Moab Grotto

Hike to two different and unique rock art sites. One is beneath a low overhang, a location that seems like it was a good place for ancient travelers to rest for the night or to get out of bad weather.

You will need to crawl under the low overhangs and look up while lying on your back to see where the pictographs cover the bottom of the rocks within arm’s reach.

The second site is further up the hike in a ‘grotto’. In a narrow ravine where the walls overhang both sides creating a cave or grotto-like space where again natives spent their time with evidence of smoke from fires on the ceiling.

Here you will find much more rock art, again pictographs of animals and humans and shapes along with many handprints.

Notes

The hike is easy but the trail is not marked at all.
Using a GPS mapping app like Mapy.cz on your phone is helpful to follow the route to reach the pass next to the large rock at the halfway point

Getting there

From Moab take Highway 191 north for 16 miles and just before the airport, turn left (west) at ( 38.748323, -109.738167 ) onto the Blue Hills Road, AKA (10 Mile Point Road).
Continue on the dirt road for 7.4 miles and turn left onto the unmarked 10 Mile Road at ( 38.784979, -109.851610 ).
Continue for 1.8 miles and turn left at a marker for the Orange Trail at ( 38.783719, -109.880106 ) and it’s only a couple hundred feet to the trailhead

Parking ( 38.782818, -109.879661 )

A sandy turnaround

Distance

1.2 miles total out and back

Route

From the parking lot look for the single-track trail heading uphill.

You will eventually be following an old Jeep trail, which is easier said than done, as this is where it gets tricky because the route is faint.

If you’re watching closely you can sort of see this ‘road’. But believe me, it is not obvious unless you’re really paying attention and are good and looking for the signs of what was once here. Adding to the difficulty is much of the route is over slickrock.

This ‘road’ will turn and zig-zag and eventually after most of your ascent is completed, you will be at a very large and prominent rock on the ridge and pass by it on the right.

If you get to this rock the good news is you will know you’re on the right track as the trail is most obvious once you get near it and pass over the ridge and are heading down the other side.

The big rock on the ridgeline

Continue over the now flat ground and you should start to see the fence. Keep along the trail heading toward the fence and the rock formations behind it. Look for the obvious entrance in the middle of the fence. ( 38.778237, -109.882487 )

Behind the fenced off area are the first set of rock art

Under the overhangs of the rock formations directly across from the fence’s is rock art. Crawl under the overhangs and start looking up and you will start seeing it all.

When you are done, head back the way you came through the fence opening and continue heading south as you were before, but start veering off the trail toward your left.

The idea is to find a small ravine that is starting to form. Walking in the mouth of the wash of the ravine really won’t do you much good as it eventually becomes too choked with brush and fallen rock obstacles.

It’s best to follow it along uphill on the right-hand side.

Eventually, you will see a place that is a good place to climb down into the ravine as the grotto is just a couple of hundred feet further up and it is closed over from the top. You should be around ( 38.776700, -109.882588 )

Look for this place to climb down into the shallow ravine

It’s only a hundred feet or so to the ‘grotto’ one in the bottom of the ravine.

The ravine opens up into a nice grotto with rock art on both sides of the walls. Take your time, let your eyes adjust to the dimmer light, and keep looking and you will start seeing lots of handprints on the left and lots of animal shapes and figures on the right.

Adjacent pictographs near the Moab Grotto under a ledge

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