The Swell was swell...

and that's no Aprils' Fools joke. On the way to Utah I spent parts of the last two days exploring the San Rafael Swell, a large Laramide-age sandstone upwarp in south-central Utah.  This was the view from my sleeping perch at the edge of the Wedge Overlook at sunrise this morning (click images to enlarge):

My long shadow towards the west accompanies the view of the Little Grand Canyon of Utah, where the San Rafael River has incised deeply into the heart of the structure:

The early morning view to the east, towards the rising sun, has an Ansel Adams-esque quality to it:

The Buckskin Wash pictograph panel is one of my favorites in Utah, extending more than 100 ft along the base of a wall composed of the Navajo Sandstone:

These anthropomorphic figures with outstretched arms are almost certainly inspired by the phenomena of virga, where falling rain evaporates before striking the surface:

And I'm sure there's a story behind this snake encounter, recorded as rock art:

The bridge spanning the San Rafael River was built in 1936, and though no longer in use, stands as a historic monument:

Bottleneck Peak forms the prominent natural monument in the center of the region:

This ground-hugging beauty, phlox (?), was blooming in the early desert spring:

And lastly, here's the view where I-70 drops off the monoclinal fold that defines the eastern side of the uplift, with an interpretive geologic exhibit includes an east-west cross-sectional diagram:

 

Hidden Valley...

is the focus of today's exploration, and it is bound by faults parallel to the main Moab-Spanish Valley fault, seen here in a textbook cross-sectional view (click images to enlarge):

After climbing more than 700 ft above the trail head, followed by a short walk, one arrives at a towering wall of varnished sandstone with abundant rock art along its length:

Most of the petroglyphs are easily observed at ground level:

I particularly like this chorus line of anthropomorphic figures:

At the point where I turned around there is a nice view into the densely jointed sandstone terrain of The Land Behind the Rocks towards the north:

And so ends my last sojourn of this holiday.  I'll pack tomorrow, shut down the house and say goodbye to my terrific neighbors, then head north on New Year's Eve day.

I won't reveal the name...

nor the location of this canyon incised into the Navajo Sandstone in close proximity to Moab, Utah, as it contains some significant archeological deposits. Friend, blog reader and frequent commenter Geogal and her faithful trail companion Skipper accompanied me on a fabulous walkabout in this special place today, exploring numerous rock shelters and fantastic petroglyph panels (click to enlarge):

But the real gem came when we discovered the appropriately named Cave (Easter) Primrose (Primula specuicola) in bloom at a damp spot beneath a weeping sandstone wall:

Prehistoric cave paintings...

at Lascaux are under attack by microbes. Not surprisingly, the situation was made worse by applying a fungicide that allowed other bacteria to thrive.

Doh.

Pictographs...

in Horseshoe Canyon, an isolated district of Canyonlands National Park, Utah, are superb examples of Fremont culture rock art (click to enlarge.) This image shows only a small portion of the Great Gallery; the entire sandstone panel is ~ 200 feet long and ~ 15 feet high, and the Barrier Canyon Style paintings consist of life-sized anthropomorphic figures. The largest individual, the so-called Holy Ghost shown above, is about seven feet tall. I last visited this site in 2006 during a traverse of Bluejohn Canyon when I snapped this pic.

Pop quiz: what's the difference between a pictograph and a petroglyph?