Horseshoe Canyon Pictographs
Horseshoe Canyon contains some of the most significant rock art in North America. The Great Gallery, the best known panel in Horseshoe Canyon, includes well-preserved, life-sized figures with intricate designs. Other impressive sights include spring wildflowers, sheer sandstone walls and mature cottonwood groves along the intermittent stream in the canyon bottom. Horseshoe Canyon was added to Canyonlands in 1971. There are four panels: the High Gallery, the Horseshoe Gallery, the Alcove Gallery, and the Great Gallery.
Human presence in Horseshoe Canyon has been dated as far back as 7000-9000 B.C., when Paleo-Indians hunted large mammals such as mastodons and mammoths across the southwest. Later inhabitants included the Desert Archaic culture, the Fremont culture, and Ancestral Puebloans. Occupation by the Fremont and Ancestral Puebloans was relatively brief; it is believed that the canyon was abandoned by Native American peoples by 1300 A.D.
The Great Gallery is one of the largest and best preserved collections of Barrier Canyon Style rock art in the United States. The gallery was a product of the Desert Archaic culture, a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers predating the Fremont and Ancestral Puebloans. The panel itself measures about 200 feet (61 m) long and 15 feet (4.6 m) high. The panel contains about 20 life-sized anthropomorphic images, the largest of which measures over 7 feet (2.1 m) tall. The Holy Ghost panel of the Great Gallery has been dated to between 400 A.D. and 1100 A.D. by dating two rockfall events of which one exposed the rock face the panel was made and the second damaging part of the panel.
Most of my comments come from http://utahoutdoorfun.com/horseshoe-canyon-utahs-most-famous-art-gallery/ (credit where credit is due).
There area four panels: High Gallery, Horseshoe, Alcove, and Great Gallery. The Alcove panels are low to the ground and badly deteriorated, so I will not show them here.
Human presence in Horseshoe Canyon has been dated as far back as 7000-9000 B.C., when Paleo-Indians hunted large mammals such as mastodons and mammoths across the southwest. Later inhabitants included the Desert Archaic culture, the Fremont culture, and Ancestral Puebloans. Occupation by the Fremont and Ancestral Puebloans was relatively brief; it is believed that the canyon was abandoned by Native American peoples by 1300 A.D.
The Great Gallery is one of the largest and best preserved collections of Barrier Canyon Style rock art in the United States. The gallery was a product of the Desert Archaic culture, a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers predating the Fremont and Ancestral Puebloans. The panel itself measures about 200 feet (61 m) long and 15 feet (4.6 m) high. The panel contains about 20 life-sized anthropomorphic images, the largest of which measures over 7 feet (2.1 m) tall. The Holy Ghost panel of the Great Gallery has been dated to between 400 A.D. and 1100 A.D. by dating two rockfall events of which one exposed the rock face the panel was made and the second damaging part of the panel.
Most of my comments come from http://utahoutdoorfun.com/horseshoe-canyon-utahs-most-famous-art-gallery/ (credit where credit is due).
There area four panels: High Gallery, Horseshoe, Alcove, and Great Gallery. The Alcove panels are low to the ground and badly deteriorated, so I will not show them here.
I made a mess out of getting to the trailhead, so I suggest you enter it in your maps app on your phone early since there is no cell service in the area and there are no markers on the dirt road getting to it (there are various intersections that don't tell where they go)
The High Gallery ...........
From http://utahoutdoorfun.com/horseshoe-canyon-utahs-most-famous-art-gallery/ :
"Once you reach the bottom of the Horseshoe canyon follow the trail for about another 1/3 of a mile and on the east side (i.e., go LEFT of the wash) of the Canyon you’ll find the High Gallery. It is easy to miss as the trail leads you on the opposite side of the wash. It’s called the High Gallery because it is much higher on the canyon wall than the other panels.
The panel is made using an iron oxide type paint and includes figures of what seem to be people, animals and even a rain cloud. Part of the fun of looking at the panels is trying to interpret what these ancient people were trying to convey with these elaborate drawings. It is recommended you bring binoculars with you on the hike so you can get a closer look at these drawings."
"Once you reach the bottom of the Horseshoe canyon follow the trail for about another 1/3 of a mile and on the east side (i.e., go LEFT of the wash) of the Canyon you’ll find the High Gallery. It is easy to miss as the trail leads you on the opposite side of the wash. It’s called the High Gallery because it is much higher on the canyon wall than the other panels.
The panel is made using an iron oxide type paint and includes figures of what seem to be people, animals and even a rain cloud. Part of the fun of looking at the panels is trying to interpret what these ancient people were trying to convey with these elaborate drawings. It is recommended you bring binoculars with you on the hike so you can get a closer look at these drawings."
