Swasey Cabin
The drive out to Swasey cabin was a cakewalk after driving out to Dutchman’s arch. This is a cabin built by the Swasey brothers. They’re an important part of the folklore here and are responsible for naming several of the landmarks in the area.
The very appropriately named “Broken Cross Pinnacle”
Head of Sinbad Pictographs
This road is accessed from Dutchman’s Arch Road. It’s also very sandy. I was very glad I had 4WD for this one. The guide said it “may” be eroded requiring careful tire placement. Yeah, I thought that was a misrepresentation. I would describe it as sandy, and no wider than an ATV track. Were I to go back, I would do it on a 4-wheeler. I thought I was going to be stuck more than once! Once you get there, these pictographs are quite nice. My favorite part? There’s no graffiti. That’s right, no one had the arrogance to write their name, through, on, or near these figures. Thank goodness!
Sometimes I really wonder what they were thinking. These have a definite other-worldly feel to them.
Dutchman’s Arch
Reaching the road for Dutchman’s Arch was interesting. First, I knew from reading the driving directions that there was no description of how to get to the beginning of said road. So I read a few other drives that say at a certain point, “if you want to drive to Dutchman’s Arch, here is the turnoff for it”. Then I consulted my maps for a good long while and came up with this. Drive south on Heart of Sinbad Road 4 miles, then turn right on Swasey Cabin Road and drive 4.5 miles, etc… What I didn’t know was that they actually had some signs marking the road. When I got to the last turn, it said to turn West towards the low sandstone bluff. Well, I couldn’t see a sandstone bluff in the direction that I thought was West. The other direction I could see one, though, so I headed for it. Turns out I’d just gotten a little disoriented, but heading towards that bluff was the right way after all. And…duh…I could have consulted my GPS! I will warn you that the road gets sandy in parts, so only drive this road if you have a 4WD high clearance vehicle. We were rewarded by seeing this:
Just beautiful! 
Spring Green Baby Socks
Pattern: “Litttle 16″ Newborn Socks by Stitch-n-Snitch
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare (more of my 4th grader-dyed yarn)
Needles: Size 1
I love how the yarn gets all stripey on the foot of the sock!
Black Dragon Canyon Pictographs
The road to Black Dragon is a dirt road off the shoulder of westbound I-70 near mile marker 147. We almost missed it because we were headed east and had to get off and turn around to get to it. Of course, since it was East of where we were anyway, we really didn’t have a choice. The view area along the way more than made up for our having to drive in circles.
This is Spotted Wolf Canyon and I-70 goes right through it.
Once we found our road and drove about 1-2 miles to the mouth of Black Dragon Canyon, we got out and hiked the rest of the way. It was only .2 miles to the pictographs. As we walked, we were beginning to think they were a lot further in than we thought. Then DD #1, an expert rock art spotter, saw them. She said, “I see a fence! And I can see the pictographs!” As for me, I could see the fence, but my eyes were not sharp enough to see any hint of pictures on the canyon walls. Thank goodness for little Miss Sharpeyes.
These pictographs are a little different than others I’ve seen. It is thought that this panel was intended to be some sort of calendar.
And just when you think you’re done looking at all these tally marks…look up.
And then go look at the canyon wall to the left of this one.
We would have missed these if DD#1 had not notice them.
I especially liked this one. It looks like a wolf howling at the moon.
Arrowhead Lace Scarf
Pattern: Arrowhead Lace Scarf by Stitch-n-Snitch (Hi Teri!)
Yarn: Louet Gems in Cardinal
Needles: Size 5
No modifications. This is a great way to learn how to “read” lace.
Moore Cutoff Road
Yeah, I’m back with another scenic drive in central Utah and more petroglpyphs! It’s a rather addictive hobby. This drive starts at I-70 and winds its way northwest to Utah Highway 10. The drive along I-70 to access this road was breathtaking, to say the least. I don’t how many of you know this, but this stretch of I-70 is considered the most sparse as far as services go. It’s also very beautiful and it’s a good 30-40 miles of no services and beautiful views until you reach Green River, Utah. There are a few view areas though. Here’s one of them.
