Water is the Desert's Gem

On the rim, Horseshoe Canyon.  The Great Gallery is about 5 miles down the canyon

On an early October trip to southern Utah's San Rafael Desert, we began a ride  the Horseshoe Canyon Unit of Canyonlands.  Horseshoe Canyon (sometimes called Barrier Canyon) features the world famous Great Gallery, a panel of ancient native American petroglyphs. The trail into the canyon follows an old roadbed blasted out of the sandstone  in 1929  This time, we followed the road out of the canyon to the east, where it is mostly washed out, but enough of it remains for a horse or hiker to follow.

Faint trail crosses the arid landscape

After crossing Horseshoe Canyon, we rode 15 miles across old 2 tracks and trailless desert to reach what is known as the Spur.
From the air, the bends in the Green River create what looks like the rowels (points) of a spur.

One of the rowels of the Spur as seen from the Moab (east) side of the Green River

From the Moab side of the river (east), each rowel looks like a peninsula sticking out in a river bend. Last week, we were on the west side, up on one of those peninsulas.
As we neared southernmost rowel of the Spur, the horses were ready for a drink.

Light Green Tree Marks Water

The lighter green tree, a cottonwood, in the left middle of the photo shows us where to look, although Steve had already scouted out the waterholes on Google Earth.  We needed to be fairly certain water was out there before making the ride.

Desert Gem

Here's that tree, close up, where a pool of water awaited us.  Boss and Coco enjoyed a nice long drink.  Shortly after this photo was taken, Boss moved on into the pool, reaching belly deep in a few steps.  He intended to go swimming, but I was able to turn him around before he got carried away and soaked his saddle.

view of Green River from the Spur (west side of the river) 

We rode out onto one of the rowels of the Spur for a view of the river.  We dubbed the area Pothole Spur, because it was covered with potholes filled with water from a recent rain.

Boss looked at one of the potholes, then at me, as if to say, "How the heck do you expect me to go swimming in this?"

Some of the potholes were more sizeable, but not deep enough for Boss to get his belly wet.

Some areas have good grass.  No cows graze on the Spur, and even the burros don't venture out there very often, possibly because the water holes are so scarce.
We did see quite a few jackrabbits, and as we explored a small canyon, we surprised a large owl, probably a Great Horned Owl, which are said to be fairly common in the Canyonlands.  The land between Horseshoe Canyon and the Green River, known as The Spur, encompasses well over 50 square miles.  All of it is nearly untouched, lonely and wild.

Southern Utah Tour: Horseshoe Canyon

The first week of October, our son joined us in a tour of ancient Native American ruins in southern Utah.

Hiking in Horseshoe Canyon

Horseshoe Canyon was our first stop. This is a part of Canyonlands National Park that most visitors to Canyonlands do not see, because it's on the other side of the Green River, separated from the main section by about 50 air miles, and 4 hours of driving time. We've been there on horseback, but the leisurely pace of hiking allowed for a closer look at the canyon art.

petroglyph panel-

mountain sheep or deer

snake petroglyph

We had not noticed the above petroglyphs before. Petroglyphs are pecked into the rock, while pictographs are painted on.

Pictograph panel

How did they get up there?!

The hike to The Great Gallery is about 6.5 miles round trip.

Great Gallery

Archeologists are unsure of the exact age of the rock art, known as Barrier Style, which is found in this canyon.  Some say the art could be 6000 to 8000 years old, based on artifacts found in the area that can be more easily carbon dated than the pictographs.

Binoculars provided by Park Service at site

The binoculars are antique, but are still effective

Holy Ghost figures in the Great Gallery

The canyon has a certain haunting beauty, and perhaps the Ancient Ones recognized this as well.

Horseshoe Canyon

A trip to the canyon country on the West side of the Green River is not complete without a ride into the Horseshoe Canyon Unit of Canyonlands National Park.  Above, Steve and Boss pause at an overlook into the canyon. 

The trail was originally built in 1929 by local cowboys with sticks of  dynamite and a paycheck from Phillips Petroleum.  The oil company wanted the "road" so they could bring in supplies to drill a well on the other side of the canyon.  The well was a dry hole, but the "road", or what's left of it, remains.  You can see Steve leading Boss down a steep stretch of sandstone in the middle of the above photo. 

In 2 places, we found dinosaur tracks that had been helpfully marked by the rangers with rock circles.  There are 3 toes, but the third is below the 2 deep ones, and not weathered out enough to be visible in a photo.

Once in the canyon, we follow the sandy stream bed, surrounded by Navajo sandstone cliffs (mid-Jurassic, 150 to 200 million years old, according to the Canyonlands National Park website.)

We are a little late for the autumn colors, but some cottonwood trees are still wearing gold leaves.  

Tourists go to the canyon to see the Great Gallery, known for its Barrier style rock art (named after Barrier Creek, which is represented this time of year by a few pools in Horseshoe Canyon).  Native Americans lived and created their art masterpieces here about 3000 years ago.   The Great Gallery figures loom above the canyon floor.  Some of the human figures are larger than life.  
This panel is the best known, but many other pictographs can be found in the canyon:

 

 

  The above figure looks a bit like a martian to me.

