at a time so that I could try and take some decent photos of the panel.

Harvest Scene Panel

An overview of the Harvest Scene Pictograph Panel.

The Harvest Scene

A closer look at the part of the panel that gives it the name ‘Harvest Scene’.

Tall, Skinny, & Elaborate

These figures found on the left side of the panel are very elaborately decorated.

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Saturday, March 26, 2011

On Saturday, Jackson and I headed into Utah so that I could check on a geocache I hid last summer. After checking on the cache, we hiked around the rim of the canyon nearby.

Wavy Sandstone

After some more hiking around and on Jug Rock, we headed north to the Book Cliffs in search of some petroglyphs….specifically The Butterfly, or bat, petroglyph. I had an idea on where it was located, but not an exact location. We searched the area for a little bit and managed to find it.

The Butterfly

After finding The Butterfly, we searched the nearby boulders and found a bunch of other petroglyphs.

Book Cliff Boulder

There was a small crack between two large boulders that I squeezed into, and inside there were a bunch of petroglyphs…

In the Crack

Sheep in the Crack

Another Hand

Lichen & Faint Spiral

Another look at a boulder with many petroglyphs on it….

Book Cliff Boulder 2

When we were done searching the area I took Jackson over to the Sego Rock Art Site, since he had never been there. I’ve been here numerous times before, but not since I got my new camera, so I took a few photos while we were there.

Sego Canyon Pictographs

Sego Snake Man

We searched the area and managed to find a petroglyph of a sheep I had not seen before.

Sego Sheep

Sego Snake

Fremont petroglyphs over faint Barrier Canyon Style pictographs. Look closely above the petroglyphs…

Fremont Over Barrier

Sego Ute Shield

We had plans to find some more pictographs, and I headed to the area they were supposed to be in…..unfortunately, I took the long way and by the time we got there we had run out of time and had to head home. I know I will be returning to the Book Cliffs in search of more rock art this year 🙂

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Yellow Comet Alcove

On Saturday, Jackson and I headed back to the Moab area to hike to the Yellow Comet pictographs. After researching a way to reach them, I found that there were two different routes down into the canyon. The closest route is supposed to be difficult to find if you don’t already know where it is, plus there is supposed to be a very tricky section that I didn’t like the sound of. Luckily, I managed to find another route down into the canyon, but the hike in the canyon would be about 6 miles longer. A few weeks back I stopped by the area to see if I could find the route down and did manage to find it. This time, I parked the Jeep as close as I could to the route down and we set off on our hike.

It was a short cross-county hike to the way down. The route down is a very old constructed cow trail. At some point in the past, an unknown person created this trail by drilling holes into the sandstone and pounding in steel bars. Rock, stones, branches and dirt were used to build a trail on top of these steel bars. There’s not much left of the trail, but it was still possible for us to get down even if it was a little tricky in places.

The Way Down

After scrambling down some large boulders and steep scree the rest of the way, we were soon in the wash at the bottom and the rest of the hike was much easier.

Canyon Hike

After a few more miles we reached the large alcove that houses the Yellow Comet pictographs.

Yellow Comet Alcove

Yellow Comet Panel

Yellow Comet Above the Rocks

A photo of the panel with Jackson standing under it for scale…

Jackson & The Yellow Comet

Behold! The Comet

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Presidents Day | Monday, February 21, 2011

Since I had Presidents Day off ffrom work and the weather was going to be nice, Jackson and I headed to the Moab area to search out some more rock art, plus to just do some general exploring and hiking. We couldn’t have asked for a better day in February and we managed to find quite a bit of rock art.

First up was the ‘Secret Grotto’ Hmm, what’s down in that crack?

Hey, look at that! Rock art hidden down here 🙂

Jackson in the ‘grotto’

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