Trek Planner Insider Members gain access to the Trail Map and also 4 GPS Coordinates to the rock art

Trailhead Information

Please be respectful of the rock art!  There has already been vandalism including some idiot trying to use a saw to cut out one of the petroglyphs.  Please do not touch the rock art, but admire them by taking lots of photos.

I found out about these petroglyphs from a flyer at the campground I was staying at in Escalante.  I asked the camp host where these rock art were located and she gave me some vague directions, and told me she hadn’t been there in many years.  Sounded like a challenge to me! I managed to at least get a starting point from her and I set out the next day to find them.

The next day I got to the trailhead at the Escalante River and wandered all over for an hour until I put on my “If I was creating petroglyphs, where would I make them” hat, and I took a weird side trail and found the 100 Hands Panel!  The 100 painted hands (pictographs) are hard to see if you are visiting in the middle of the day due to the harsh sunlight, but you can see them right underneath a rock ledge high on the steep cliffs.

A little ways to the right and on a different rock face, you’ll see some large sheep petroglyphs and an information flyer that the rangers put there.  Read this for more information about the rock art at this location.  You will notice the sheep petroglyph that some idiot tried to cut out.  It’s sad to see this sort of thing.  Honestly, I don’t get why someone wants to do this.  Why don’t you just bring a nice camera and get some great photos of it and then have it blown up to put on your wall at home.

There are other hands below these and there are other pictographs to the right and left so make sure you see those too.  All along the cliffs and just about every rock surface you’ll see old inscriptions from the early 1900s and even some recent vandalism.

Keep hiking along to the west and you will come to the spectacular warrior panel!  This panel features large and distinct petroglyphs of a warrior hunting an animal along with three anthropomorphs (human like figures).  All three of these figures have horns or spikes on their head.  One is wearing a small pendant around its neck.  One has a hollow figure inside of its chest.  The other has a round object dangling from a single piece of string.  This entire panel overlooks the valley – they are impossible to miss.

You can find other numerous animals petroglyphs near these too.