When I spent the weekend in Nevada before finishing my drive to Death Valley, I really thought that the Kohta Circus petroglyphs were going to be the highlight of my visit. I was wrong. Before leaving on Sunday, I stopped to find the Falling Man petroglyph. I had a lot of fun exploring this area. Not only were there petroglyphs to find everywhere I looked, but there was also colorful sandstone all over the place. It was like walking through a colorful maze searching for rock art around every corner! I spent more time in this area than I had anticipated and look forward to returning.

This amazing panel of petroglyphs has been on my radar for quite some time, but since I rarely make it down to Nevada they had to wait. That’s why I made it a point to find them last weekend as I drove through Nevada on my way to Death Valley. The side trip was well worth it.

I’ve been looking for this rock art panel for over a year and finally managed to find it over the Thanksgiving weekend. It took me three separate trips to find it, so I guess the third time’s the charm! I find it interesting that the petroglyph on the right is placed right over a larger pictograph which makes it really stand out. The texture on the ceiling of this overhang is just amazing, and I managed to visit this site at the right time of the day since there was some nice reflected light bouncing around.

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When I first visited this Barrier Canyon Style pictograph panel last year the light and shadows were pretty bad, so I didn’t end up with any decent photos. This time I made sure to stick around in the late afternoon for a better shot in the warm light.

Warm sunset light illuminates a petroglyph panel full of different kinds of footprints. Most of them appear to be sandal prints, although there is a bare footprint all the way on the far right side of the panel. There’s even concentric circles and zoomorphs thrown in for good measure.

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There was a beautiful sunrise a few weekends ago as I was on my way to hike and search for some new rock art and ruins in Southern Utah. I just happened to be near this large boulder with Ute petroglyphs at the time and thought it might make a nice image. As the early morning sunlight bounced off the clouds above everything was bathed in a red glow for a few minutes. The storm clouds in the background were nice, too.

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Happy Thanksgiving! I went on a local hike this morning in search of this petroglyph and decided to post this photo since I’m sure many of you feel this way right now after your large Thanksgiving dinner.

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While I was out exploring the Paria Plateau in Arizona last weekend, I spotted this nice petroglyph panel high up on one of the sandstone buttes. The main anthropomorph with the spiral head is probably between three and four feet in height for a little scale. I like the way the lines in the sandstone lead down towards a small alcove located below.

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Talk about an interesting petroglyph! I’d been looking for this petroglyph panel for a while, and even though I knew the general area it was located in, it seemed to elude me. When I finally found it last month, I realized that I had been within 20 feet of it in the past, but just didn’t hike quite far enough to reach it. It appears that these petroglyphs have been re-pecked more recently than some of the surrounding ones that aren’t pictured here.

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While this is not a very large petroglyph, it always catches my eye and makes me stop and stare every time I hike by it. With one arm up and one down, it seems as if it is saying hello and goodbye to me at the same time.

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These petroglyphs of bighorn sheep have eluded me for quite some time. I have searched for them before during the many times I have driven through Indian Creek Canyon over the past few years. I knew they were along the road somewhere, but was never able to find them. While driving back from Beef Basin this past weekend, I wasn’t even looking for new rock art when I managed to spot a few new petroglyphs out of the corner of my eye. I almost didn’t stop, but at the last second I decided to pull over and hike back for a few photos. I’m glad I did, because not only did I find the original petroglyphs I spotted, but I finally found this panel nearby. Maybe one day I’ll be able to drive through Indian Creek Canyon without finding any new rock art, but until that point it’s nice to find new things on each visit.

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Have I got a story for you… This past weekend I spent three days with some good friends exploring the Beef Basin area. One of my main goals this trip was to locate the petroglyph panel above, though I really had no information about it’s location other than one photo I had found. I spent all day on Saturday searching for this panel with no luck, and it looked like I would be going home empty handed on this trip. On Sunday, I was actually leaving Beef Basin when I had one more idea and decided to turn around so I could check out one last area. As luck would have it, I managed to locate the panel! It felt great after being defeated the previous day. Not only is this an amazing petroglyph panel with designs and figures I have not seen anywhere else before, but it was also located high up in a pass through a notch in a cliff that offered commanding views of the entire Canyonlands region. I could definitely see why this spot would be important and special to the creators of this rock art.

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A little-known ruin hidden away on Cedar Mesa under a beautiful sky, taken shortly before sunset. I managed to find this special ruin a few months back, after searching for it for quite a while, but the conditions were not that great for a good photo. I knew I would have to return again! This time all the elements came together nicely for this photo.

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Here’s a new photo of a petroglyph panel near Moab that I have visited before. I just love the unique setting of this panel in the corner with the lichen covered wall to the side.

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Earlier this month I set out to find this particular pictograph in the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument that has intrigued me for quite a while. As far as I know, this may be the only pictograph depicting a dinosaur track! There is a very impressive dinosaur trackway located right near these pictographs. I wonder what kind of myths the Native Americans had about the tracks found at this site, especially since some of them appear to head right off the edge of a 1,000+ foot cliff?

Here are a couple of the tracks found at the site: