IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Saturday, March 12, 2011

More photos from our trip to the McConkie Ranch in Dry Fork on Saturday. Be sure to check out Set 1 , Set 2 and Set 3for more.

Head-Hunters

A panel with a few life-sized anthropomorphs and a trophy head with weeping eyes.

The Balloon

A small petroglyph panel with a shield figure and concentric circle designs.

Between the Cracks

Two small anthropomorphs along the Main Trail.

Find Them All

There are a number of petroglyph panels visible in this photo if you look closely. The most prominent one is a shield-like figure with wavy arms and hands.

Square Head

More life-sized petroglyphs. The one on the right has a square head.

Gears

A couple concentric circles along the Three Kings Trail.

Layers

Geometric designs and other petroglyphs sandwiched between layers of stone.

Man-in-Circle

A small anthropomorph surround by a large circle.

Waving Hands Panel

A petroglyph panel along the Three Kings Trail with some smaller figures. The largest figure in the middle appears to be waving both of his hands.

There’s a few more to go…..stay tuned…..

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Here are even more photos from our trip to the McConkie Ranch in Dry Fork on Saturday. Be sure to check out Set 1 and Set 2 for more.

Hula Hoop Man

I had visited this petroglyph panel earlier in the day when it was overcast and had taken a few photos, however once the clouds started to clear and the sun was shining again I revisited it to take a few more photos. I’m glad I did since I got a nice orange glow reflecting off of the rock, plus a nice blue sky with some white clouds in the background.

Family Portrait

A wall filled with petroglyphs and pictoglyphs along the Main Trail.

Looking Up at the Gears

Looking up at some small petroglyphs that Jackson thinks looks like gears along the Three Kings Trail.

Fading Partners

Two life-sized anthropomorphs next to each other. The one on the left is barely visible anymore.

Fremont Shield

Looking up at a large shield petroglyph on a beautiful day in Dry Fork.

Bird Man

This life-sized anthropomorph appears to have feathers on it’s arms like a bird.

From the Lichen

This faint anthropomorph seems to be emerging from the colorful lichen growing on the rock below it.

The Couple

A closer look at the figured I have called ‘The Couple’ located along the Three Kings Trail.

Weeping Man

Another of the many life-sized anthromorphic figures along the Main Trail. This one has the ‘weeping eyes’ and seems to be holding an object, perhaps a knife or other kind of weapon?

Don’t worry, there’s still more photos to go, so stay tuned…..

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Here are some more photos from our trip to the McConkie Ranch in Dry Fork on Saturday. Be sure to check out my first set of photos, too.

Above & Below

A close up of some shield-like petroglyphs along the Three Kings Trail. If you look on the sandstone below, you can find many more petroglyphs pecked into the darker stone.

Couple Through the Boulders

A couple of petroglyphs I’ve called ‘The Couple’ coming into view through the boulders.

In Between

This anthropomorph along the Three Kings Trail is pecked into a dark colored sandstone which seems to be squeezed between a lighter sandstone and lichen covered stone.

Trophy Head

A very stylized and lifesized petroglyph of an anthropomorph holding a trophy head with weeping eyes along the Main Trail.

Big-Foot

Certainly one of the larger and most unique pictoglyphs along the Main Trail The very large feet really stick out the most, but so do the red and white horns sticking out from his head. Not to mention the trophy head to his right. Very interesting figure.

High Petroglyphs

An interesting petroglyph panel located high in a cliff above the Three Kings Trail.

Broken Head Hunter

One of the many life-sized anthropomorphs along the Main Trail holding what appears to be a trophy head with weeping eyes. Based on the cracks through this panel, it may be lost when the stone finally gives way. The head could be lost a second time…

Elaborate

Two elaborately decorated petroglyphs along the Main Trail.

Still plenty more photos to go, so stay tuned for more!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Finally! I have wanted to get up to Dry Fork and check out the petroglyphs and pictographs on the McConkie Ranch for a while, so on Saturday Amanda and I headed up there for the day. These rock art panels are located on private property north of Vernal, but the McConkie Ranch has created two trails to view the rock art and allows the public to access them. I’d like to thank the McConkie Ranch for allowing the public to access the rock art located on their property!

Here’s a few photos I took in no particular order. Enjoy!

Circles & Shields

Looking up at a couple of the many petroglyph panels along the Three Kings Trail. Most of the morning was completely overcast, but luckily as we were headed back to the trailhead the clouds started to clear and blue skies were visible.

Red Spiral

A simple red spiral pictoglyph (petroglyph & pictograph) along the Main Trail.

Y-Man

One of the many large anthropomorphic figures alone the Three Kings Trail. I named this photo after the figure to the right that looks like the letter Y.

The Clock

This petroglyph & pictograph kind of reminds me of a clock. Actually, the long hand pointing towards the three o’clock position looks like an atlatl hitting the bullseye.

The Twins

The Twins are the last set of petroglyphs along the Main Trail.

Three Kings

The famous Three Kings Panel, also known as the Sun Carrier is pretty amazing. Unfortunately, it’s located pretty high and the trail does not get too close to it. Luckily I had my 100-400mm lens with me!

I’ve got plenty more photos to go through, and will be posting them as I have the time, so stay tuned for more!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Bright and early Saturday morning, Amanda and I got up and headed west to the San Rafael Swell. We knew it was probably going to snow on us, but we didn’t realize just how much it was going to snow and for how long. We were meeting our friend Dave at the Rochester Creek Panel at 8:30am, and I gave us what I thought was plenty of time to get there. Unfortunately, once we reached the San Rafael Reef, we hit the snow. The interstate was covered, so driving was slower than I had planned. We finally made it to the Rochester Panel shortly after 9am, and I was expecting to find Dave waiting for us…..however he arrived about 20 minutes later because he got stuck driving slow in the snow much longer than we had, since he was coming from the Salt Lake area.

After he arrived we hiked over to the Rochester Panel in the snow. I pulled my camera out to take some photos and after a few minutes it was completely soaked, so I put it back away and didn’t really get any good photos there on this trip. When we returned back to the Jeep I grabbed my S90 and used that for the remainder of the trip 🙂

Snow Grill

Our next stop was to visit the petroglyphs along the Moore Cutoff Road near the Molen Reef…

Our Jeeps

Snow Snake

Petroglyph Boulder in the Snow

Snow Snake / High Contrast

The Circle

This is an interesting petroglyph on a nearby boulder that we found.

Snake in a Snowstorm

The Molen Reef towers above the large snake petroglyph in the snowstorm.

After finishing up there we bashed through the snow up into Short Canyon and then hiked the rest of the way. The snow was about 5-6″ deep at this point and had not let up on us once. We got soaked, but it was still a lot of fun….especially scrambling up to the rock art 🙂

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