If you've noticed I'm always talking about how far I am behind in my blogging, this is an example. Here's something I did almost 3 years ago, but apparently never blogged: I did a set of short hikes around the Warner Valley area of Utah, which is east of St. George, UT, just north of the Arizona border. The BLM entry for this site is here.
It's less than 1/4 mile from the trailhead, so not much of a hike. But the drive there is a little tricky. I mean, I did make it with my Prius, but, in perfectly dry weather, there were a few times where I could definitely feel my wheels sliding. Lots of very fine sand. Obviously, if even a little wet, the sand would be even slicker, and that much easier to get stuck.
Great set of dinosaur tracks, though. If the road is dry, it's definitely worth seeing. The tracks are on a pretty specific piece of sandstone. I would suspect that means there is additional sandstone, either exposed or under sand, with more tracks, but the one that is the main attraction is clearly marked. There's a thin "deflector shield" to keep them from being covered again by sand or sediment.
Goes without saying that walking on the sandstone will weather the tracks, so do take care walking around them.
Quite nearby is the tiny Fort Pearce. It's probably smaller than you would expect, like the size of a modest home. Just designed for protection against small raiding parties.
The parking area for this "fort" is right at the base of the small hill on which the fort sits. There are pioneer and indigenous marks on the rocks immediately adjacent to the fort. There are additional petroglyphs further down the canyon.
I walked several miles south, but did not make a concerted effort to find some of the more interesting petroglphs. It was a pleasant walk, nonetheless, and I'm pretty sure I went far enough to qualify they day as a "hiking day."
Minus the walk down the wash, younger or older folks can get plenty out of this trip with less than 1/2 mile of walking, and more adventurous types can walk further.
Additionally, people with high clearance and/or four wheel drive have a lot of alternatives in the area. In particular, Little Black Mountain petroglyphs sounds like a cool place to go. I've wanted to get a petroglyph and Milky Way shot for quite some time, but lack the vehicle that could reliably get me to this place. Also, the route to the petroglyphs seems to change on occasion, due to local mining. But something on my longer-term list of things I want to do.
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