My Journey

[Arjan]

Thank You very much !
"Friends and neighbors have been donating license plates to the barn wall.....so I keep adding as the plates fall into my hands....." You want some Dutch, English or French ones ??

You mean "The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan" ?

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Arjan.....yes, that's the book that I'd recommend. Regarding the European license plates, yes of course they'd be cool to have but honestly I'm not a collector of license plates.....they just seem to have found their way into my life. So I appreciate the offer but seriously it's not important to have.....



We drove into Vernal, Utah that next morning and went straight to the Bureau of Land Management office. I had plans to visit several petroglyph sites (from a Google search) that were nearby and I hoped that I might gain some local knowledge in regards to where some unpublished sites might be. Well, they unfortunately weren't willing to share their secrets with me.....so off we went to visit the first site.....which I guessed was probably a frequently visited site.....



The road that we took ran along the northern border of the Dinosaur National Monument.....and then the last mile, which we walked, was within the limits of the Dinosaur National Monument.....



The first thing that caught my attention at the McKee Springs Petroglyph site was the vandalism.....in the above picture someone has for some insane reason defaced the petroglyph. In the one below, someone has put bullet holes into the petroglyph.....



It's so upsetting to me to see this needless vandalism.....but fortunately much of the petroglyphs were spared from the needless vandalism.....




As I stood there along the cliffs, I looked out across the valley below and I tried to imagine what life was like for the Freemont people hundreds of years ago.....I just love their story.....



I continue to read & watch videos about these people and their lives, and visits to sites like these begin to give meaning to the stories that I read.....




I suspect that we spent just a few hours here.....hiking down the dirt road, viewing the petroglyphs, and just simply taking it all in.....and then we were off to yet another petroglyph site.....

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

The vandalism is heartbreaking.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

PNWY.....and it's rampant.....it's everywhere.....



We spent the remainder of the day at the McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs.....just to the northwest of Vernal,Utah.....




These petroglyphs are located on private land and the owner allows visitors to his property and simply asks for a $5 donation to access the petroglyphs.....




This rancher.....he's built a gravel parking lot, installed several port-a-potties, has had professional quality informative signs made, and built an access trail to the petroglyphs.....





And look at this.....a sign posted on his property.....



This is the thank you that he gets.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

So I did my thing once again.....walking along the bottom of the cliffs.....staring out into the valley.....and just admiring the beautiful petroglyphs.....





At far end of the cliffs.....there is one absolutely incredible petroglyph panel.....



The 3 Kings Panel.....you can just barely see it in the picture above.....



And a close up below.....this panel truly is extraordinary.....




And the good news is that it's nearly impossible to access it if one wanted to vandalize it.....




Once our day was done, we returned to the parking lot, stopped in at the ranchers' tiny visitor center where one could purchase a bottle of water for $1.....it's the honor system as no one was there.....and then we hit the road again.....

 

[ITTOG]

That rancher is amazing. Too often people want to shut down visitors on their property and then things like this can't be seen.

 

[AlwaysRoaming]

Great pics as always Jerry. I hope you finally make it a little south of there to the Book Cliffs and Green River. A great part of Utah.
Safe travels.

 

[the deputy]

I'm no mathematician...but l count five kings and possible one human sacrifice (dude hanging by armpits, three chest cavity incisions, feet dangling). Enjoy trying to piece together some sort of meaning, especially the one where there are two figures that seem to be touching/holding a spiral-sun between them and then in their opposite hand are holding a mushroom-lamp-shaped object. One of the 'kings' is holding a similar object, too.

Good stuff.

 

[longhorn1]

ITTOG.....it was a sensational end to a sensational season of crawling, walking, hiking, and climbing in Montana & Wyoming.....now it's time to focus on the southwest again.....

Ace.....no problem.....they love it.....

the deputy....."so envious".....thanks for reminding me to be grateful for the things that I can do and not to be ungrateful for the things that I can't do.....

Riversdad.....we're still fairly active even though we currently aren't traveling (hopefully we will be very soon). We've got 2 fenced acres to play in so that helps. All that being said, this morning I'm posting from a vetenary hospital.....Tanner is having a leg issue looked at.....he's sedated and getting x-rays right now.....

Arjan.....I suspect that my dogs would remove any type of shoe within seconds of installation. We don't have issues up north, but the south is brutal (cactus). They just suffer through it.....



We spent that night camped at the trailhead.....it truly was amazing. Other than two dogs snoring, I don't recall hearing any other sounds. We were in the middle of nowhere, nobody for miles.....

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We were completely surrounded by mountains.....like sleeping in a bowl.....just one tiny opening in the mountains.....where Gold Prize Creek flowed.....

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We went back out that night.....the legs had improved. I love these night walks along the Forest Service roads.....it's become a part of all our trips these days.....

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We headed home the following morning.....it was sooooo cold.....but not too cold to take a brief walk along the Yellowstone River.....

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And that was it.....the season had come to a close. An hour later we pulled up to our cabin in the valley.....

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.....where the Quaking Aspen still held onto their glow.....

