Utah Rock Art

Linda and I explored southeastern Utah last month, including eleven sites with Native American petroglyphs and pictographs. Here are a few of the hundreds of photos I took.

Petroglyphs are chipped in the rock, as seen in the images above:

Top - Rattlesnake attack on a large boulder near Moab.
Center left - Kokopelli at Shay Canyon.
Center right - More recent images at Newspaper Rock.
Bottom left - Birthing scene on the same boulder as # 1.
Bottom right - Anthropomorphs at Capitol Reef National Park.


The images on the left are pictographs, which  are painted on the rocks, and since paint is likely to be washed away over the centuries, they are much rarer than petroglyphs.


Top - Sego Canyon, Barrier Canyon style anthropomorphs.
Center - Sego Canyon, more recent Ute style
Bottom - Buckhorn Wash, Barrier Canyon style


Rock art should never be touched.  The oil on our hands will degrade them in time.  Vandalism is a terrible problem, and there are big penalties for anyone caught defacing ancient rock art.  For that reason, many sites are not publicized.


Linda and I have posted more rock art photos and information from this trip on our web site.


http://www.hisandhersphoto.com/Heritage/hhrockartut.htm     -  last three images
http://www.hisandhersphoto.com/Heritage/hhrockartut2.htm   -  first twelve images