Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

From Moab, its about an hour on pavement, then 20-30 minutes of 4WD track to a point where vehicle access ends and hiking has to begin. After that --if you know the route or have good directions-- a couple of hours of hiking.

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Archaeologists call places like these 'communication sites.' Beyond that, there are as many interpretations as there are people who take the time to look. One of the hallmarks of this particular 'style' (and there are many other rock art 'styles' --both in this area, and elsewhere in the world-- so what one would say about this style would not necessarily apply to other styles) is a high degree of forethought and detail. I'd refine that slightly by saying this style displays a 'compulsive attention to detail.' In psych-talk, that would make what's portrayed 'ritualistic,' and consequently religious to one degree or another. Overall, I'd say that these had been made to be 'understood' --by members of a particular time and place and culture-- more than they were meant to be read (as one might read either a story or a shopping list), or looked upon as objects to be appreciated simply as 'pictures.' Taken to a logical extreme, they're not at all unlike how and why some people photograph today.

As I said, there are as many interpretations as there are....

MHolland Loc: Kansas City

I love how you say these are not meant to be pretty. Ha. You must be jaded having spent so much time in the area. To me, they are absolutely beautiful. In my area of the world I live under a perpetual green canopy half the year, with drab grays the rest. So used to it I take it for granted. As always you take some mighty fine pictures. I wonder what people will think of our modern-day graffiti a thousand years from now.

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Everybody lives somewhere, or they don't live at all. A quick snap of granny, a painting deemed 'great art' and hanging in the Louvre, or a gangsta tag on the underside of a bridge; people have a weird desire to say what they want to say. 'Pretty' comes and goes; its the fashion of things.

Chief Rob

I appreciate the scale in photo #2. Your shots are always interesting, well composed and sensitive to Mother Nature. Thank you for todays photos, those in the past and the anticipation of future shots. Chief Rob.

MHolland Loc: Kansas City

Hereford Loc: Palm Coast, FL

All really nice. You really live among some gorgeous scenic beauty. You exploit it so effectively.

Susan yamakawa

All are great ❣️👍🤗🤗

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good series, Jim.

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Thanks, Hereford. Even if I'm not always quite certain who's the exploiter and who's the exploitee.

Robert Burchfield

Awesome/// and thanks
ROB BURCHFIELD - Houston,Texas

tcthome Loc: NJ

You are great Tour Guide. Nice photos as usual.

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

Facinating pictures. Any idea what the culture was that produced them or how old they are. Looks like someone riding a horse (or some other critter) in #2. If that's a horse, it would make them fairly recent. Only guessing, but they look older than that.

Ourspolair

Beautiful series. Excellent technique and presentation, accompanied with an interesting narration. Stay well and keep on sharing, please. With all of the travel restrictions these days, I don't know when I might be able to get to see your area any time soon, but it's on the bucket list.

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Though no one knows what they called themselves, the painted figures shown here are attributed to what we've come to call 'the Barrier Canyon Culture.' Dating is as difficult --and prone to error-- as it is contentious, what with a host of factors that can affect/skew the determination of hard dates --which have in fact been obtained-- one way or another (more ancient/more recent) via the direct dating of whatever organic material (if any) that was used as a binder for the inorganic (hematite, azurite, etc) pigments -vs- dates that have been obtained associatively, by dating either organic or inorganic artifacts if any are found/knowledgeably assessed/tested in situ/at a site. The 'best' dates that I know of indicate that panels/images/figures that exhibit the same stylistic/thematic characteristics as shown in some of these pictures could range from 3000 bc through 50 ad. Others make their various claims that figures like these could be as old as 6000 bc, or as recent as 1500 ad, but some of those others tend to be overly speculative, and others have been shown to do flawed science. Suffice it to say that figures/panels like these date back to the (Middle and Late) Archaic Period --on the upper Colorado Plateau, specifically--, a period of time before the introduction of the bow and arrow, agriculture, pottery, or even constructed dwellings, and long before the horse was introduced in this area in the early 1600's.

What you're seeing as a horse is not a horse; its a natural staining --or higher concentration of iron-- in the particular strata of the (Navajo sandstone) geology of the rock shelter face.