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Borderlands of the Bears Ears Country III

Saturday & Sunday, January 25-26, 2025

Even though Diane had just returned home on Wednesday after spending a week-and-a-half in Hawaii at a conference for work and hadn’t even finished unpacking from the trip, she was ready to join me in the much colder temperatures of southern Utah this weekend so we could explore the canyons found around the edges of the Bears Ears National Monument together. We left home early on Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the weekend wandering through some canyons along the Borderlands of the Bears Ears Country in search of ruins and rock art. These are just some photos of what we saw.

It was overcast for much of the weekend, but we were lucky to catch a little blue in the sky when we spotted this little ruin on the ledge.

Little Ruin

Hiking down the sandy wash of a side canyon…

Down the Canyon

These mud streaks along the wash caught my eye.

Mud Streaks

We saw quite a few potsherds scattered along the bottoms of the canyons.

Potsherd

Diane spotted this high ruin above us that looked pretty inaccessible.

High Ruin

Cracks in the Mud

Cracks in the Mud

Walled In Ruin

Walled In Ruin

Fading Pictographs

Fading Pictographs

Frozen Waterfall

Frozen Waterfall

We climbed up to a large alcove that contained this set of ruins.

Big Alcove Ruins

Big Alcove Ruins II

We came across this large grinding stone as we hiked higher into the alcove.

Grinding Stone

Grinding Grooves

These incised lines at the back of the alcove were also very interesting.

Incised Lines

Sandstone Snail

Sandstone Snail

Here’s an unusual historic carving we spotted at the bottom of a boulder.

Unusual-Glyph

Jigsaw Puzzle

Jigsaw Puzzle

Broken Boulder Petroglyphs

Broken Boulder Petroglyphs

Broken Piece

Broken Piece

Spirals On a Boulder

Spirals On a Boulder

Duckhead Figure with an Atlatl

Duckhead with Atlatl

It was nice to revisit these impressive horses again.

Two Horses

Bluff Horses

Big Spiral Horses

Yei-be-chai

Yei-be-chai

Mud Cracks

Mud Cracks

This carving of a cradleboard on the ground is most likely Ute.

Ute Cradleboard Carving

This faint design was hard to see and we almost missed it hidden behind some trees.

Faded Designs

Pumpkin Head Panel

Pumpkin Head Panel

Pumpkin Head

Pumpkin Head

Right Side Petroglyphs

Left Side Petroglyphs

>> Borderlands of the Bears Ears Country III Photo Gallery

One Comment

  1. Natalie Heller
    Natalie Heller February 7, 2025

    I continue to enjoy looking at all of your photographs! I loved your mudstreaked photo from your recent trip and also found it satisfying to see that one can still discover potsherds. Your photo of the yei-be-chai was pretty cool!

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