Travel-Curious

Travel Curious

For independent travelers who want to dig deeper

The snake rock art panels of Moore Cutoff Road

See multiple snake petroglyphs chipped into the desert varnish of large rocks right next to the Moore Cutoff Road

The snake panel on a large boulder
 
 
This is a great stop along the road to see multiple snake pictographs and a line of dinosaur footprints just steps from the parking area.
 
Getting there
  • From I-70 take Exit 116 and drive northwest on CR-803 (a.k.a. Moore Cutoff Road).
  • At around mile 13.1, as the road begins a sharp turn north, look for a small paved car park, just below a tall knoll.
  • Coming from Moore, make a right turn onto CR-803 and head east for 4 miles. After making a sharp turn to the left on this road, you’ll arrive at the parking area. 
 
Parking ( 38.940119, -111.110559 )
A paved parking area

The parking area off of Moore Cutoff Road

 
Note 
  • Rochester Rock art is nearby and can easily be combined
  • Besides the main panels described here, look around for signs of other worn paths around you, they lead to other smaller groups of lesser rock art
 
Route
From the parking area walk toward the boulders to the west, in just a few feet you will see the big rock with many petroglyphs and a Kopopelli figure, just behind this boulder is another big rock with just a single large snake. On the backside of the main rock are some inscriptions.
 
Less than 200 feet to the east of the parking area is a large slanted boulder at ( 38.940657, -111.109828 ) with a line of dinosaur footprints or a ‘track way’ running across it diagonally. Most likely from a sauropod, who walked across a muddy area and left depressions. These depressions filled in eventually with a harder material and then the softer material around them eventually wore away, leaving what looks like raised impressions of its tracks. 
 

Close up of one of the snake petroglyphs

 

The rock art on the back side of the boulderOn the back of the rock with the main panel

 

Dinosaur tracks
Dinosaur tracks

Explore Nearby...

Hikes...

Rochester Rock Art Panel

A short hike leads to a boulder on an overlook with hundreds of petroglyphs chipped into the desert varnish from the Fremont Culture dating back to at least 1300 AD

Horseshoe Canyon – Hike

Once known as barrier canyon, it contains rock art that gave name to the barrier canyon style of artwork, contained in four galleries including the Great Ghost.

Goblin Valley State Park Utah

Goblin Valley State Park

The park contains thousands of mushroom-shaped (goblins). You can walk amongst the hoo-doos, there are hiking trails and a cave on the back side of the valley called the Goblin’s Lair

Scenic Drives...

Nine Mile Canyon Utah

Nine Mile Canyon – Scenic Drive

A forty-mile long canyon drive with the highest concentration of rock art in the world, with an estimated 10,000 individual artworks from Archaic, Fremont, and Ute Indians

Buckhorn Wash Green River Utah

Buckhorn Wash

Rock art on 100 foot panels. See pictographs painted by the Barrier Canyon culture 2000 years ago and petroglyphs pecked into the rock by Fremont Indians 1000 years ago.

Wedge Overlook

Called “Utah’s Little Grand Canyon”. There are multiple overlooks 1000 feet above the San Rafael River and canyons below you, each one gives you a different vista.

Everything Else...

Crystal Geyser Green River Utah

Crystal Geyser

Crystal Geyser is a CO2 geyser created accidentally in 1935 by an oil drilling rig.

Temple Mountain Pictograph

Significant because it contains some of the largest prehistoric painted figures in Utah. The largest image in its current condition is about 6 feet tall.

Lone Warrior Panel Green River Utah

Lone Warrior panel

The Lone Warrior is the main feature, but there are some petroglyphs, some signatures with dates and some sharpening grooves carved into the base of the cliff to see also.

Head of Sinbad / Locomotive Point

On the south side of a locomotive-shaped rock formation, are amazing Barrier Canyon Style pictographs so pristine they look like they were painted yesterday

Dutchman Arch

Visit a small but picturesque arch you can walk inside of or climb right on top of

Swasey Cabin Green River Utah

Swasey Cabin

Visit Joseph Swasey’s 1921 cabin. The Swasey brothers, Joe, Sid, Rod, and Charley were some of the earliest pioneers of the San Rafael Swell and many local landmarks bear their names.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Buy Framed Prints

Images on this website are available as framed prints to support running the website
Browse Prints For Sale

 

Featured Posts