Petroglyphs

Campsite 1, March 12 - We pulled into camp east of a large sandstone fin. A fin sticks up out of the ground just like a fish’s fin, but rather than tiny bones, a rock fin is a thin layer of rock that protrudes straight up hundreds of feet up from the ground.

The fin near our campsite

Fins in Arches National Park

We had camped here before and wanted to explore the area further. After setting up camp, the next order of business was finding the petroglyphs.  When we were here before, we had seen a sign saying they were in the area, but we couldn’t find anything resembling petroglyphs within sight of the sign. After looking around through the boulders we finally gave up and decided to look for other interesting things.

The fin, near our camp, was massive. The area on the west side of the fin was slick rock. Slick rock is weathered sandstone that is generally in rolling sheets. Its not really slick: it’s just not jagged. Also, it’s good to have rock to walk on as you won’t damage plants or the cryptobiotic soil that is everywhere here in the desert.

Slick Rock near the Petroglyphs

Along the west side of the fin, we found another sign.  This one warned that defacing the petroglyphs was punishable with a $250,000 fine or up to 5 years in prison. Here the rock drawings were obvious. They were of people on horseback, bison, and mountain goats or big horn sheep.

And of course, “John Smith” had to leave his mark too. As we walked along the wall admiring the older drawings and wondering what exactly John Smith had in mind, I wondered if the native Americans, that had carved the original drawings, were also told not to put graffiti on the rocks.

John Smith’s and goat-porn graffiti

The view looking west was across a seasonal stream to the side of another fin. A mountain bike path ran through the valley.  It was pretty and a fun place to explore.

As we headed back to camp, we passed by the sign we had seen on our original stay in the area. From a distance, and with the rock slightly damp, we could see the faint outline of the rock drawings we had missed before.

Damaged petroglyphs near camp

On closer examination we began to realize that the drawing’s proximity to the camp meant that many people came by these drawings and most of those people probably touched them.  Oils from people hands deteriorates the surface making these drawings all but disappear while those farther from camp were much better preserved.

What remained of the drawings were dimples in the shape of the drawn item. While the surface outline of the drawing was completely missing. Below is a side view of the rock shown above.

Dimpled remains of the damaged petroglyphs

Below is a comparison of the front view of the damaged petroglyphs and a side view. Compare the two photos noticing the crack that I used for reference. Then look for the dimples in relationship to the reference crack. You may need to look at the larger photo to see the dimples.

On our first visit to this site, the weather was dry and we looked for the drawings from only a few feet away. On our second visit we initially explored the area again under similar conditions. It was only from a distance and while the rock was damp that we could see the drawings.

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