Utah

Northwest of Bryce Canyon National Park is Red Canyon. The scenery there is similar to that of Bryce but it is not as well known since it is not a national park. We stopped and explored there before going on to Bryce.

Similar to the scenery of Bryce Canyon National Park is that of Red Canyon to the northwest. We drove through Red Canyon on our way to Bryce in 2018.

Red Canyon is just outside the boundaries of Bryce Canyon National Park. We stopped there briefly on our way to Bryce.

Photographed at Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah at sunrise.

Dead Horse point State Park is just outside the north entrance to Canyonlands National Park and overlooks the Colorado River. We were there at sunrise last spring on the way to Texas.

We found this old cup while exploring an abandoned cabin near the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. The cup is resting on the stones of an old fireplace near the cabin.

Driving in to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, my wife spotted this old cabin back in the woods and wanted to stop and take photos. It was a bit of scramble to get there but this is what we found. We had no idea how old it was but it looked like it had been part of a ranch at one time. There were some old fences and what appeared to be the remains of a corral. Standing in front of the cabin was an old fireplace, though we had no idea why it was standing alone. The other photo is of an old cup we found near the fireplace.

These are some of the petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock near the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

On the road into the the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park there is an archaeological site with more than 650 petroglyphs known as Newspaper Rock. The information given at the site says: "Newspaper Rock is a petroglyph panel etched in sandstone that records approximately 2,000 years of human activity in the area. Prehistoric peoples probably from the Fremont, Anasazi, Navajo and Anglo cultures etched on the rock from B.C. time to A.D. 1300. In historic times Ute and Navaho people, as well as European Americans made their contributions. In interpreting the figures on the rock, scholars are undecided as to their meaning or have yet to decipher them. The Navajo term for the rock is 'Tse' Hone' (Rock that tells a Story). Unfortunately we do not know if the figures represent storytelling, doodling, hunting magic, clan symbols, ancient graffiti or something else. Without a true understanding of the petroglyphs, much is left for individual interpretation."