July 24: Return to Kane Creek Canyon

July 24th is “Pioneer Day” in Utah, celebrating the Mormon settlement under Brigham Young in the 1840s.  It is sort of a western version of Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts (not the NFL Patriots).  The Library was closed; so we used the local McDonald’s to continue transferring photos to my MacBook and figuring out how to blog.

By the way, only government agencies in Moab were closed.  This is a rather “un-Mormonesque” town.  I think it has the only KOA in America, let alone Utah, that prints its welcome literature and instructions in three languages.

We did not McCompute the entire day, however.  For fun, we revisited the “Owl Petroglyph” site in Kane Creek Canyon.

We have discovered that we often need to revisit sites.  The first visit is sometimes too technical to appreciate the setting and inspiration of an awesome rock art display.

This time, however, we had a practical reason.  On our first visit, we spotted the location of the petroglyph, but could not locate a way to climb the slope to get close.

Kane Creek Canyon is a fairly deep and the road through it is strictly a dirt track that winds up and down.

   Later on, we found time to travel deeper into the canyon, as I practiced using the Jeep over rough terrain.

We hiked a half-mile up the road from a parking pull off and located the Owl.

  It is to the left of the semi-circular depression at the top of the “amphitheater.”  As is often the case, once we decided to climb, a way opened up.

 

As is usually the case, we were the only ones on the trail.  But a little boy on the Kane Creek road called out to us.  He was easy to hear; proving that the site, like others, had great acoustics, should it have been used that way.  (Why put sophisticated panels way up on a bluff where even ancients would have been unlikely to see them when walking down the canyon to the Colorado river; or walking up the canyon, for that matter.)

That’s Janet looking at the Owl.

She is an amazing asset in helping me see what I would otherwise overlook as I concentrate on taking photos.

This is the “main” panel.

  But, as always, where there is one petroglyph, there are dozens more.  Panels run to the left and the right and even on nearby boulders.  But of the process of discovery is searching the entire area for additional evidence of human creative endeavor and trying to figure out how the various panels and sites may be connected.

The owl is itself an unusual subject.

  It is probably not associated with wisdom but rather with predatory, vicious behavior.  Beware.  Notice the careful pecking of the head

 and the feet.

 Why?  Who would have admired it?

The large, square anthropomorph

 next to it (is it a Mormon?) is surrounded by cute little birds and Mountain Sheep.

 Is he in ca-hoots with the owl?

Further to the left, on the talus slope, is a related boulder with a variety of Mountain Sheep.  We happen to like this one.

We spent four and a half hours up there.  It was hot.