After being skunked on the Hidden Valley Trail near Moab, UT, I asked an Arches Park Ranger for some advice on ancient rock art in the area. It turns out there are a number of sites that can be visited by car right in Moab.
Prehistoric and historic peoples (Paleo-Indians) inhabited the American southwest and were primarily large game hunters. They left records of their existence on black rock faces, called desert varnish, seemingly a form of visible time capsule. A glimpse into their lives shows similar animals that are seen in the area today: big horn sheep, snakes, deer, and similar landscape markers: river routes.
Later (1300-1880 AD), Ute Indians left their marks on boulders and cliff faces, often overlaying their petroglyphs over those from previous cultures. These can be identified by the presence of horse and rider images, indicative of the Spanish introduction of horses in the 1500s.
On our way north to Wyoming, we stopped at the Sego Canyon Petroglyphs based on a tip from our 1990s Statefarm atlas. We were pleasantly surprised to find large petroglyph images from the Barrier Canyon period created by people who inhabited the area between 8,000 and 2,000 years ago. These are truly amazing piees of history, but it was disheartening to see vandalism by those who chose to leave their modern marks on the same rock faces.
Around the corner from these first images are a set of pictographs. Pictographs differ from petroglyphs in that they are painted on rather than carved into rocks. Check out Kathy Weiser’s excellent information about the history of Sego Canyon, UT (http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ut-segocanyon.html).
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