Zion National Park
Rock Art:
Petroglyph Canyon
This page contains a discussion of the rock art found at the Petroglyph Canyon rock art site, in Zion National Park. All photographs are from our our personal collection. If you'd like to see more rock art from this location, or if you'd like to see higher resolution or larger images, send us an e-mail message and we'll see what we can do.
This small, but interesting Virgin River Puebloan site displays a variety of petroglyphs, as well as a few faded pictographs. Subjects range from desert big horn sheep and canines to several styles of anthropomorphs, as well as a few concentric circles and spirals.
It is possible that this site was associated with fertility, at least for a period of its existence, evidenced by an obvious copulating couple, an anthropomorph squatting in a birthing position, and other fertility associated signs.
This site is spread along one wall of a narrow canyon in the eastern section of the Park, with some rock overhangs, protecting the incised images. Most of the site is currently hidden by a thriving stand of small trees and brush. The best time to visit is in the late autumn or winter months when the foliage has dropped from the trees.
A Park Ranger can give you directions to the easily accessible site at the end of short natural surface trail.
- Archaeological Resources Protection Act Hotline: 800-227-7286.
- See Archaeological Site Etiquette.
- See American Antiquities Act of 1906.
- See Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979.
- See More Rock Art Sites.
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This portion of one of the panels shows what appears to be a large snake, with fangs or horns at its right end. It also has a large circle part of the way along its length, which might represent a digesting meal. Below the snake is a concentric circle and a squarish anthropomorph; perhaps squatting in a birthing position. |
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In this portion of one of the panels featuring desert big horn sheep, we see multiple representations of these common critters, in addition to what appear to be canines. There are larger images above the main horizontal fracture, with a herd of smaller sheep below the crack. There appears to be a stick-figure anthropomorph (possibly a male) along the left side of the image. There may also be several spirals worked into the surface. |
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This panels is to the immediate left of the one above. You can more clearly see the stick-figured anthropomorph with one raised arm. There are also more sheep, both above and below the crack. And, there is an usual figure in the central-left of the photos that appears to be a horizontally placed anthropomorph with "flowing" legs and a pair of horns. |
More Rock Art
All of these photos have been resized and manipulated in Photoshop to give the best representation of the image. Some color distortion is inevitable. If you would like to see higher quality versions of these shots, or if you would like to use these images for any purpose, please contact us and we would be glad to help if we can.
| Anthropomorphs | |
| Graphic Images | |
| Panels | |
| Unknown Objects | |
| Zoomorphs | |
