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Art of the ancients - rock art in Nine Mile Canyon in central Utah - includes travel information - Brief Article

Sunset, Oct, 1999 by Kurt Repanshek

Nine Mile Canyon in central Utah is a 40-mile-long gallery of precious images

They were among America's first plein air artists, toiling under the open sky to chip images of life - as it was a millennium or more ago - into the walls of a Utah canyon: bighorn sheep, bison, owls, snakes, hunters, warriors astride horses, and, if your imagination is broad enough, even ancient astronauts.

First Fremont Indian artists, and later Ute, drew and etched more than 1,000 pictographs (paintings) and petroglyphs (carvings) into the walls of Nine Mile Canyon. The misnamed gulch actually rambles roughly 40 miles through central Utah, making it possibly the longest gallery walk around and positively the most dramatic showcase of rock art on the Colorado Plateau.

Some of the images seem entirely logical. Hunter Panel, also known as Cottonwood Panel for its location, offers an amazingly vivid collection of bighorn sheep being targeted by a lone hunter with a bow and arrow. Others are more baffling, such as Balloon Man, Juggler, and other anthropomorphic entities wearing what seem to be headdresses.

"I don't interpret, so if you're looking for wild interpretations, you're out of luck," says Jeanette Evans, a certified avocational archaeologist licensed by the Bureau of Land Management to lead rock-art tours through the canyon, as we scratch our heads over what seems to be a cross between a bighorn sheep and a giraffe. "We don't have a Rosetta stone to tell us all that it means."

Visitors can also see Fremont granaries built high on ledges, as well as several pit dwellings that are invisible to the untrained eye, but known to experts such as Evans. Scattered throughout the canyon are more recent relics - old homesteads and stagecoach stops - in various degrees of collapse.

But it's the rock art that makes Nine Mile rise above other canyons in the West. And archaeological crews continue to find more, making any trip to Nine Mile Canyon not only a review of what has been found but, even more exciting, an opportunity for discovery.

Nine Mile Canyon travel planner

Nine Mile Canyon is about 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. To reach it from Price, head 6 miles east on U.S. 191/6. Watch for the sign just past Wellington and turn north on Soldier Creek Rd. After 13 miles the paved road becomes a well-maintained gravel road. For information, contact the BLM office in Price; (435) 636-3600. Before leaving Price, check out the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum, which has exhibits on Nine Mile Canyon and the Fremont Indians; (435) 637-5060.

Area code is 435 unless noted.

Camping

Nine Mile Ranch. Located 25 miles northeast of Wellington near the mouth of Nine Mile Canyon, this private operation offers hostel-style rooms, camping, and RV sites (no hookups). $10 per night; 613-9794.

Price Canyon Recreation Area. Managed by the BLM, this area 15 miles north of Price along U.S. 6 has water, grills, and toilets. 18 sites. $6 per night; 636-3600.

Guided trips

Reflections on the Ancients. Jeanette Evans's company is the only one licensed by the BLM to conduct rock-art tours through the canyon. Tours April-October; from $85 per person. 637-5801, (800) 468-4060, or www.utah.com/bw/reflections.>