Horseshoe Canyon (Canyonlands National Park)
Distance: 7.4 miles (round trip)
Walking time: 4 1/4 hours
Elevations: 540 ft. gain/loss
Horseshoe Canyon Trailhead: 5,340
ft.
Great Gallery pictograph panel:
4,800 ft.
Trail: The descent into the canyon is made on a slickrock trail with rock cairns. Inside the canyon a vague trail winds along the bottom of the sandy wash. There is intermittent water in the canyon, but it is usually stagnant.
Season: Spring, summer, fall, winter. The canyon is quite hot in midsummer, so carry plenty of water. For more information call the Hans Flat Ranger Station, Canyonlands National Park, at (435) 259-2652.
Vicinity: Horseshoe Canyon Detached Unit of Canyonlands National Park, near Hanksville
Horseshoe Canyon contains what
is probably the finest display of prehistoric Indian rock art
in the United States. The famous Great Gallery, largest of several
Horseshoe Canyon sites, is 200 feet long, 15 feet high, and contains
dozens of intriguing red, brown, and white pictographs. The paintings
are at least 2,000 years old, and possibly as old as 8,000 years.
Rock art is notoriously difficult to date accurately, but from
the style we can be reasonably certain that the work was done
by the so called Archaic People who lived in the area before
the arrival of the Anasazi and Fremont Indian cultures. Archaic
clay figurines that closely mimic the pictographs have been found
about nine miles away in Spur Fork, a tributary of Horseshoe
Canyon, and the figurines have been dated to about 4700 B.C.
For years archaeologists have struggled
to interpret the strange anthromorphs that are depicted on the
Great Gallery. In addition to many smaller figures, the huge
panel contains about twenty life size human shapes, all of which
have a strange mummy-like appearance. They lack arms or legs,
and often have huge insect-like eyes and bucket-shaped heads.
Most intriguing of all is the figure known as the “Holy
Ghost”. This seven-foot-high painting stands out among the
others because of its size and its ethereal appearance. Perhaps
it was intended to portray a revered ancestor, or a mythical
deity.
From the car parking area, the
trail proceeds into the canyon along an old jeep road originally
built by an oil exploration company. A barrier has been erected
across the trail about 0.2 mile from the car park to keep recreational
vehicles out, and another barrier has been placed 0.5 mile farther
down to keep cattle out of the canyon. The trail finally reaches
the canyon bottom 1.3 miles from the trailhead, then turns south
along Barrier Creek. There is seldom running water in Barrier
Creek, but the canyon is rarely completely dry either.
As you drop into the canyon you
can see another jeep road descending from the opposite rim. This
primitive road meets the trail at the canyon bottom, and for
a while you will be walking on it. The road ends 0.6 mile upstream,
just beyond the intersection of Water Canyon, where the Park
Service has erected another barrier to keep vehicles out of upper
Horseshoe Canyon.
As you approach Water Canyon be
sure to watch for the first two pictograph sites, one on each
side of the canyon. The trail passes right by them. These sites,
like the other two that you will see later, were painted by the
Archaic People between 2,000 and 8,000 years ago. The third site
is situated in a huge alcove on the west side of the stream,
about 0.6 mile up-canyon from the first two. Unfortunately the
alcove site has sustained substantial damage, both natural and
man-caused, and it is not as impressive as the others.
Finally, 1.3 miles from the alcove
site, or 3.7 miles from the beginning of the trail, you will
come to the Great Gallery. This display of rock art has been
called the Louvre of the Southwest, and, indeed, it is a phenomenal
relic of the past. Dozens of intricate human and animal figures
decorate the panel, mostly in red, with some brown and white.
The pigments were made from finely ground minerals, and then
mixed with a liquid base, perhaps animal tallow or vegetable
juices, to form a crude paint. After thousands of years all traces
of the base have disappeared, but the mineral coloring still
adheres to the rock and the paintings remain preserved in astonishing
detail.
If you have sharp eyes, and if
you are willing to walk just a little further, this hike will
reward you with another unexpected bonus. About 0.2 mile upstream
from the Great Gallery, Barrier Creek flows over a small slab
of flat sandstone that appears harder and darker than the surrounding
stone. Look carefully at the dark, flat surface near the west
side of the creek, and you will see the tracks of a three-toed
dinosaur that passed this way between 50 and 100 million years
ago. The imprints are about ten inches in diameter, and there
are at least three of them, spaced about four feet apart.
Hike provided by www.utahtrails.com