Nine Mile Canyon, Northeast Utah

This is the famous “The Great Hunt” hunting panel which is the most detailed hunting panel in Nine Mile Canyon. Multiple hunters with bows and arrows can be seen shooting at bighorn sheep likely during the fall season.

Tucked away in the northeast corner of Utah is a remote canyon that is a petroglyph hunters dream: Nine Mile Canyon. This driving/hiking tour can be done in a long day and has some of the most abundant Fremont pictographs and petroglyphs we have seen anywhere besides Pintado Canyon. There are also several side canyon offshoots with petroglyphs to explore.

Perhaps you are wondering or never knew the difference between a pictograph and a petroglyph. Wonder no more:
Petroglyph: A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art.
Pictograph: An ancient or prehistoric drawing or painting on a rock wall
And if you still can’t remember which is which in the field, my pneumonic is that pictograph sounds like picture and petroglyph sounds like peck, as in pecking at a rock.

A petroglyph in nearby Daddy Canyon: a hunter with an apparent club/stick in one hand. Is that a headdress/feather sticking out of his head?

A pictograph at Rasmussen Cave depicting moose, bighorn sheep and a sunburst. Pay close attention as you will see some pictographs embedded in some of the following petroglyph images.

You will see in the following images many examples of laborious and artful petroglyphs. Imagine sitting there back then slowly hammering away at the rock varnish to get an indelible image carved for the ages. What effort it must have taken and how tired would one’s hands have been when finished! What motivated the artist: hunting and game documentation, calendaring, mysticism or was it enlightened creativity or even shear boredom?

This is probably the most spectacular petroglyph of the whole canyon. This anthropomorphic figure with fanning, owl-like, headdress is awe-inspiring! Whether this is hunting regalia or mystical adornment, it is worth finding in Daddy Canyon.

You will also see colorful pictographs that have managed to endure the ravages of time, weather, and sun and yet still retain many of their radiant hues. That’s a testament to both the paint-making ingenuity of the artist and the clever choice of a location protected from the elements. Pintado Canyon does have more and varied pictographs which I will document in another blog.

Nine Mile Canyon, between Wellington and Myton Utah, is primarily Fremont Indian art. The Fremont culture dated from 650 CE to 1150 CE, but most fascinating is that both the Shoshone and Ute Indians continued to etch and paint their images on these canyon walls well into the 1800’s! Unfortunately there is a lack of signage in the canyon to direct one to the rock art, so instead simply Google search “Nine Mile Canyon” and you will find many online guides and maps on where to go. If you want to stay overnight at the canyon, check out Nine Mile Ranch which has both camping and bed and breakfast style lodging. We enjoyed our stay there.

There are some many unique petroglyphs in this canyon, ones we have never seen before in our canyon hikes in the west.

The entrance to Gate Canyon has a rock feature called “The Mummy” at its mouth. Gate Canyon is so named because an arch used to exist across the canyon until it fell years ago.

This Gate Canyon panel is interesting because it includes what appears to be an arch with the sun underneath. Was this meant to document the arch that was once in the canyon? Or perhaps because the arc is so smooth, is it a rainbow? A calligraphic set of initials can be seen at the right.

There are multiple massive hunting panels detailing number of kills, locations of game, hunting styles with bow and arrow, clubs, fences and drumming lines. The most famous hunting panel is at the top of this article.

Here is Suzie admiring a hunting panel at site four.

On this panel is a good image of a buffalo being shot by a hunter along with other animals.

One of the first hunting panels that can be seen in Nine Mile Canyon. Many interesting anthropomorphic images, counts, and various animals. Zoom in and explore!

The third site in the canyon can be seen near pig rock, a balanced rock which is left to the imagination to find the pig head in it!

At that site you can find an example of a drumming line being used apparently to scare the prey towards a hunter. The horned figure in the upper left is unusual, with tentacles and a very massive hand. What is it?

Another hunting panel at the third site has the first example of the sinusoidal wave and a very odd, tall creature with offset eyes.

Another hunting panel at the third site has a bighorn sheep in a field of grass and one drummer. Here again is the sinusoidal wave. There is something that also looks like a scorpion!

This hunting panel is near the Buffalo Panel discusses below. Elk/moose, deer/antelope, a sundial and starburst along with more counting dots are apparent.

This hunting panel in Daddy Canyon has a plethora of bighor sheep/mountain goats and one hunter, neatly pecked away to last the ages.