Humans have a need to put their mark everywhere, even where it may not belong.  One of the names above is Joe Biddlecome, dated 1911.  Joe was one of the first ranchers in the area.  Probably he had no clue that he was scratching over irreplaceable 3000 year old art.  

The majesty of steep canyon walls surround us.   Do you see any familiar feature in this rock tower?
The topmost portion reminds me of a cat's head, complete with mouth, nose and ears.  Steve thinks it's a desert turtle, long neck extended as it surveys the scenery.  What do you think?
Next time, I'll show you a few live critters we saw along the way.

Spring Loop

The sun's early rays bathed the desert and distant mountains in golden light.
Steve loves trying out new routes, so the day's plan was for a loop ride starting from the Brush Corral trailhead.  Brush corrals are numerous in the area.  Cowboys of old piled up dead juniper tree trunks and branches in a circular fashion to create a corral for collecting cattle.  The trailhead I refer to is near the Hans Flat Ranger station, with a relatively new brush corral (maybe only 50-75 years old) at the end of an infrequently used two-track.

From there, we rode across the desert to the vicinity of Cowboy Cave, into the Spur Fork of Horseshoe Canyon to the Blue-eyed Princess, and back through Lower Pasture and Matt Warner's outlaw camp , down into Horseshoe Canyon and out again to the trailhead.  Other than an unexpected fence that forced us to take a 2 mile detour, it all went pretty well. 

Here's one of the "gnarly parts" I didn't take a picture of on our last trip to the Princess.  That time, we followed another rider straight up the steep shaley slope, probably not the wisest move.  This trip, we traversed to the top.  Much safer and easier.

This pool in a sandstone cut provided a nice drink for the horses.  You may notice my new stylin' headgear.  I finally figured out a way to wear a helmet and not get sunburned.  Save brain and skin, that's my new motto.

Case caddis fly larva roamed the bottom of the pool.  In a month or so, tadpoles will swim here, too.  This indicates moisture, if not actual surface water, is present year round. 

The Princess panel was still impressive, and easy to find now that we knew where to look.

Some people call this the Blue-eyed Jesus and describe a beard.  I do see a dark line down the figure's chest.  Maybe it was once part of a beard.  What do you think?  Is it a he or a she, god-like or royal?
On the return part of the loop, we explored a few springs that are unnamed on the topo maps. 

This small pool is below Matt Warner's outlaw camp, which I posted about here. 

We climbed to the spring's source and found a much larger pool.  We hereby dub it Blue Spring, because of the bluish tint of the sandstone surrounding it. 

A little further along, we came to this small stream, where Daisy played on an earlier ride.  (We left her at the trailer this time, because the day was warm and it was a long way between waterholes.)  We climbed into the box canyon to find where the water seeps from the contact zone between porous Navajo sandstone above and impervious Kayenta sandstone below. 

The pool formed here is a generous one for desert country.  Since the spring is unnamed, our faithful lab, lover of water everywhere, gets the honor.  We call it Ms. Daisy Spring. 

As we rode away from the spring, this little bull rose from his resting place under a pinyon and stared at us.  He didn't seem inclined to leave, so we gave him a wide berth.
Besides a few errant cattle that aren't supposed to be in this canyon, we also saw a small herd of donkeys, a coyote, a squirrel-like critter, rabbits, and a few early insects.  Only an occasional flower bloomed, but it's early yet.  The leaves are just coming out on bushes and trees.
We dragged into camp about 5 PM, having completed 26 difficult canyon country miles and 2500 feet of altitude gain and loss.  Both humans and horses had earned their supper, don't you think?

Back in Time

The morning after our outlaw ride, we travel back in time, down Horseshoe Canyon, through which Barrier Creek flows.  The 3000 year old pictographs found in the canyon represent a unique style.  Archeologists called this Barrier style because of the expansive panels of rock art found along this creek.  

Here's a view looking into the canyon from a Phillips Petroleum Company road built in the 1920's.  The "road" on the east side of the canyon is washed out in places and is now only passable on foot or horseback.

Golden cottonwood leaves are in their glory.   

Imagine living in this canyon in 1000 B.C. . There is year round supply of water in the canyon, even today.  Hunting must have been good around these clear pools.  The women and children would have harvested Indian rice grass seeds, sunflower seeds, and berries. 

This panel of rock art is known as The Great Gallery.  Some of the figures appear to be battling each other, so perhaps the era was not entirely peaceful. 

The above photo provides size perspective.

Did these ancient people celebrate Halloween?  I see at least one spooky figure. 

Here's another panel of pictographs.  No doubt a careful observer would find much more rock art in this canyon.

Who are these desperadoes?  They appear to be on the run.  (Actually, Mischief got bored with photography and wandered off toward the water hole.  I had to go fetch him.)