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Vernal, Utah Rock Art Sites

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The Uinta Basin, bordered on the north by the Uinta mountains and on the west by the Wasatch mountains, attracts visitors from all over the country. It’s home to King’s Peak, the tallest mountain in Utah, standing at 13,528 feet. Creeks that flow south out of the Uinta mountains all eventually flow into the Green River. In its upper stretches, the Green River boasts blue ribbon trout fishing. Lower down, through the Gates of Lodore and Desolation canyons, the river houses spectacular white water and relics of human history spanning 2,000 years. In Vernal Utah, the largest community in the Uinta Basin, the relics of ancient peoples and pioneers can be found under nearly every cliff face and next to the clear flowing springs.

Where does one begin if they want to take in all these sights? From the town of Vernal you’re within 30 minutes of any number of petroglyphs and pictograph sites that are easily accessible. A quick note on the difference; a petroglyph is carved into the rock, while a pictograph is painted on. (Petroglyphs are ‘pecked’ and pictographs are ‘pictures’ is a handy way to remember). I suggest starting with McConkie Ranch. Head up Dry Fork north of Vernal. It’s an easy 20 minute drive on paved roads. McConkie ranch provides easy access to a number of large panels of Fremont petroglyphs. They are free to view, though donations are welcome. An easy uphill hike takes you within touching distance of the petroglyphs (but don’t touch!). It’s a one mile round trip hike to view all of them, and is an ideal trail for families with young children.

The Fremont people – named after the Fremont River – were nomadic peoples that lived in the area some 2,000 to 700 years ago. They are classified as archaic peoples and were gone before Europeans ever stepped foot on American soil. For this reason, we don’t know what they called themselves. The petroglyphs at McConkie ranch are emblematic of the Fremont style. Trapezoidal figures, with broad shoulders and narrow hips are adorned with headdresses and necklaces, standing in a line with many other figures done in a similar style.

The Fremont roamed around large swaths of present-day Utah leaving numerous petroglyph panels. Another can’t miss spot is Cub Creek north of Jensen, Utah. Again, the petroglyphs here boast trapezoidal figures in decorative garb. There are also pictures of bighorn sheep, lizards, and cryptic symbology whose meaning is anyone’s guess. In fact, no one knows why the Fremont left petroglyphs. They could have been done for religious purposes, or as a message board for other peoples, or even as an attempt to woo a lover.

Another great rock art site accessible by car is McKee Springs located on the Island Park road on the northern face of the iconic Split Mountain. Both Cub Creek and McKee springs are within Dinosaur National Monument, which takes its name from the impressive Dinosaur quarry located at the Jensen entrance to the monument. The monument itself is lousy with petroglyphs, pioneer relics, and fossils. If you find yourself in Vernal, it’s a must see, and has a little something for everyone; whether it be the anthropologist, the archaeologist, or the thrill seeker. Grab a map at the visitor center and take a step back in time for a day.

On our four- and five-day rafting trips through Dinosaur National Monument we encounter multiple rock art sites. Particularly along Colorado’s world-famous Yampa River. This stretch of river canyon was a perfect location for the native peoples to hunt, gather, farm and live a peaceful existence along the incredible canyon walls. A popular stop along this trip is Johnson Canyon where there are several well preserved pictographs tucked up underneath a ledge where they are well protected. Another perfect stop along the river is Jones Hole creek where a four-mile round trip hike leads you to the Deluge Shelter and a wall covered in petroglyphs and pictographs.

Whether you visit Dinosaurland by car or boat there are numerous areas where you will be able to view the beautiful scenery and wonderful rock art.

John Wesley Powell’s 150th Anniversary

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Explorer John Wesley Powell’s 150th Anniversary

When one thinks of Lake Powell, what images come to mind? Smooth sandstone in myriad shades of red and beige? Maybe a houseboat floating on still water, or a jet ski with a water skier in tow? But, do you realize what’s underneath all that water? Or, do you know who the lake was named for? The damn that formed Lake Powell was completed in 1963, and with that Glen Canyon began to recede beneath the mounting water of the Colorado river. However, almost a hundred years before that last bit of concrete was poured into the damn, John Wesley Powell floated through the now drowned canyon as part of a historical expedition.

In 1869 Powell set out from Green River Wyoming on what would be a 3 month journey through the canyons of Flaming Gorge, Lodore, Desolation, Cataract and of course the Grand Canyon. It was the first cartographic and geologic survey of these largely unexplored (to white settlers at least) areas of the desert Southwest. Powell’s party was ill-equipped for the water they encountered. They lost their first boat in Lodore canyon in a rapid that thereafter was named Disaster Falls. One of the party, Frank Goodman, left the expedition on July 6th. He eventually settled in Vernal, Utah, and their raised a family. Three more of Powell’s men left on August 30th, two days before the expedition’s end. Unfortunately these three were never heard from again. Of the ten men and four boats that began the journey, six men and three boats finished it.

