Horseshoe Canyon Pictographs

Saturday, October 30, 2010

On Saturday morning my friend Jackson and I headed to Green River and then south through the San Rafael Desert to the trailhead for Horseshoe Canyon (formerly Barrier Canyon). I have wanted to hike this canyon for a while to check out all of the pictographs, so I was excited to finally be there. The hike turned out to be just under 8 miles long after all of the side trips we took, and the weather was just about perfect. Here’s some photos of the pictographs we checked out along the way.

Our first stop was at the High Gallery

Then we stopped at the Horseshoe Gallery

Up next was the Alcove Gallery which was in a huge alcove. Unfortunately these pictographs were either worn off pretty good or vandalized.

Lastly we stopped and spent quite a bit of time at the Great Gallery

Man & Dog?

The Holy Ghost

An impressive panel

Some fall colors framing the Holy Ghost

Nice details still visible

…and here’s a few non-pictograph photos I took along the way.

Back-lit Cottonwood

Visitor

Along the canyon bottom

Jackson playing with his new lens

Colorful cottonwoods

View back down into Horseshoe Canyon as we climbed back out and made our way to the Jeep again.

After a nice hike we headed back to Green River for some dinner at Ray’s Tavern before heading home. As we reached Green River some storms started rolling it. It was perfect timing!