While driving the Moore Cutoff Road, this is an example of the scenery.
Along the road, there’s a large boulder with some petroglyphs on it.
Here’s a closeup.
There’s also a panel of a snake that is ten feet long.
A couple of other images were there too.
See the image in the far right? I nicknamed him lollipop man.
And this could be a deer, were it not for the long tail.
Anybody have any ideas of what it might be?
Old Railroad Grade Road
I’ve been in Huntington, UT for the last 10 days with Blooshusband. While he’s been busy helping to supply a group of Scouts who were cutting tamarisk out of the San Rafael Swell area, I’ve been up to my own kind of trouble. As some of you may know, I enjoy looking at petroglyphs and pictographs and this particular area has a wealth of them. There is a wonderful booklet of scenic drives in the San Rafael Swell that has driving directions to many of these sites, plus some other very beautiful landmarks. In the last 10 days, the DD’s and I have managed to drive 8 of these scenic drives. Blooshusband now claims that I am more familiar with this area than he is!
The first of those drives was out to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, which I talked about in my last post. The next drive we took was Old Railroad Grade Road. It’s only 4 miles long, but if your looking for petroglyphs, it’s a very rewarding drive.
At our first stop, we saw the Silent Sentinel.
In ths picture, he looks really small, but he’s actually as tall as the DD’s!
We also saw this very elaborate panel of rock art there, too.
The next stop included the “Daisy Chain”.
And what looks like someone’s self-portrait with their name and birthdate.
Stop three is called “45 Degree Rock”
The last stop is called “Railroad Rock” and it features several historic inscriptions from 1881. These were all left by men who worked on this railroad grade which became an abandoned project.
Also a rare image of a duck.
And look! Someone must have known I was coming!
Edited to add link for tamarisk.
The Rock Walk at Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry
Today I took the two DD’s for a ride out to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. This national natural landmark, although VERY out of the way, is well worth the trip. It is known for having a very large deposit of fossilized dinosaur bones-more than 12,000 to be exact. Even more interesting is that most of them are allosaur bones, with smaller numbers of other dinosaurs. After visiting the visitor center, you can take a look inside of one of the buildings where they are excavating bones and then take any of three hikes. We took the Rock Walk. It’s about 1.3 miles long and took us about 1 1/2 hours. It’s a self-guided nature walk with 15 stops along the trail. Make sure you get a guide at the trailhead so that you can read about each area marked with a numbered post or you will miss out on a lot.
Here are some pictures we took on the trail.
Stop one: Fossilized partial rib of a sauropod, left in place.
Stop two: Was a place where we might see some lizards. We didn’t see any there, but saw about four along the rest of the trail. They have such great camouflage, that they are difficult to spot and even harder to photograph. See if you can spot these…
Stop three: A section corner marker placed by government surveyors. The trail guide mentioned that ancient Babylonians would inscribe curses on their boundary stones.
Glad there are no curses on this one!
Stop five: Desert varnish. Those dark rocks are not the true color of those rocks. This dark coating made it possible for ancient peoples living in the area like the Fremont to peck or scratch figures into the rock because the rock is much lighter under that varnish.
Stop ten: Bentonitic Clay , also called shrink-and-swell” clay or popcorn clay. The crystal structure of this clay allows it to swell when wet and shrink when dry, causing that really cool texture.
Stop thirteen: A boulder that was once part of a nearby cliff. Glad I wasn’t there when it came loose!
We also spotted a rabbit. I think it might have been a Desert Cottontail.
and some gorgeous cactus flowers.
Notice I skipped some stops because some of them weren’t very interesting or were inaccessable due to a reclamation project on part of the trail.
Edited to add the boulder picture. Not sure how I posted the same pic twice!
What’s Your 80’s Theme Song?
Your 80s Theme Song Is: |
 Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses |
Your 80s Theme Song Is: |
Rio by Duran Duran |
