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Utah Rock Art Research Association - Home
- Field Trip Descriptions 2018
2018 Field Trip Overview |
This page provides an overview of all of the field trips available at the URARA Symposium. You can't register from this page, but the field trip numbers are linked to the registration pages. The field trip numbers, shown beside "Availability" indicate what days the trips are available. So, for the Canyonlands Indian Creek + Shay Canyon + Newspaper Rock trip there are two field trips, one on Friday (F1) and one on Monday (M1). |
Canyonlands Indian Creek + Shay Canyon + Newspaper Rock
Description: Indian Creek has some of the highest concentrations of rock art in Utah. The trip will begin at Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument (74 miles from Bluff) and visit numerous rock art sites along the road.
Hiking: Moderate. Hiking to the panels requires short, sometimes steep hikes up talus slopes and occasionally across a shallow stream.
Mileage: 160 miles round trip on paved roads between Bluff and farthest site.
Drive time: 3+ hours round trip.
Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle
Carpooling: Parking is limited so we must carpool.
Equipment: Binoculars and cameras with high zoom for the high panels.
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Montezuma CreekDescription: Visit petroglyph and pictograph sites, cliff side ruins and a restored Anasazi Pueblo Kiva. Hiking: Moderate. Hiking to the panels requires short level hikes most of the time. Some panels require short but steep hikes up talus slopes or stream banks. Mileage: 120 miles round trip (52 miles round trip on paved roads and 68 miles round trip on graded dirt roads). Drive time: 4 1/2 hours round trip minimum. Vehicle requirement: High clearance with 4 wheel drive recommended due to the multiple crossings of Montezuma Creek. Carpooling: Recommended Equipment: Binoculars and cameras with high zoom for the high panels Weather: Montezuma Creek drains a huge area, so Montezuma Creek may be flooded due to recent rain. Consequently, we may be unable to visit all the sites. |
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Procession PanelDescription: The Procession Panel shows approximately 175 figures in a long line, hence the name Procession Panel. Hiking: Moderate. About 2 miles round trip across Butler Wash and up a slickrock slope. Mileage: 30 miles round trip (10 miles round trip on paved roads and less than 20 miles round trip on graded dirt roads). Drive time: 1 1/2 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle, high clearance recommended. Carpooling: Parking is limited so we must carpool. |
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Sand IslandDescription: There are two main petroglyph panels located at Sand Island. These sites have been used for thousands of years and have many layers of fascinating images ranging from the Archaic to historic Native American peoples. There are many additional images located along the cliff faces both upstream and downstream from the campground. The possible mammoth petroglyph is at the eastern group of petroglyphs. Hiking: Easy. There is almost no elevation gain required to visit the sites at the campground. You would walk about 2 miles round trip to see all the panels. Mileage: 8 miles round trip on paved roads. You could drive 1/2 mile between the parking area for the western panels and the parking area for the eastern panels. This would shorten your hike to 1 mile round trip. Drive time: 15 minutes round trip. Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle. Carpooling: A good way to get to know people. |
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Butler Wash Wolfman + Western RuinAvailability: F5 Description: Visit sites at Butler Wash including the impressive Wolfman and Western ruin sites. The Wolfman Site represents one of the best examples of the later San Juan Anthropomorphic Style. The Western Ruin site is located north of Wolfman and on the west bank of Butler Wash. The site contains a small ruin and very interesting rock art. Hiking: Moderate. The Wolfman Panel is a short scramble down a slickrock slope onto a bench on the east side of the canyon. The Western Ruin site is a short scramble down a slickrock slope to a bench on the east side of the canyon. Mileage: About 14 miles round trip (9 miles round trip on paved roads and 5 miles round trip on graded dirt roads). Drive time: 1 hour round trip. Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle, high clearance recommended. Carpooling: Parking is limited so we must carpool. |
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Butler Wash Roadside Ruin, Target Ruin and Ballroom CaveAvailability: M5 Description: Visit Roadside Ruin, Target Ruin, and Ballroom Cave and its pictographs. Hiking: Moderate. About 4 miles round trip. Hike to Roadside Ruin viewpoint. Then hike to nearby wash and climb out onto the banks to view Target Ruin and visit Ballroom Cave and its pictographs. Mileage: 65 miles round trip on paved roads. Drive time: 1.5 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle Carpooling: Recommended |
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Butler Wash Long Fingers + Cold Springs Cave SitesAvailability: F6 Description: Dry cave sites in Butler Wash used by the prehistoric peoples of the area. Rock art and ruins. Hiking: Easy - Moderate hiking on sandstone in the canyons of Comb Ridge. The trip consists of several short hikes totaling 5 miles round trip, with 800 feet elevation change. Mileage: About 30 miles round trip (10 miles round trip on paved roads and 20+ miles round trip on a graded dirt road). Drive time: About 1 1/2 hours. Vehicle requirement: High clearance recommended. Carpooling: Parking is limited so we must carpool. |
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Arch Canyon Ruins and Walnut KnobAvailability: M6 Description: Visit the first Arch Canyon ruin and Walnut Knob. Hiking: Moderate. From the parking area, hike about 1/4 mile to the first of the Arch Canyon ruins. From the parking area, hike about 1/4 mile uphill to Walnut Knob. Mileage: 78 miles round trip (73 miles round trip on paved roads and 5 miles round trip on ungraded dirt roads). Drive time: 1.5 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance with 4 wheel drive recommended due to sand in Comb Wash and Arch Canyon. Carpooling: Recommended |