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I fired up the stove.....took a steaming hot shower.....grabbed a book.....kicked back in my dog chair.....and we dreamed about new adventures.....

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Well the dogs deserve a good long rest. The views from the top were amazing. Trying to get caught back up🙃🐾🐾

 

[longhorn1]

Hope you don't mind...but this one of Tanner cracks me up. It's from a few pages back...okay, like 150 to be exact.

He's like..."Okay, this stuffed toy has been somewhat enjoyable, and l truly appreciate your effort, but we need to have a serious talk about another real four legged companion."

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Also, added Lewistown to my - must see list. This is probably my third go around with this thread, from the start. But this time l'm taking notes...and hopefully applying them to my next journey.

,🐾🐾

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

ITTOG.....I definitely would shut it down if that was my property. I actually don't understand why he continues to allow access.....it can't be for the money.....

AlwaysRoaming.....yes, we finally did visit the Book Cliffs but our vist was brief.....only for 2 days. It was just too cold to truly enjoy it. I loved what I experienced & saw and I hope that I'll return another day.....

the deputy.....I get caught up in these things.....they cause me to dream during the daylight hours.....

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.’

T. E. Lawrence

JD.....it was a short rest.....only for the month of November......one of the few months in 2024 that we didn't get out.....



We left Vernal, Utah the following morning and drove southwest along Highway 191 to Myton, Utah. Then we left the highway behind and drove due south into Nine Mile Canyon.....



We passed by miles & miles of oil drilling operations on a fairly well paved road.....



Once we hit the canyons' bottom floor, it was pretty much all dirt & sand roads. We came here due to the plethora of petroglyphs and pictographs.....our first stop of the day was at the Daddy Canyon Recreation Site.....



We needed to stretch our legs badly so the first thing that we did was to head into the canyon for a cold morning hike.....



At the entrance to the canyon we admired the petroglyphs on the cliff walls as we completed our all too brief hike.....




The next pictograph (shown below) oddly reminded me of a kids' drawing of a modern day house.....



Just a short walk from these petroglyphs is the Rasmussen Cave.....



The first thing that you'll notice here is that this cave (?) is located on private land. It's fenced off and posted.....I was shocked to see that the owner painted right over a beautiful pictograph.....



There were all kinds of stuff going on here.....in the picture below which maybe isn't such a great representation of what I saw appears to show indentations in the stone where objects were sharpened (maybe I'm mistaken ?).....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

There was quite an abundance of petroglyphs to study (yes study, I'm really getting into these things).....






In the next picture are indentations in the stone.....I assume that this is where they ground their corn over & over again.....they do appear to be convex in the picture but please believe me that they are indeed concave.....



The name of this area implied that there was a cave here.....but I didn't see it.....maybe it was just hidden from my sight as I tried to honor the land owners' request and not trespass.....




It was a beautiful day with blue skies overhead.....although the temperatures were barely above freezing once again.....



.....I recall wanting to call it a day at this point in the day but we kept going.....this canyon is filled with so many petroglyphs & pictographs to see.....

 

[Ace Brown]

I did Nine Mile Canyon several years ago. I didn’t see hardly any rock-art. I think then it was not signed. It also was not paved and the big trucks made for a terribly dusty trip.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ace.....that's truly unfortunate that you missed the rock art.....some of Utahs' best is located there. That canyon is chock-full of the stuff. As best I recall, every signpost was accompanied by a gravel parking area or a pull out area. The road in the bottom of the canyon is still unpaved.....the paved road in the picture in the previous posts is leading down into the canyon.....



So now a couple of post showing you the last of the rock art that we saw in Nine Mile Canyon.....



Big Buffalo for sure had some of the best pictographs that I have ever seen.....





And quite a selection of outstanding pictographs as well.....



.....including the Big Buffalo.....



But to be honest I'm not so sure if the Big Buffalo was the one shown above or the one shown below.....one just as incredible as the other.....




We also did a hike up the side of a canyon to see a Freemont village. There wasn't much there but the trail continued up beyond the Freemont village, further up the side of the canyon so of course we went to see what we could see.....it seemed obvious from the blackened walls shown in the pictures below that the Freemont people stayed here (at least that's what I was thinking).....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Then came The Owl  Panel.....



Lots more good stuff here.....






And last.....and probably the finest of all.....The Great Hunt panel. Make sure to read the sign below as it's filled with great information. And if you're anything like me, I usually don't bother reading these signs when other members post similar signs (and I assume that most people don't read the ones that I post as well)......but definitely read this one....



I thought this panel to be spectacular.....



And there were even a few pictographs nearby.....



After a near full day of admiring petroglyphs and pictographs, we headed west out of the canyon.....stopped at a few of the now abandoned old homesteads. Interesting thing about the homesteads.....they were all on the western end of the canyon where the canyon floor was somewhat flat and the walls were much lower, more accommodating to farming.....the Freemont people settled the east end of the canyon where the walls were high and the walls seem to let in minimal sunlight. Maybe farming wasn't the key to their existence. Just interesting to see the contrast in people's lives.....