Saturday & Sunday, February 10-11, 2024
On Saturday morning Diane and I left home early and headed over to Moab so we could spend our weekend hiking in canyons and searching for rock art together. Although I have hiked through these same canyons before and visited most of the petroglyphs and pictographs we saw many years ago, it’s an area I’ve wanted to return to for a while and since Diane had never been here before it was fun to show her around for the first time. On Saturday the weather was a bit interesting with fast-moving clouds after a clearing storm, but later in the afternoon as we were hiking back to the trailhead we got caught in a graupel storm that turned into a snowstorm. Up until that point it had been one of those days where the temperature felt nice when the sun was out, but it felt cold and chilly when the sun disappeared behind the clouds. Here are some photos from the weekend.
Outline Arch
The clouds seemed to be clearing out as we explored a large alcove, making for dynamic conditions.
The deeply-carved lines on the top of this boulder are very interesting.
Faded Barrier Canyon Style Pictographs
This pool in the canyon stopped our progress upstream since it was a bit too cold to get wet today.
Bench Arch
Swimming Hole Waterfall
Searching for petroglyphs up on a bench.
This was a faint panel I had missed before that seems to have a large petroglyph of a bear.
Dead end in a colorful little canyon.
Deer & Sheep Panel
Just a little pictograph…
This photo was taken not very long after the previous couple of photos, as a fast-moving winter storm overtook us during the hike back to the trailhead.
Sunday was my birthday and we set out just after sunrise in search of a petroglyph panel I’ve been looking for, which I was hoping to find today just like I had found the panel I was looking for last year on my birthday.
Since it had continued to snow for a while the previous evening we would be hiking through a fresh layer of snow for much of the morning.
Eventually we reached the petroglyph panel at the mouth of a large cave that I was looking for.
Petroglyph Cave
Inside the Cave
Looking out from the inside across a snow-covered landscape.
Here’s a closer look at the petroglyph panel.
Randy it’s beautiful! where is it located? Utah?
Yes, around Moab, Utah
Hey Randy – regarding that pool that stopped your progress up canyon – you can climb high on the left before you reach that pool and pass by it.
Also, I have a cool story about that alcove with the panel next to it. Back in the 80’s, a friend of mine and his buddy found a leather pouch or satchel that had some scalps in it that had both bone and hair. Kind of spooky. It was eventually turned over to the BLM.
Hey Monica, we actually did climb up high above that waterfall on the left, but I didn’t like the narrow section we would have to cross, so we decided to skip it for now. We will either come back in warmer temperatures when we won’t mind getting wet or will hike down from the upper canyon sometime. It worked out for the best since we had a nice hike in the other fork and my interest in the Old Mail Trail was piqued.