IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Saturday, June 18, 2011

This Saturday I was going to meet my friend Philippe from France at Goblin Valley in the evening before sunset. That gave me all day to do some exploring on my own along the San Rafael Reef. I started out driving south along the Reef to Three Fingers Canyon. I hadn’t been back there in a year or two and wanted to gets some better photos of the petroglyphs.

Light on the Reef

On my way to Three Fingers Canyon I drove south along the Reef. There were some early morning clouds in the sky that spotlighted the reef in this photo.

Three Fingers Canyon

The mouth of Three Fingers Canyon.

Three Fingers Panel

Looking up at the main panel of petroglyphs in Three Fingers.

Vertical Circles

Another panel of petroglyphs.

Wave of Petroglyphs

Here’s a few more petroglyphs, but what I like about this photo is how the sandstone kind of resembles the shape of a wave.

Painted Petroglyph

The anthropomorphic petroglyph here has the remnants of some paint.

After spending some time exploring the Three Fingers panels, I continued along the Reef so that I could revisit the Ochre Alcove again…..one of my favorite Barrier Canyon Style pictograph panels.

Transformation Scene

An overview of the main panel of pictographs in the Ochre Alcove.

Painted Twins

A closeup of two interesting figures.

Dreams

Three of the larger anthropomorphs….two of them have lines of dots rising from them…

Horned Serpent

A closeup of the largest anthropomorph and the horned snake.

Very Small

Here’s a very small anthropomorph that I missed on my first visit here…..it’s very small and very detailed.

Once I was finished examining this panel closely I finished hiking up the canyon in search of two other rock art panels that are supposed to be in the area…..but I came up empty handed on those. So when I got back to the Jeep I went out in search of another new panel in North Temple Wash…..which I did find!

North Temple Wash Panel

The new panel I found this trip……very faded.

North Temple Anthropomorph

A closer look at the above panel.

Old Car Under Temple Mountain

An old car near Temple Mountain.

After looping around Temple Mountain, I returned to the Reef and stopped by the Temple Wash Panel again.

Temple Wash Panel

Good Dog

Shot Up

From there I headed over to Hanksville for some dinner and to top off the tank in my Jeep. By the time I arrived back in the Temple Mountain area I finally met up with Philippe. We headed into Goblin Valley in hope of a nice sunset…..but that never happened. We did have a nice time exploring the further reaches of the park, though. Here’s one of the few photos I did take in Goblin Valley.

Goblins

Once the sun was down, we left the park and found a campsite so we could rest up for our hike on Sunday 🙂

May 14-15, 2011

Here’s the final set of photos I am going to post from our trip through Nine Mile Canyon. Make sure to check out Sets 1, 2, 3 & 4!

Patty-Cake Sheep Panel

Here’s a cool panel we found on Sunday morning….look for the two bighorn sheep figures sitting and facing each other that look like they are playing patty-cake.

Rainbow Panel

This panel with a large rainbow-like figure is just to the left of the one pictured above.

Horned Serpent

One of the more unique horned-snake figures we found all weekend.

Faint Green Elk

Two faint pictographs near Daddy Canyon, including what appears to be a green or blue elk on the right.

Fallen Panel

A few petroglyphs on a slab of sandstone that has fallen.

Yellow Man

An anthropomorph pictograph in yellow.

Painted Petroglyphs

A wider view of the panel that includes the Yellow Man. There are plenty more pictographs here and a few of the petroglyphs that are here are filled in with paint.

Pregnant Buffalo

A closeup of the Pregnant Buffalo petroglyph.

High Pictographs

A faint white shield-like figure located high above on a canyon wall.

I can’t wait to head back to Nine Mile Canyon and search for some more rock art….hopefully sometime later this year 🙂

May 14-15, 2011

The continuation from Set 1, Set 2 and Set 3 of my Nine Mile Canyon rock art photos…

Four Legs Panel

The figure in the upper right hand corner appears to have 4 legs!

Fading Snake

Amanda spotted this fading white snake along the way.

Wavy Line

A small panel with a wavy line through it.

Spirals & Snakes

Spiral Horned-Snake

One of my favorite horned snakes that we came across this weekend.

Family Panel

The Family Panel, another well known site in Nine Mile.

Devils Playground Sheep

A high panel up in Devils Canyon near the remains of a granary. The large big horn sheep and elk on the left are pretty cool.

Triangle Men

A number of anthropomorphic figures with triangle-shaped torsos.

Basketmaker Panel

Some experts consider the large figure in this panel to be a ‘Basketmaker’ figure.

Franks Circles

The last site we visited near the mouth of North Franks Canyon on Saturday before turning around and heading back to camp for a late dinner….it was starting to get pretty dark out at the last few panels we visited…

Stay tuned for one more set of photos taken on Sunday before we headed home.

May 14-15, 2011

The continuation from Set 1 and Set 2 of my Nine Mile Canyon rock art photos…

Daddy Canyon Petroglyphs

A small panel found a little ways up Daddy Canyon consisting of an anthropomorph and a few bighorn sheep.

Rainbow Elk

After exploring Daddy Canyon we hiked back towards Rasmussen Cave. We found this petroglyph panel along the way with a very detailed elk figure under a rainbow.

No Tresspassing

Of course, no Nine Mile Canyon photo collection is complete without a photo of this vandalized, complete with misspelling, pictograph in Rasmussen Cave….

The Wizard

This small petroglyph panel has a figure in the middle that appears to be wearing a horned headdress and a long flowing cloak.

A Great Hunting Scene

Here’s a closeup of The Great Hunt Panel, probably one of the most famous petroglyph panels found in the Nine Mile Canyon area.

Cottonwood Hunt

A wider view of The Great Hunt Panel.

Spiral Sheep Slab

A couple of petroglyphs next to the Big Buffalo.

Big Buffalo

The Big Buffalo Panel at the confluence of Nine Mile Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon. The panel was glowing in the late afternoon sunlight when I was there for this photo.

Spiral Tail Panel

This panel, near The Great Hunt, features a bighorn sheep that has a large spiral tail.

Centipede Panel

A busy panel across from the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon.

White Snake Alcove

This large alcove, located high above the road, contains a few painted white snakes.

Even more photos from Nine Mile Canyon to come…

May 14-15, 2011

Here’s the continuation from Set 1 of my Nine Mile Canyon rock art photos.

Parallel Snake

A good sized snake petroglyph off all by itself.

Sandhill Crane Site

The famous Sand Hill Crane petroglyph panel.

Horned Shield Site

Another site consisting of a dot matrix, snake and some shield-like figures with horns.

Petroglyph Wall

A canyon wall just covered in petroglyphs.

Outlines

The outlines of two figures, one much larger than the other.

The anthropomorph in the middle of this petroglyph panel found in Daddy Canyon looks like he’s juggling to me.

Daddy Canyon Eagle Man

This figure in Daddy Canyon appears to be wearing a large headdress.

Long Line

A long line of sheep and elk.

Elk on Dots

Mickey Mouse

The petroglyph on the left reminds me of a head with Mickey Mouse ears on…

Still more photos from Nine Mile Canyon to come…