The panel is pretty high and in order to get pictures in focus I had to use a tripod. Many distinct images below:
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Look at the flying man to the left and then to the intestine guy at the bottom. There is another intestine man in another panel in Utah that is more detailed, but this one is pretty good. Also, the guy to the right is holding something. |
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The most commented about image for this panel is the cloud sending rain below. Also, another guy holding a serpent ? |
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This is closeup between the clouds and the intestine guy. Most of these human/shaman images are holding stuff.
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The Horseshoe Gallery ...........
From http://utahoutdoorfun.com/horseshoe-canyon-utahs-most-famous-art-gallery/: The second panel in the gallery is called the Horseshoe panel. This is on the the west wall of the canyon and is hard to miss. It is a very diverse panel with all types of figures and symbols. Spend some time here examining the rock as you will find figures that you didn’t notice at first or second glance. It is thought that these figures were made by the Fremont or ancestral puebloan people who inhabited the canyon around 1,500 years ago. On sunny days this panel catches a lot of sun, so bring some sun glasses with you so you can admire the panel without the sunlight bouncing off the rock and irritating your eyes.
First, an image of the whole panel and then I will closeup on parts of the panel.
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You can see the strokes in so much details, This panel has no deterioration at all, besides the colors. |
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This looks like a fun panel to me. |
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And some animals; to the left I assume that is a mountain lion and to the right a deer. |
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The Great Gallery ...........
From http://utahoutdoorfun.com/horseshoe-canyon-utahs-most-famous-art-gallery/: About 1 mile from the Alcove Gallery you’ll arrive at the grand daddy of them all, the Great Gallery. It is the oldest and most elaborate of all the rock art panels in the canyon. Many of the figures are 5-6 feet tall and sport color and intricate patterns when compared to the other panels. Pay attention to the designs within the figures and you will find smaller images of people, animals and other patterns inside them.
There are benches under the trees just in front of the panel along with some old ammo cans the National Park Service has generously stocked with information about the panel. As you relax and maybe eat your lunch you’ll likely notice the unique acoustics of this panel. We were lucky enough to be in the canyon while there was still a little bit of water running in the wash. While we saw the water behind us, it sounded as if it was flowing right out of the panel. A ranger told us they thought that this unique feature may have been used as part of a ceremony where people hidden behind a group could speak and it would sound as if the figures were talking.
While many of the figures are dark and colored and easy to see, if you walk to the left past the obvious figures you will find additional petroglyphs and pictographs. These pictographs are very faded in comparison to the others at the Great Gallery, but every bit as interesting. You will also find some petroglyphs of what appear to be sheep carved into the rock. The pictographs and petroglyphs at the Great Gallery are thought to be about 3,500 years old, much older than the other 3 panels. Archaeologists believe that these drawings were made by archaic people while the other 3 panels were likely made by the Fremont or Ancestral Pueblo.
Here is a great article
There are benches under the trees just in front of the panel along with some old ammo cans the National Park Service has generously stocked with information about the panel. As you relax and maybe eat your lunch you’ll likely notice the unique acoustics of this panel. We were lucky enough to be in the canyon while there was still a little bit of water running in the wash. While we saw the water behind us, it sounded as if it was flowing right out of the panel. A ranger told us they thought that this unique feature may have been used as part of a ceremony where people hidden behind a group could speak and it would sound as if the figures were talking.
While many of the figures are dark and colored and easy to see, if you walk to the left past the obvious figures you will find additional petroglyphs and pictographs. These pictographs are very faded in comparison to the others at the Great Gallery, but every bit as interesting. You will also find some petroglyphs of what appear to be sheep carved into the rock. The pictographs and petroglyphs at the Great Gallery are thought to be about 3,500 years old, much older than the other 3 panels. Archaeologists believe that these drawings were made by archaic people while the other 3 panels were likely made by the Fremont or Ancestral Pueblo.
Here is a great article
Let's take a look at the complete site:
Ok, I am going to editorialize my images here since I consider this a sacred site and I want to match the mood with saw I believe, so the new few images will have heady moody effects, ok ?
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These ghosts mesmerize me, and there are so many of them. |
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There is so much going on here. See the deer circle under those two ghosts in the zoomed image. (more on the rest of the larger frame). |
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To the left, two men are using maybe a weapon in a dance ? Then to the top left there is a ghost ghost; the body is only seen with vertical lines, To the bottom right, a man I want to say playing the flute (I hoped), probably just another weapon. |
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There so much detail if you zoom; you can see like serpents inside a ghost image, what looks like a ring of layers on the ghost in the middle. |
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A look at many of the ghosts and what I find incredible, the different designs and details. One of the ghosts to the right you can still see the color green in the pictograph.
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Looks like a very light color was used for the ghost on the upper left corner and it faded completely. The third ghost from the right looks like is carrying something. On the right image, that ghost was given eyes. |
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Animals inside the ghost !!!!!!! |
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So much detail here, the image below to the left is the ghost with green colors.
And this ghost below has the more details, with ghost inside of it, the head is not part of the body but connected, and it has eyes.
Zoom out !!!!