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Mouth of Butler Wash SitesAvailability: F7 Description: Visit rock art sites at the confluence of Butler Wash and the San Juan River. Panels here are representative of the classic San Juan Anthropomorph style, Pueblo Anasazi, and Ute peoples. Hiking: Moderate scenic three mile round trip hike south down an old wagon trail and along a trail beside Butler Wash, with several easy crossings of the creek, to the confluence and multiple panels with unique petroglyphs. Elevation change about 250 feet. Mileage: About 14 miles round trip (10 miles round trip on paved roads and 4 miles round trip on graded dirt roads and across slickrock). Drive time: 1 hour round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance for travel across slickrock. |
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The Ledge (Airport or Gold Mine Road)Availability: M7 Description: Visit petroglyphs along the San Juan River. Hiking: Easy. Hike 1.3 miles round trip along the base of the sandstone ledge on the north side of the San Juan River. Mileage: 17 miles round trip (11 miles round trip on paved roads and 6 miles on graded dirt roads, ungraded dirt roads, and slickrock). Drive time: 1 hour round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to ungraded dirt roads and slickrock. Carpooling: Recommended |
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Moon House RuinAvailability: F8 Description: Moon House Ruin is considered one of the best and most beautiful in Cedar Mesa and has dramatic rock art. Hiking: The hike to Moon House Ruin is moderate to strenuous and requires a drop off the edge of a pour-off on to a large cairn and then crossing a deep canyon via a heavily used trail. Mileage: 106 miles round trip (87 miles round trip on paved roads and 19 miles round trip on rough dirt roads) via southern route. 140 miles round trip (121 miles round trip on paved roads and 19 miles round trip on rough dirt roads) via northern route. Drive time: 3 hours round trip minimum. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to rough access road. Carpooling: Recommended |
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Sheiks Canyon Green MaskAvailability: M8 Description: Visit the Green Mask site in Grand Gulch Hiking: Strenuous. Six miles round trip down Sheiks Canyon to the junction with Grand Gulch and the Green Mask site. Mileage: 99 miles round trip (90 miles round trip on paved roads and 9 miles round trip on ungraded dirt roads). Drive time: 3 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to ungraded dirt roads. Carpooling: Recommended |
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Upside Down Rock + Muley Point Overlook + Birthing PanelAvailability: F9 Description: Visit rock art on large boulders at base of Cedar Mesa and on panels below edge of Cedar Mesa. Hiking: Moderate. Hiking to and through the boulder sites requires a two mile level hike. Reaching the panels below the edge requires a 1 mile hike to the access area, lowering yourself about 4 or 5 feet into a crack, and then following the wide ledge for about 1/2 mile. Mileage: 78 miles round trip (61 miles round trip on paved roads and 17 miles round trip on graded and ungraded dirt roads). Drive time: 2 hours round trip minimum. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to the ungraded roads. Carpooling: Recommended Equipment: Portable collapsible photo reflector to shade petroglyphs |
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Recapture CreekAvailability: M9 Description: Visit sites along lower Recapture Creek. Hiking: Moderate. Hike up and down recapture Creek for about 2 1/4 miles round trip to see some very unique petroglyphs. Mileage: 28 miles round trip on paved roads. Drive time: 3/4 hour round trip. Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle Carpooling: Recommended |
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Moss BackAvailability: F10 Description: Visit rock art on panels below the edge of Moss Back mesa. Hiking: Moderate. Prom the parking area, drop down thru a crack in the cliff to a wide lower ledge and view panels distributed over 1/2 mile. Mileage: 143 miles round trip (128 miles round trip on paved roads and 15 miles round trip on ungraded dirt roads). Drive time: 4 hours round trip minimum. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to ungraded road. Carpooling: Recommended Equipment: Portable collapsible photo reflector to shade petroglyphs |
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Clay HillsAvailability: M10 Description: Visit sites along the road in the Clay Hills area. Hiking: Easy. Hike along the canyon wall for about two miles to see some very unique petroglyphs. Mileage: 163 miles round trip on paved roads. Drive time: 3 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle Carpooling: Recommended |
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Lance Site and Alkali RidgeAvailability: F11 Description: Explore the Lance and Alkali Ridge solar sites. Hiking: Moderate. At the Lance site, hike down 700 feet from the cliff edge to the flood plain and investigate the spirals in the split rock and other solar features. At the Alkali Ridge site, hike 0.7 mile down to the spirals and other solar features. Mileage: About 90 miles round trip (50 miles round trip on paved roads and 40 miles round trip on mostly graded and some ungraded dirt roads). Drive time: 2.5 hour round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to the ungraded roads. Carpooling: Parking is limited so we must carpool. |
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Bluff Sand Dune Site
Availability: M11
Description: Hike to a fantastic site hidden behind a sand dune. It has unusual anthropomorphs, something that looks like a ladder, flute players, and much more. There are 15 features containing hundreds of elements. Within two hundred yards of the original site are some wonderful historical markings and a granary. URARA contributed financially to the recording of this site recently.
