I was surprised and very pleased to know that there were petroglyphs here at the Capitol Reef National Park. The pictographs were carved on to the walls of these cliffs by the Fremont Culture who inhabited these areas back then. While some of the images were hard to understand, there are definitely some which are very recognizable. I know that these aren’t incredible works of art but they are incredible as they provide a glimpse into the lives of a people long gone. Climate change has forced these people to move elsewhere more conducive to their way of life.

I continued on to the wooden walkway along the cliff face and didn’t really know what was here. I was admiring some huge boulders which have fallen off the cliff face and I thought how lucky we were to have discovered the petroglyphs before nature takes its course and tears it all down. Along the way, I ran into some visitors who were looking at something. I inquired as to what was so interesting and they told me that there were more pictographs here. I had no idea! I was merrily walking along the wooden walkway blissfully unaware that there was a whole new set of petroglyphs here to see. To my defense, they are actually hard to see if you didn’t know about them.

I probably would have appreciated a sign pointing out its presence instead of running into other visitors by chance. Like the other carvings, they were a little hard to make out but it was clear. You can see some symbols here and it makes you wonder what they all mean. Why carve it so high up? What was here in the first place? Did they live here in this spot? Surely, they don’t expect some random person to just walk by and see these carvings if there wasn’t anything important around the area.

[xmlgm {https://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/CapitolReefNationalPark.kmz} zoom=19]