Powell wasn’t just an intrepid explorer. He served in the Civil war, where he would eventually gain the rank of major and lose most of his right arm. He was also an accomplished geologist and a professor at Illinois Wesleyan University. On his expedition he was awestruck by the features he saw. How could a river cut straight through a mountain? he wondered. It went against everything we knew about geology at the time. But Powell’s interests weren’t purely geologic, but anthropologic as well. The evidence of the human history, the pottery shards, granaries, and habitations of the Native Americans did not escape his notice. So enamored was Powell by what he saw on that first expedition that in the winter of 1871 he retraced part of that expedition from Green River Wyoming to Kanab creek in the Grand Canyon. Powell saw in the rock the age of our world, how old it was, and how truly dynamic it was. He also saw, with a surprising amount of prescience for his time, that Westward expansion would be limited by access to water.

After his expeditions, Powell went on to educate the public about the things he had seen. In the time of Manifest Destiny, he had a surprising amount of prescience to see that Westward expansion would be limited by access to water. Unfortunately, his ideas and proposed policies on irrigation of the West were ignored due to corporate interests. Famously, Powell stated “you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply the land.” These words would become manifest forty years later during the Dust Bowl. He would also eventually go on to become the director of the Bureau of Ethnology, a position he held until his death in 1902.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Powell’s expedition. While Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon are now underwater, one can still experience many of the canyons of that 1869 expedition in the same way Powell did. Beginning on May 24th the John Wesley Powell River Festival will launch. Towns all along his route will be holding events and festivities to celebrate the man and the impact of his expedition.

Call us today 1-800-345-7238 for details about our 4 day Green River Gates of Lodore trip focused on celebrating the 150th anniversary of John Wesley Powell’s incredible journey along the course of the Green River and Colorado River.

Colorado’s Yampa River Archaeology

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Yampa River and its Archaeology: Atlantis of the Desert

Travel back 1400 years when taking a Yampa River raft trip and seeing its amazing archaeology. Imagine that you are walking up and down a river bed gathering food, storing it in a shady cave along with sacred necklaces made from feathers of birds collected thousands of miles from where you are now. You carefully place your fortune of corn, beans and collected berries in a rock box knowing that you will return to this place, turn the corn into flour and retrieve the necklace.

This is a real place, as are its people the Fremont culture.  It’s called Mantle cave and is located about a half mile from the banks of the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument. The cave is enormous, 25 yards deep and 300 yards long, shaded almost year-round making it the perfect place for food storage and escaping the weather extremes of Northwest Colorado’s summer heat, spring and fall’s cold. When archaeologist’s first excavated the cave, they found granaries (food storage boxes) full of corn, grinding stones, headdresses and necklaces made from bird feathers founds in South America, beaded shoes and much more.

Mantles Cave is a popular stop along the Yampa River, other stops will lead you to petroglyphs and pictographs, rock art left behind from the early cultures that inhabited the Yampa River Canyon. The Native American rock artwork is identified by it simple boxy shapes. Human figures drawn from tetrahedral bodies, swirls, etchings of big horns sheep, fishing nets, and many more representations of the prehistoric life in the canyon decorate the creamy sandstone walls, beautiful in its simplicity.

Though there is no certainty with the Fremont, theories exist regarding the artwork: that some works are more significant than others, that only elders were permitted to paint the canyon, the painting could have been some kind of ceremony asking for good fortune or advice from ancestors or gods. Or simply entertainment for children, though this last theory, seems unlikely.  The panels throughout the canyon appear to be aimed towards purposes.   Simple sketches of sheep and fish may indicate good food sources.  Another, more intricate panel, nicknamed the wedding panel, is six human height figures holding hands which could have been used for a bonding ceremony. Another, appears to be 20 warriors preparing for battle created from tiny dots, archaeologist believe this panel was likely made by elders asking for blessings or help from gods.

Whatever the Fremont tribe intended with the art work and the way they lived, the mystery is captivating and beautiful.  The tribe prospered in this seemingly harsh environment for almost 700 years and then suddenly gone. The remains of the desert Atlantis is worth seeing for yourself.

It’s natural to wonder what the drawings mean: Is the artwork religious, entertainment, markings to remember the way back? Why spend the time to create a paint that would last thousands of years? Why paint the figures they did?  The answer: no idea.

Suddenly, 700 years ago, all evidence of the Fremont culture disappears. Many things could have wiped out the community: flood, famine, drought, or competition from another tribe, all theories that circulate among archaeologists today.  However, the facts remain a mystery, as no currently living tribe claims the Fremont as their ancestors. Archaeologist’s infer certain things about the way their cultures lived based on the artifacts they left behind, that they were semi-nomadic farmers. Based on the presence of corn in the granaries, the tribe farmed and the tribe moved with the seasons, based on the spread of their artwork throughout the South West, and the feathers integrated into their clothing from South American birds.

The ability to visit these cultural sites along the Yampa River and Green River through Dinosaur National Monument is just one of the fabulous experiences you will have on a multi-day rafting trip when visiting this area of Utah and Colorado. These sites are very important and deserve the up most respect and protection. White water river rafting on the Yampa River may have been your initial reason for booking this adventure. When your trip ends the memories of the incredible archaeology, great times around the evenings campfire, the new friends you have made will forever be etched in your mind.

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