Hiking: Moderate. The hike is a 1.2 mile loop crossing over a sand dune to access the rock art.
Mileage: 4 miles round trip (3 miles round trip on paved roads and 1 mile round trip on ungraded dirt road).
Drive time: 20 minutes round trip.
Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle, high clearance recommended.
Carpooling: Parking is limited so we must carpool.
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Lower Decker
Availability: F12
Description: Visit unique petroglyphs and pictographs in a scenic canyon. There are large horse petroglyphs, including one with a rider wearing a full length feather headdress. Look for the human figure apparently wearing a deerskin garment. Look for the lobed circles also seen at the Procession Panel, Wolfman pame, and elsewhere near Bluff. There are also handprints in red.
Hiking: Moderate. Hike about 400 feet down from the cliff edge onto the flood plain. Walk 2 miles round trip following the canyon wall along the creek to see the unique petroglyphs and pictographs. There are several creek crossings.
Mileage: 20 miles round trip (13 miles round trip on paved roads and 7 miles round trip on ungraded dirt roads and slickrock).
Drive time: 1 hour round trip.
Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to ungraded road and slickrock.
Carpooling: Recommended
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Mule Canyon Ruins and TowersAvailability: M12 Description: Visit some of the Mule Canyon Ruins and Towers Hiking: Easy-Moderate. About two miles round trip to House on Fire ruin. About 0.5 mile to a reconstructed pueblo with a kiva. About 0.5 mile to an ancient tower on the edge of a Mule Canyon (Cave Tower). Mileage: 86 miles round trip (84 miles round trip on paved roads and 2 miles round trip on ungraded dirt roads and slickrock). Drive time: 2 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to road across slickrock. Carpooling: Recommended |
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Citadel RuinAvailability: F13 Description: Visit a ruin with a view! The Citadel Ruin is located at the end of long white sandstone ridge. Hiking: Moderate, with a challenging section. Depending on where you start, this hike is a 4 to 6.4 mile round trip with a 915 foot elevation change. This hike will follow the edge of the canyon to a point where you follow cairns to work your way down the slickrock ramp to the level of the white sandstone ridge. You end up just below the easily visible ruin. To get up the rounded slickrock to the ruin, you will need a 25 foot length of rope and someone who can go first and assist the rest of the group up. Previous sandstone hiking experience and boots with good tread recommended. Mileage: About 94 miles round trip (80 miles round trip on paved roads and 14 miles round trip on ungraded dirt roads and some slickrock). Drive time: 2.5 to 3 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to the ungraded roads. Carpooling: Parking is limited so we must carpool. |
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Tower Ruin and Big FeetAvailability: M13 Description: Visit a tower hidden in Comb Ridge and a nearby "big feet". On the alcove walls near the tower are red handprints and other pictographs. In front of the ruin is a small patch of cholla cactus. Hiking: Moderate. About 0.7 mile round trip down a steep sandstone water channel to the alcove containing the tower and pictographs. One mile down the road is the "big foot" petroglyph panel. Mileage: 69 miles round trip (57 miles round trip on paved roads and 12 miles on graded dirt roads, ungraded dirt roads, and slickrock). Drive time: 2 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to ungraded dirt roads and slickrock. Carpooling: Recommended |
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San Juan River TripDescription: We depart from the Four Corners Adventures building at 2625 S U.S. 191, Bluff at 8 a.m. via vans, to the Sand Island launch ramp 4 miles west of Bluff. At the river, after safely packing away your cameras and sunscreen in dry bags, and a brief orientation on river safety, we're off! For the first few miles, the surrounding country is open. The river carries us past orange and black-streaked sandstone outcroppings. This was the home of the Anasazi, the ancient desert farming culture who lived in this area eight to twenty centuries ago. Evidence of their time here is all around us in the remains of their dwellings and the art they carved in the smooth sandstone walls rising around us. The Butler Wash petroglyph panel is our first