Southern Utah - Snow Canyon

Thursday, we headed for Snow Canyon.  Snow Canyon is a state park about 20 mins from where we were staying.  It's known for lava tube hiking and petrified sand dunes.  It's not known much for it's secret petroglyphs, well, because most people don't know about them.  But that didn't stop us!


There are 4 (known) petroglyphs sites that you can easily visit from a 2 mile loop hike.  Well, maybe "easily" is relative, because this wasn't just a simple stroll.  It was a hike.  Up and down rock faces, cliffs and oh, there is no real trail.  This entire canyon is rock people. Hard, red rock.  No way a trail is going to be there.   Part way through the hike, we were at one of the rock art sites, and another group was hiking on a Snow Canyon marked "trail" and we thought for sure they were going to meet up with us to see the rock art.  They were literally about 100 feet way.  They walked right by it!!  Didn't even see it!  No mention of it in the Snow Canyon trail literature.

Another time, just as we were nearing the payoff at the end of the loop hike, the slotted canyon rock art site, we met up with a ranger led hike. We were resting in a small and rare area of shade, and we thought for sure we would just follow them - since surely the ranger was taking them to the site we were headed to.  NOPE!  Then went right on by it - didn't even stop.  He didn't even tell them it was there!  What a shame - but we felt lucky enough to see it!

But I found a way.  We didn't actually go into Snow Canyon through the entrance.  We went the back way - through a neighborhood!  The "trail" skirts the edge of the park boundaries, and wanders into the park a bit before coming back out.   I pieced together two reports of the hike, and using the landmarks mentioned in both sets of instructions, I think we were good.  I gave the "map" of instructions to Jacob and Matt who led us through the trial-less terrain.  We used landscapes like the "Sinking Ship rock", the "Hoodoo Sentries", the "Black rock outcroppings" and things like that to make sure we were on the right track.  There is no way whatsoever, we would have been able to complete the hike without these "instructions" and Matt and Jacob's leading us through.  We did get lost a few times, but were quickly back on track as we found the landmarks.

The terrain is such that you could so easily get lost - everything looks the same like a Mars landscape.  But, we figured it out, got there early before it was too hot, and finished in about 2 1/2 hours - just short of our goal of 3 hours.  The payoff was huge and totally worth it - a small hidden slot canyon with petroplyphs all over both sides.  It was amazing.  It was so hidden.  Once we came out of it, we looked around and couldn't even see where it was.

This "hike" was totally worth it.  Amazing stuff.

Here is what the "hike" looked like the entire way.

Do you see the trail? Yeah, neither did we - there wasn't one.

First, small rock art site.

Small, but impressive.

The fence is the park boundry.  We used it as one of our landmarks.

Do not get lost out here!

2nd site. This was on the rock that looked like a "sinking ship"

Do you see the sinking ship?

Back on the trail......somewhere.....

Matt says the trail is down here!

This outcropping was another one of our landmarks to make sure we were on the right path




VIDEOS:

These two "hoo-doo" sentries kept watch over the canyon.  Yep, we are still going the right way!

We found it!  Just past this tree

This was so amazing!  We spent a lot of time here looking at all the rock art

VIDEO:

It was hard to take a pic, because we were so close to it.  The art was on both sides of the walls, up and down.

 

Jacob looking at the view to make sure we are headed the right way back to the car

Almost back!! It's getting hot!





We totally loved this hike!! Two thumbs up!!





Today was also Mom & Dad's actual 50th Anniversary!  We had a fun lip sync party, water fights and fun stuff!