Moab 2020 - Part 8

 There are a lot of Native American rock art sites around southeastern Utah, including a few near Moab that are easy to drive to.  Unfortunately these sites are also likely to have experienced graffiti and vandalism.

A few from next to the Moab golf course

A few from the Moonflower Canyon petroglyph site

A few from a petroglyph site near Kane Springs Creek

We had read about a petroglyph panel not far from the previous site.  This panel has this unusual owl petroglyph.

 

But the hike up to the panel for close examination was well beyond what we were ready to attempt, so the following image with a blown up insert shows the location where we located the panel via binoculars and telephoto camera lens.
(make sure to click on the image to see a larger version)

Moab 2020 - Part 7

 There are a few relatively easy 4x4 trails that we often drive when visiting the Moab area.

Here are a few images from a drive up the Gemini Bridges Trail.

Looking at part of Arches National Park in the distance

Scenery along the trail

Gooney Bird Rock

Another day we drove down the trail through Pucker Pass and Long Canyon.

This rock fell across the trail in the late 1990s creating a narrow tunnel.

Looking down into Long Canyon

Another favorite drive is the Shafer Trail which drops down from near the entrance of the Island In The Sky section of Canyonlands National Park to the Colorado River.

A view down into Shafer Canyon with a section of the Shafer Trail on the left side.  The trail then continues down into the canyon below.

Along the top of the trail

 

 

Looking at the famous Shafer Trail switchbacks

 

Scenery in Shafer Canyon

The Colorado River Overlook near the bottom of the trail

The overlook made for a great lunch spot.

Moab 2020 - Part 6

About 30 miles north of Moab is a Native American pictograph panel in Sego Canyon.  This site includes Barrier Canyon style images possibly up to 6,000 years old.

 

 

These Fremont Culture petroglyphs are much more recent.

 

We read about an impressive Native American pictograph panel in Courthouse Wash near Moab that had been severely vandalized in 1980.  We made the short hike to the panel to see how bad the damage was and what remained.

The center of this image is the area where the panel is located.

The current condition of the panel

Only a few images appear to remain reasonably visible.

Moab 2020 - Part 5

 While in the Moab area we hiked to a couple of well known stone arches, Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park and Landscape Arch in Arches National Park.

Mesa Arch is extremely popular with photographers catching the dawn sunlight illuminating the underside of the span.  But we declined to hike the unfamiliar trail in the predawn dark and opted to hike mid-morning.

Along the trail were a variety of interesting old roots and trees.

Mesa Arch

On another day we made the hike to Landscape Arch.  With an official span of 290.1 feet, it is regarded as the longest natural stone span in North America.

The beginning of the trail to the arch

Scenery along the trail

Landscape Arch

 

The arch looks fairly fragile, with rock slabs falling off the underside in the 1990s.

Moab 2020 - Part 4

 One day we took a loop trip entering Arches National Park via the Salt Valley Road and exiting the park via Willow Springs Road.  These roads are unpaved 4WD roads which are alternate entries/exits for the park.  Along this route we visited two dinosaur trackways preserved in the rocks.

Our first stop was the Mill Canyon Trackway just off of Highway 191 about 15 miles north of Moab.  The tracks at this site were made approximately 112 million years ago in lakeside mud.

Rock formation along the Salt Valley Road

 

This coyote was being followed by a badger!

(unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the badger)

Prairie Dog stretching

Approaching Skyline Arch within Arches National Park

After leaving the park on Willow Springs Road, we stopped at the Willow Springs Tracksite.  These dinosaur tracks were made about 165 million years ago.

Pretty green minerals coloring a formation along Highway 191