Longest Art Gallery in the World.
On our way north we stopped in
Wellington, Utah at the Motel 9 RV Park. Wellington is a super friendly
tiny town at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. The drive up 9 Mile
Canyon reveals the longest art gallery in the world. Apparently 9 Mile Canyon has the highest concentration of rock art in one area in the entire known world. The route starts
on Soldier Canyon Road right in Wellington. Soldier Canyon soon turns
into Nine Mile Canyon Road. The drive is about 48 miles one way and
there is more rock art the farther you get into the canyon. We went the
whole way and the pictures below are a representation of what we
observed. One panel called the Hunter Panel is thought to be the best
petroglyph in the state of Utah. Of course that panel is located at the
48 mile mark!
Entering the canyon.
We had a reference that told us where to look, and we just looked at the canyon walls and stopped when we saw some rock art or when the reference told us something was there.
Gari stands on the path leading to the first rock art site.
Sometimes we had to climb up a little bit to see the art close up.
Often the rock art was chiseled into the black "desert varnish" on the rocks. Desert varnish is a blackish manganese-iron deposit that gradually forms on exposed sandstone cliff faces owing to the action of rainfall and bacteria. The dot art below we called tablets.
Petroglyphs chiseled into the desert varnish. I see a hunter, a buffalo, a sheep, and perhaps a coyote among other shapes.
Lots of goats/sheep... surefootedness and seeking new heights.
A big snake.... rebirth, resurrection, initiation, and wisdom.
This panel has a tree and a man with fingers.
Petroglyphs chiseled directly into the sandstone.
Close up of the tree and fingered man.
Obviously a Buffalo. The circles at the hooves are identified as the Ute Peoples.
Lots going on in this panel even some graffiti left by the village idiot no doubt.
Pictographs in Rasmussen's Cave. A pictograph is a painting on stone, using natural pigments. Pictographs are typically found only in caves or other areas where they can be protected from the elements of sunshine, wind-blown sand and precipitation.
Horse pictograph found by Gari of course.
Sheep and snake pictographs.
A hunter and a sheep chiseled into the rock.
Steve in perplexed by this abstract petroglyph.
Moon, Buffalo, snake and sheep?
An Elk among abstraction...
More fascinating abstraction...
Pepe deep in the canyon.
Soldier Creek that carved 9 Mile Canyon. Those are huge rocks below!
A snake next to a tablet carved into the rock.
The Ghost Town of Harper. it was a stagecoach stop for many years in the 1800's, below is the stagecoach office.
Below is all that is left of the two barns that housed the stagecoach teams.
A rider on horseback being led along by a man with fingers and hair..
A busy panel with some headresses.
Gari down below.
Elk antlers with great detail.
Another hunter... with buffalo and sheep.
Graffiti from 1912.
A Buffalo with hand perspective.
Sheep with perspective as well.
A Shaman?
Shaman with dog?
Horse rider with reins, power and freedom. A ladder above. transition...
Gari exploring Rasmussen's Cave.
Damage to the best pictograph, of an Elk, in Rasmussen's Cave. Why would the owner do that?!
Shaman panel.
Pictograph of a Shaman?
Snake like pictograph.
Rock art!
Pictographs where the pigment ran.
Spooky man with fingers.
Man tree?
Finally the best petroglyph panel in Utah. A mosaic of the Hunter Panel. We see a big stud hunter and three smaller hunters with bows.
Steve wants to be a hunter too.
The way back to Wellington, Utah.
