My first stop at Capitol Reef National Park are the petroglyph panels which is conveniently just off the side of the road. The petroglyphs are attributed to the Fremont culture who used to inhabit this area. This stop along the driving route shows visitors rock carvings from the Fremont culture. There is some confusion as to who the Fremont culture is. It was the local indigenous people like the Navajo and Ute who discovered the remains of the culture. It was only later that they were given the name Fremont. Back then, the climate here in Utah was wetter and was able to better sustains a culture like the Fremont people.

These days as you can see, the area is extremely dry that it would be very hard to imagine how a culture would have been able to survive here. Looking at the pictographs left behind by the people, you can see that there are also animals which are depicted here. Animals which are probably not easy to find here anymore. Archeologists estimate that the people lived here for hundreds of years until the climate forced them to move. You can say that even back then, climate change was already a thing. As for me, I continue to walk along the wooden walkway which follows the foot of the rock face. I wasn’t sure what the point of the walkway was but there was a bit of shade here which made for a lovely little walk.

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