Saturday & Sunday, February 21-22, 2026
Diane is very glad to almost be done with her Radiation Therapy, and she only has four treatments left this upcoming week, so we were looking for somewhere to get outside this weekend while still being able to take it easy. We decided that searching for rock art in Nine Mile Canyon would be a perfect activity for us and headed up there for our annual pilgrimage. We had actually been thinking about driving up to Nine Mile Canyon the previous weekend for my birthday, but I ended up staying home to work on my 4Runner so that it would be ready for a trip into The Maze later this month. We left home early on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the weekend revisiting sites in the canyon and finding some new ones along the way, too. Although it had snowed in the Grand Valley and all across Southern Utah on Friday, the storm seemed to have mostly missed Price and the surrounding area, so there was only a thin layer of snow on the ground higher up in the canyon and it was pretty dry the lower we went. These are some photos of what we saw this weekend.
Welcome to Nine Mile Canyon!
Snake Site
Long-Necked Sheep Panel
Big Panel
Split Panel
High Angled Panel
After stopping at way too many sites along the road we went for a short hike around the Daddy Canyon Complex to stretch our legs since it was an easy hike for Diane and I felt like I hadn’t stopped here in forever. Surprisingly, we did manage to either find some new panels or they were just some sites I had completely forgotten about- I’m not sure which?
Overhang Sheep
Triangle Anthropomorph & Sheep
Daddy Canyon Petroglyphs
Green Elk Shelter
Ledge Petroglyphs
Striped Shield
Right Side Petroglyphs
Spiral Serpents
Mickey Mouse Panel
Nine Mile Warriors
Nice Sheep Petroglyph
Unfinished Shield Site
Drowning Panel
Lichen Panel
Great Hunt Panel
Spiral Tail Sheep Panel
Diane spotted this panel out of the corner of her eye as we drove by and I think it’s probably my favorite find of the weekend.
While I found this large red pictograph last year, the light was bad then, so I returned for a better photo in the shade.
Segmented Panel
Stock Trail Panel
Wavy Tail Sheep
Sideways Sheep Panel
Elk On the Point
Zig-Zag Panel
Haunting Figure
Big Feet
Sandhill Crane Site
The Demise of the Story Panel?
During our two previous visits to Nine Mile Canyon I had hoped to stop by and rephotograph the Story Panel, which I had visited twice before, although the last time I was there was about nine years ago. I was pretty sure I knew where it was and could clearly remember visiting the site, so I didn’t leave much time for searching, but for some reason I could not find the panel again either time. I usually have a pretty good memory when it comes to rock art, but for some reason I felt like my mind was failing me and it was starting to drive me a little crazy! Before returning this weekend, I went through all my photos and GPS points of the site so I was prepared to find it again. Early on Sunday morning we set out to look for it, and even with all the information I had gathered, we could not find it! That’s when I realized that the location I was looking at seems to have suffered a rockfall relatively recently, and after matching up some of the backgrounds in my photos, I’m pretty sure the panel has fallen. Maybe my mind is not failing me after all! I did climb around the rockfall to see if I could find any parts of the panel to confirm my theory, but unfortunately there was nothing visible. Although I’m fairly confident that this is what has occurred, I suppose it’s still possible that my memory is wrong, so if anyone other there knows the true fate of this petroglyph panel, please let me know!
This is one of the last photos of the Story Panel that I took back in 2017. I guess I won’t be rephotographing it again after all…
