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.
An amazing panel of Basketmaker petroglyphs found along the San Juan River near the mouth of Butler Wash. One of the largest panels around, and a popular stop for rafters on the river. This is just a very small selection of all the petroglyphs found at this location.
Here’s a close look up a large ladder petroglyph that I was searching for on my last visit to Comb Ridge. This is the first petroglyph of a ladder that I have found, and it’s pretty cool. It looks like the ladder and some of the other figures were carved over some much older petroglyphs. I can’t help but wonder if this ladder is some sort of communication about the very high and almost inaccessible ruin that is found further up the canyon?
A few weeks ago I spent a short day exploring Comb Ridge and revisiting a few sites I had been to before. One of the sites I revisited was The Procession Panel. This large petroglyph panel is situated near the crest of Comb Ridge and there are spectacular views over Cedar Mesa and Lime Ridge nearby. This petroglyph panel is named after the lines of small figures that appear to be in a ‘procession’ towards the large circle shown in this photo.
The final stop on our way home from the Arizona Strip was this large boulder located near Bluff, Utah that contains a few good-sized petroglyphs of two horses and two zoomorphs that could be deer.
On our way home from the Arizona Strip, we made a detour along Comb Ridge to search for this petroglyph panel. The name Jump Rope Man comes from the central figure that appears to be jumping rope. I wonder what that figure could have represented? It’s not a very large panel, but it’s very unique and in great shape.
A small lizard-like stick figure with large hands and feet carved into a canyon wall near Butler Wash. Getting through all of the thick tamarisk to reach this and a few other panels near the San Juan River was an adventure, but it was worth it.
Here’s a portion of an amazing Basketmaker petroglyph panel located along the San Juan River near Butler Wash and known as the Shamans Panel. Currently, this is probably the best portion of the panel, however, if you walk along the cliff face you will find hundreds, if not thousands, of other petroglyphs in this same area. Unfortunately, a lot of the other petroglyphs are very faint and hard to see and photograph. This area must have been very important in the past.
The Sand Island petroglyph site is one of the large sites that I have visited numerous times and I always seem to find something new on each visit. There is just so much to be seen here if you study the site closely. The main reason I am posting this photo today, which only shows a small section of the panel, is because of the mask-like petroglyphs that can be seen close to the center. These masks are very similar to the Green Mask pictograph that I posted a photo of yesterday.
Since I posted a photo of the Wolfman Panel earlier today, I’ll post this photo of the small ruin located across Butler Wash from the panel. I’m not sure if this particular ruin has a name, but I’m going to go ahead and call it the Wolfman Ruin because of it’s proximity to the rock art. You can spot this ruin across the canyon from the old parking area for the Wolfman Panel (I say ‘old’ because the BLM closed off access to the slickrock parking area sometime over the last year or so). Getting across the canyon to visit this ruin is a little bit trickier, but well worth the effort. There are also some faint petroglyphs found near this ruin if you spend the time to explore the area.
This anthropomorphic figure is to the left side of the main and larger set of petroglyphs known as the Wolfman Panel in Butler Wash. While this figure most likely doesn’t represent a ‘wolfman’ since large hands and feet are common in basketmaker petroglyphs, it certainly looks like one to me! This is a very interesting and easily accessible panel located near Bluff, Utah.
