Potash Road, Moab UT

Paul and Diane had told us about Potash Road, just a bit north of Moab and the Colorado River a left turn off of Highway 191. Potash Road follows along the Colorado River and offers some fine examples of Rock Art, or Petroglyphs so I thought I would share some of these with you. Please feel free to click on to any image to enlarge it to full size so you can see the petroglyphs better!

The road was well marked with plenty of room to pull over. At first Chuck and I saw only the rock art that was above our heads in this photograph.. 

within minutes, we realized that the art extended down about 25 yards or more along the wall. 

 The rock drawings show up much better when drawn on "varnished" areas of rock. 

Varnish is a natural stain caused from rain washing the rocks and thin layers of minerals washing down and building up a natural stain, or varnish.

Here it is easier to see the varnished and unvarnished part of the rock wall. Over the years, much of the rock has fallen away and taking many petroglyphs down with it.

Again, as a reminder, if you want to click on the photo, you can see it full size. Some of the art is so old and very faint.

I thought the long line of people joining hands was pretty cool. I have never seen one similar.

I really need to get a book on the meanings of petroglyphs! I find this so interesting!

 We just bought a wonderful book all about Rock Art.
"Petroglyphs and Pictrographs of Utah" written and put together by Dr. Kenneth B. Castleton, M.D. The photographs are excellent and even shows photos taken of petroglyphs taken in the 1940's that are now underwater in Glen Canyon Dam area! Excellent book also on that is: "The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey.  
We hope you enjoyed the tour through the ages of rock art we found on Potash Road! We left the day after taking this road trip for Torrey Utah.

Happy Trails from The MotherShip Gang, Geri, Chuck and our hound herd Scottie, DoogieBowser and Radar!