BEST GREEN INVESTMENTS 2011

Rock ramp made the impossible passable - - with care. Traveling underneath I-70 on our way to camp near the Head of Sinbad pictograph panel.

After we completed our hike to the Rochester Creek rock art panel, we drove the Moore Cutoff road to I-70. It had been a long day and we hoped to get as close as we could to the “Head of Sinbad” pictograph panels, where we wanted to camp for the night in the back of our pickup truck.

I had all kinds of maps and copies from various guide books, along with the pamphlet the folks at the Emery, Utah gas station had given me. Still I wanted to make sure we would head in the right direction so we wouldn’t waste valuable “road trip” find, by getting lost in the wide open desert country of the San Rafael Swell.

We took exit 131 off I-70. I had traveled the Temple Mt. road to Goblin Valley in the past, and this looked like the “shortest” way into Locomotive Point and the Head of Sinbad panels. The BLM map on the information board on the south side of I-70 cinched it. It clearly showed the turns I needed to make and the BLM road numbers I would take to get to our destination. It was getting late in the day so we headed down the dirt road, making a right at the proper place and then we came to the “culvert” passage that would take us back under I-70, heading north.

The dirt road was easy up to this point, but the “rock ramp” built up by off road enthusiasts to get through one of the two big culvert passages looked like it required due care and caution. Once under the interstate the sandy route to Locomotive Point was a pleasure to travel.

We visited the two panel areas. I am going to give them some names so I can refer to them more easily in this narrative. The Head of Sinbad panels face south and are little more than a mile north of I-70. In fact, now that I know where they are, I will be able to easily pick the area out, when driving I-70 between Green River, Utah and Fremont Junction.

The Head of Sinbad “west panel” was disappointing. The heads were missing for the entire row of pictographs. What I have read is that these 3,000 year old pictographs have not been vandalized, yet to me, it looked as though the missing upper portion of the pictographs - - didn’t look natural (if so, the heads should be laying on the ground, below where they fell - -they weren’t).

Next we drove over to the Head of Sinbad “West panel”. This was what we had come to see and it was impressive. There are two sets of figures on at the West panel and they are not far apart. Though the day was almost gone, we spent time staring up at these intriguing pictographs and taking photographs.

Next we drove west then north on a very sandy four wheel drive track until we found a side road leading up to a sandstone cliff sheltered camping spot, under a large pinon pine tree. Here we slept the night under a black desert sky filled with brilliant white stars. Wonderful!

Early the next morning, while my wife organized our traveling gear I clambered up the steep sides of the surrounding sandstone to get some “dawn” photos of the area we had camped. After leaving camp we opted to skip visiting the nearby arch and get back to the West panel of the pictographs, to have the area to ourselves and get some photos with the early morning light. This we did.

After retracing our route back to I-70 we headed east bound for the Black Dragon panel and for a hike up nearby Petroglyph Canyon.
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Road Trip - Utah April 17th - 24th, 2010: My wife and I headed for Southern Utah, just before midnight on Friday the 16th of April (after she got off work at her part time job). We drove straight through to Southern Utah, to take advantage of the good weather forecast early on in our trip. Storms were forecast for later in the trip and in fact we got a pretty good taste of same on Wednesday the 21st.

Here in outline form are the places we visited and hiked:

Saturday 4.17.2010
> Rochester Rock Art Panel near Emery, Utah
> The Moore cutoff road
> Sinbad’s head pictograph panel (we camped under a pinon pine near here)

Sunday 4.18.2010
> Black Dragon Canyon rock art panel (after first taking the wrong turn and doing some interesting four wheel drive travel way up the San Rafael River). Short hike.
> Pictograph Canyon pictographs. Short but interesting hike.
> Drive Hanksville, Torrey, Boulder, to Escalante (check into motel)

Monday 4.19.2010
> Drive out the Hole In The Rock Road. Visit Devil’s Garden and Metate Arch.
> Drive to Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch. Hike down to Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons. I hiked the loop up Peek-a-boo and down Spooky while my wife hiked with another lady hiker up Dry Fork and then down to the bottom of Spooky.

Tuesday 4.20.2010
> Hike Lower Calf Creek Falls (my third hike here and my wife’s second) and scramble up to two sets of pictograph panels.

Wednesday 4.21.2010
> Drive the Burr Trail road from Boulde

What is wrong with this picture....???
I'll never tell.... (well until someone guesses right!!!)

I threw out my back on Friday night...so I was out of it till today... Sorry I haven't been around


(someone elses' hands aided in the snapping of this photo for all photographers with OCD)
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Explore #205 at its peak ...(what a day I wasn't even around that much)
My #161st to make Expore

Thanks flickr buds...