Pictographs and Petroglyphs

We had thoughts of spending several more days in Utah, but the weather forecast convinced us we needed to scurry home.  Since home was a mere eleven hours away, there was time to check out a few pictographs and petroglyphs.  These are from sites along UT 313 and Sego Canyon.

I used d Stretch on this photo to enhance the colors.

As you can tell from these two  photos, the d stretch version causes the pictograph colors to appear to jump out from the surrounding background.  With really faint pictographs, this is a huge help with seeing what was painted.

This is commonly referred to as the Intestine Man Pictograph.  Or at least the one in the middle is.  It is one cool pictograph, but I was really taken by the one to the right.  Up on his shoulders are small pictographs that look like they have wings.  Birds?  Insects?  Unfortunately, we, read Bob here, didn't have the camera gear to take super close up photos, and I couldn't find any on the internet.  I am curious.  I read a blog post that descripted the six figures on the far right as macaws.  Hmmm.  I don't know, but I found the one with so much small detail to be fascinating.

The rest that follow are from Sego Canyon.  The canyon contains rock art from three different styles, and time frames:  Ute a few hundred years old, Fremont 1000-2000 years ago, and Barrier Style, 2000-6000 years ago.  There is also a ghost town and an old coal mine in the area.  We didn't have time to check out the last two.  

First up is Ute pictographs.  These are fairly modern as they come with horses, various human figures, shields, and of course vandalism.  This canyon is so popular the BLM has installed an outhouse, so it is hardly surprising to see so much graffiti. 

a d stretched version which really brings out the reds.

The next panel we came to was a Barrier Style pictograph.  The figures with their big eyes, and head dresses and big blocky bodies are favorites of mine.

I included a couple different d stretch versions of this one, as they show different details.

Flying figures?  Birds?

The petroglyphs are Fremont style with many more modern initials.  When I first looked at the panel I did not notice that it was inscribed over the top of older pictographs.  D stretch made the pictographs much easier to see.

This was a favorite, and up so high, I only looked at it from below.  Bob scrambled up to take some photos.