Summer of 2016

We moved from Bluff to Green River, UT.  Driving in southern Utah is like driving through a structural geology textbook.  With the exception of the high mountains, there are few trees, little grass or shrubs and not much dirt to hide the rocks.  All of the formations are out there to see.

This is the east side of the San Rafael Swell (a good explanation of this feature is on Wikipedia)












Along the Green River, north of the town, is another rock art panel.






The Green River







Further north of the town is Nine Mile Canyon.  Nine Mile Canyon is, of course, not nine miles long.  It is about 40 miles long and is called the longest art gallery in the world because it contains many rock art panels.



















Some of the panels have been given names. This one is called the Balloon Man Panel because of the figure on the left.







It looks to me like there is a space man on the bottom center and perhaps another one on the left.







A great spot for lunch.








The Pregnant Bison Panel








Pictures of this famous panel have appeared in the National Geographic Magazine.  Notice that most of the ewes have a lamb behind them while the rams are shown on the top.






South of Green River is Goblin Valley State Park.  We wandered around here for hours.
































While walking around, looking at the formations, we just had to name some of them.  This one we called turtle rock.  If you look closely, you may see a goblin looking at you.
































Proboscis rock















One of the things that takes some getting used to in UT is the vast distances.  We decided we wanted to see the west side of Canyonlands National Park.  The road to the park starts about 45 miles south of Green River. From the turnoff,  the total distance to the park and back to the highway is 115 miles.  It is all dirt road and the roads in the park are for 4 wheel drive vehicles only. Great fun.  We saw 3 other vehicles on the road to the park but there were several on the roads in the park.  It felt somewhat crowded.


A dune field along the way.
































East of Green River is Sego Canyon which has several rock art panels.















More space men








The figure on the right is about 7 feet tall.









There are many canyons that have been eroded in the San Rafael Swell.  This one is called Black Dragon Canyon.








It was named for the pictograph found in the canyon which seems to resemble a winged dragon.

When I  first saw it,  I thought it looked like a red goose,  but when I looked more closely, it seems to resemble a prehistoric flying animal.  Some say it is a compilation of several separate figures that, over time,  have bled together.





This is the entrance to the canyon.  If you look closely, you can see our Jeep.


It was time to leave Utah.  We had great weather for our visit but it can get very hot here so we moved on to Nevada, Idaho and Washington.