stop. Only a few feet from the river's edge, this broad panel is filled with mysterious images pecked by the early Anasazi (The Basketmakers), some 1500 years ago. Journeying a little further down the river, we land again and make a quarter mile hike to "River House," a Pueblo III style cliff dwelling. This structure has a small round kiva and several adjoining rooms tucked into a rock alcove. It is estimated to be about 800 years old. After we finish exploring this site we continue down the river and find a shady spot to eat our lunch, under the canopy of a cottonwood. When our journey continues, the rock formations begin to take prominence as the river enters the Monument Upwarp, a giant wrinkle in the skin of the earth. Then we pass through the Comb Ridge Monocline and the Lime Ridge Anticline. The river here narrows and cuts a deep canyon into 300 million-year-old Pennsylvanian limestone, and the current quickens as small rapids and riffles rock the boat. Near "8-Foot Rapid," the undulating pattern in the rock reveals the presence of "bioherms," porous mounds in an ancient shallow sea that acts as reservoir rock, "capturing" oil which is found in abundance in this area. Hiking: Moderate. Short hikes to panels and ruins. Mileage: 53 miles round trip (26 miles by raft to Mexican Hat, 26 miles by bus from Mexican Hat to Bluff) Fees: $199/adult and $139/15 & Under |
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| The Ute Mountain Tribal Park Visitor Center is on the northwest corner of that intersection. |
Hiking: Moderate.
Mileage: About 145 miles round trip (115 miles round trip on paved roads and 30 miles round trip on graded and ungraded dirt roads).
Drive time: 3 1/2 hours round trip.
Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to the ungraded roads.
Other: Bring you own lunch and water; no dogs allowed.
Price: $29 for half day 9 AM-12 Noon
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Ute Mountain Tribal Park: Rock Art TourAvailability: M15 Description: Visit Ute Mountain Tribal Park: Rock Art Tour This trip, led by Ute tribal member Marshall Deer, meets at 8:30 AM at the Ute Mountain Tribal Park Visitor Center 22 miles south of Cortez, CO at the junction of US-160 and US-491. It departs at 9:00 AM. Directions From Bluff, UT: Participants starting from the Bluff Community Center should depart at 7:00 AM to allow enough time to arrive at the Ute Mountain Tribal Park Visitor Center by 8:30 AM. Drive south to US-191, turn left and drive .7 mile northward on US-191 to the junction with UT-162. Turn right (east) on UT-162 and continue about 21 miles easterly on UT-162 until you reach Aneth. Continue about 20 miles southeasterly on UT-162 (becomes highway CO-41 in Colorado) to the junction with US-160. Turn left (northeast) on US-160 and continue about 13 miles to the junction with US-491.
Hiking: Moderate. Mileage: About 145 miles round trip (115 miles round trip on paved roads and 30 miles round trip on graded and ungraded dirt roads). Drive time: 3 1/2 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to the ungraded roads. Other: Bring you own lunch and water; no dogs allowed. Price: $29 for half day 9 AM-12 Noon |
Poncho House Canceled (Poncho House Closed)Availability: F16 Description: Visit Poncho House Details not set yet. Hiking: Moderate - Strenuous, with a challenging descent/ascent to Chinle Creek. This hike is a 3.5 mile round trip with a 700 foot elevation change. Previous sandstone hiking experience and boots with good tread recommended. Mileage: About 42 miles round trip (22 miles round trip on paved roads and 20 miles round trip on graded and ungraded dirt roads and some slickrock). Drive time: 1.5 hours round trip. Vehicle requirement: High clearance due to the ungraded roads. Carpooling: Recommended Fees: Net determined yet. |
Horse Panel and YeiAvailability: M16 Description: Visit the nearest rock art in Bluff Hiking: Easy. One mile round trip to see rock art on walls and boulders. Mileage: 2 miles round trip through Bluff. Drive time: 15 minutes round trip. Vehicle requirement: Any vehicle with good clearance Carpooling: Recommended Clothing: Long pants in case of stinging nettle and/or poison ivy |
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URARA's 2018 Symposium has received funding from Utah Humanities which empowers Utahans to improve their communities through active engagement in the humanities. |
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PO Box 511324, Salt Lake City, UT 84151-1324 |
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