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by Gary George, Hondoo Rivers and Trails

Hopi tribal shamans of the Snake and Antelope clans conduct their annual Snake (Rain) Dance at the Hopi Mesas, Arizona. A hiker walks a remote, precipitous trail in what is now Escalante Canyons National Monument, Utah. In the wilderness of San Rafael Swell, Utah, a bird drinks from a sandstone water basin hidden amongst a maze of slick-rock crags.

What do these separate and seemingly disparate acts have in common? They were all foretold by Native Americans in ancient writings – the “Indian writings,” the “newspaper rocks,” the “rock art,” the “petroglyphs and pictographs” that are found in unequalled quantity on the Colorado Plateau of the Four Corners region.  

Travelers of the Americas often see rock art panels while visiting popular reserves, parks and archeological sites, yet seldom are they aware of the tremendous volume of rock art existing in places off the beaten path.  This is especially true in the canyonlands of the Colorado River drainage where patina-stained cliff walls abound with petroglyphs (etched drawings), and where weather-smoothed or hand-rubbed rock facades provide innumerable surfaces for stunning pictographs (painted drawings).    

Visitors to the Colorado Plateau rave about the colorful and spectacular landscape but seldom mention the world-class rock art of the area.  When I spoke recently to a friend from New York City, who has been to the southwest many times on river rafting trips and auto tours of the national parks, she knew more about the cave paintings of France and the Baja than she did about the rock art of the Southwest.  I once asked Utah’s dean of rock art, the late Dr. Eldon Dorman, about this apparent lack of appreciation. He replied, “First of all, our predecessors about killed off the natives whose legacy they represent.  And now, the locals take them for granted; the tourists don’t know they’re there.”

In recent years, interest in rock art by scholars and laymen has grown. This is in some measure owing to emergent understanding of the sophistication of prehistoric peoples. Studies in cultural astronomy (archaeoastronomy) have proven the complex calculations of forgotten inhabitants. Tourists are now beginning to join researchers and new age spiritualists at rock art panels during solstices and equinoxes. Together, they plot movements of the sun and stars in juxtaposition to the petroglyphs and pictographs, and what they are discovering is amazing them all – these early people knew the heavens quite well.

Furthermore, growing awareness of rock art’s beauty and creative application by skilled hands is generating word-of-mouth excitement among others. This excitement is allowing rock art enthusiasts throughout the Colorado Plateau to gradually parlay their affection and knowledge into guide services for the mounting number of travelers fascinated and intrigued by these backcountry panels. To many local residents, increased visitation is welcome news. Rural economies are being marginalized by large-scale, urban economies, and anything that helps maintain the local community is appreciated.

In the final analysis, we will know very little of the meaning behind any particular rock art panel, or even a tiny portion of their importance to bygone cultures.  The rocks do not speak. We can only speculate and point to potential connectedness to the world we know.  We can only understand them for what they evoke within each of us. In this way they link us to the artist who created them. They speak to our universal humanity, and in this sense, they are like any work of art.

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Gary George operates Hondoo Rivers and Trails in Torrey, Utah, the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park.