Another example of a hunting panel in Daddy Canyon. Here again are multiple bighorn sheep along with a count and perhaps a large shield held up to ward off the game toward the hunter.

This is a wonderful example of a hunting/calendar panel in Daddy Canyon. What do the circles and radiant dot represent? Here is also the first example of Native Americans with headdresses on horseback!

A very interesting panel in Dry Canyon. Is this a fence line, a mountain range, or something else? Is the spiral a sun or a seasonal calendar?

Another bow and arrow hunter shooting at a bighorn sheep.

Much further down the canyon are these much simpler panels using more of a line-drawing style and much blockier drawn hunters

There are wonderful images of owls not seen anywhere else.

At this site is the famous owl hunting panels. Two owls can be seen on this panel, another one is nearby. Well-endowed men can be seen on the panel along with multiple other creatures.

Here is a close up of the owls. One wonders if this culture revered the owl enough to capture it for posterity.

The buffalo petroglyphs are plentiful, including a pregnant buffalo.

This is known as the Buffalo Panel for obvious reasons. Several other game animals adorn this panel along with curious dots and wavy lines. Who’s the little guy bottom center with the antennae?

How about a pregnant buffalo? Pretty unusual along with an apparent pictograph of a man on a horse. A signature from 1867 unfortunately mars the work of the artist.

There are snakes, centipedes and scorpions as well as more detailed game animals.

Here are what appears to be long centipedes with antennae.

These neatly done mountain goats are in Daddy Canyon.

This animal image looks very much like the one above, but it is at Rasmussen Cave. Is it the same artist perhaps?

There is only one reason I include this hunting panel, for the scatological-minded, yes this is what you think it is!

This site much further down the canyon has these great images of snakes and a two-headed centipede along with many counting dots, sundial spirals and other odd images. A figure with hands up and a wide skirt can be seen on the far right.

Also notable are the number of people on horseback, leading others on horseback, and even Native Americans with flowing headdresses draping from their heads as they ride!

At the second site in the canyon, you can find the first images of men on horseback, including a horse being led by a rope.

A couple examples of a Native American with headdress on horseback

Handprints, bear paws, feet all adorn these rock images as well. The artists seem to relish in oversize prominent hands with fingers and feet with toes.

Further down the canyon you can find this excellent petroglyph of a bear claw! Next to it is a great image of a life-sized human handprint and anthropomorphic figures with massive hands (well at least they have five fingers!)

These massive hands of a man appear to be holding a hoop.

A pictograph of a classic Fremont anthropomorphic figure

There are many less mundane mystical images as well such as what one would swear are fairies, massive creatures in headdresses, and squiggly characters with fighting shields.

Alright, it looks like a long-legged fairy to me! Could it be an insect of some kind? The long legs and apparent wings make this petroglyph unlike others found.

Yet another “fairy” petroglyph, though this one has antennae which makes one wonder if this isn’t just a rendering of an insect. A bee perhaps?

And then this is squiggle man, holding two shields. Why was he drawn this way? Only the artist knows!

Many of these glyphs have apparent counts next to them with rock-drilled holes. Are they counts of game killed, days, weeks, seasons or some other conquest? Perhaps they are even full calendars!

Do you see what I mean by counting dots? Could this be the number of deer or elk killed by the hunter? Whatever it represents, it is a lengthy count! The petroglyph to the left in the sunlight almost looks like writing, doesn’t it, next to a human figure?

In nearby Daddy Canyon the depth of petroglyphs is compelling, apparently again here counting mountain goat kills perhaps using heads

This panel in Dry Canyon is a good example of the sundial/calendar and sinusoidal waves. Could the waves be a count of days, weeks, or moon cycles? Are the sundials a means of counting seasons or years? It’s interesting that each spiral has five spirals with the beginning and end starting and stopping on the same radius

While the pictographs are fewer, they are present if you keep an eye out for them: images of deer, moose, sunbursts among many odd shapes and lines.

Near the Buffalo Panel is one the best and brightest pictographs. Deer/antelope and moose are joined by an unusual star/sunburst. The yellow anthropomorphic figure is likely a hunter. Perhaps they used antlers mounted on their head to mimic an animal to allow them to get closer to their prey.

And there remains physical evidence of the Fremont: granaries, watch towers, old village foundations and inhabited caves as well as the white men’s cabins that followed in time.