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Rock Art of the Book Cliffs Trip Reports

Rock Art Along the Old Trappers' Trail

Book Cliffs Rock Art VIII | Friday, August 30, 2024

After spending most of Monday hiking with a friend in the San Rafael Swell, we met up again on Friday morning in the Book Cliffs so we could spend a few hours visiting rock art sites along the Old Trappers’ Trail, which was a historic route in eastern Utah that travelled through the Book Cliffs to the Uinta Basin. While much of this rock art is located on private property and some of it is visible from the public road, my friend had secured us permission from the ranch to ...

Rock Art of the Book Cliffs VII

Sunday, August 25, 2024

After spending Saturday morning on the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon, I left home early on Sunday so I could meet up with a friend in Green River later in the afternoon. Since I had plenty of time before we were supposed to meet I thought it would be a good idea to spend the morning searching for new rock art sites in the Book Cliffs as I slowly made my way to Green River. Unfortunately, the weather would not cooperate with those plans today thanks to the stormy weather we’ve been experiencing lately and just ...

Bookin’ It to the Book Cliffs

Memorial Day Weekend | Friday – Monday, May 28-31, 2021
Book Cliffs Rock Art VI

Last year Diane and I completely skipped going anywhere over the Memorial Day weekend because we didn’t want to deal with the massive COVID-crowds that were out and about at the time, but this year I wanted to get out somewhere close to home while still avoiding the crowds. After poring over maps I decided that the best place for me to go this year would be up into the Book Cliffs. Not only are the Book Cliffs close to home, but I don’t ...

Revisiting The Owl Pictograph

Book Cliffs Rock Art V | Saturday, February 3, 2018

After spending the previous weekend exploring the Coyote Buttes in Arizona, it was time for me to stay a little closer to home and take things easy for a change. When Diane and I had visited the San Rafael Reef a few weekends ago we were hoping to stop by a very cool pictograph of an owl in the Book Cliffs on our way home, but we ran out of time and daylight and didn’t get the chance. I guess we spent too much time in Chute Canyon! I had ...

Book Cliffs Loop

Book Cliffs Rock Art IV | Saturday, December 16, 2017

Since there really hasn’t been any snow to speak of in the area so far this year, I thought it would be a good time to go for a drive up into the Book Cliffs just over the state line in Utah so we could visit some rock art sites that I haven’t been to in a while and that Diane hadn’t seen before. We left home on Saturday morning and took I-70 to the Westwater Exit where we headed north into the Book Cliffs following along Westwater Creek. Unfortunately, ...

Gray Canyon and the Island in the Sky

Saturday & Sunday, August 4-5, 2012

On Saturday I met up with Jackson and his family so that we could float a section of the Green River known as the Green River Daily. This section is a few miles long and located within Gray Canyon a few miles north of the town of Green River. There aren’t really any big rapids on this stretch of the river, especially at this year’s very low water flows, so we were just expecting a nice relaxing float with a lot of swimming to stay cool. I also hoped to find some new petroglyphs ...

Tusher Canyon

Book Cliffs Rock Art III | Saturday, November 26, 2011

After spending most of the day in the San Rafael Swell there was still a little daylight left, so I headed over to Tusher Canyon in the Book Cliffs to locate a few more rock art sites. Since I was running out of light I had to rush through it, but I did manage to find every site that I was looking for. I didn’t have time to do some thorough exploring of the canyon, so I will have to return again when I have more time to see what ...

Exploring the Book Cliffs near Green River

Book Cliffs Rock Art II | Saturday, November 19, 2011

After a morning and afternoon of hiking and exploring around Moab, Marty and I headed north to the Book Cliffs to visit a couple more new panels since we still had a few hours of sunlight left.

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McDonald Creek & Book Cliffs Rock Art

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Here are some photos I took on a local day trip into McDonald Creek and the Book Cliffs near the Colorado-Utah state line. Of course, I was searching for rock art…

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Rock Art & Bubbling Springs

Saturday & Sunday, April 2-3, 2011

This weekend I was invited to go camping near Green River with some friends from the Salt Lake area, so I decided to get out and take my first camping trip of the year since it has finally started to warm up a bit. On my way to meet up with them Saturday morning, I took a quick detour into the Book Cliffs to continue searching for the pictograph I had started to look for last weekend, but had run out of time. Lucky for me, I was able to find it this time.

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Short Trip to the Book Cliffs

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Earlier today, Jackson and I headed west into Utah so that I could check on a geocache that I hid last summer. Once we checked on the cache we hiked around the rim of the nearby canyon and did a little exploring.

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Book Cliffs Rock Art

Saturday, December 18, 2010

On Saturday morning I was headed to Moab in search of some more rock art, but on my way there I made a short detour into the Book Cliffs to find a few pictograph panels. Here’s a few photos from the Book Cliffs.

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