Canyonlands to the south

July 5th, Chuck and I took a long drive. We started at Sand Island then up to Newspaper Rock and then over to Canyonlands, The Needles or southern part of Canyonlands.  We showed you the north part of Canyonlands, just north of Moab Utah, The Needles is south of Moab and north of Bluff about 1/2 way.

We decided to show you the Canyonlands and give you a break from the petroglyphs and show you some beautiful rock formations!

This is why they call this area the Needles!

Around every turn, the panorama was amazing!

 The Needles Outpost has gas, snacks and a 
pretty cool campground too!

The campground had some really nice boondocking sites

More Needles!

The Dutch shoe formation!

The slab that fell off the main piece of rock doesn't look very big in the photo, but in reality, it's about the size of a city bus!

The Canyonlands journey is worth making!We both like the southern Canyonlands a bit better, but both parks are very beautiful and worth the visit!

Next blog we will catch you up on Newspaper Rock and show you some amazing rock art!

Happy Trails from the MotherShip!

Geri, Chuck and the hound herd!

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!