Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument – Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah – Part 6 – 2023

Even a short visit to a small site can leave a lasting impression.  We stopped at Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument – Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah on our way to another area in Canyonlands.

We stayed there for maybe 15 minutes but the view of this rock covered in petroglyphs was amazing.  I had always wanted to see some of these ancient drawings but had not, until this short visit.

Details from Wikipedia:

Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument is a Utah state monument featuring a rock panel carved with one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs. It is located in San Juan County, along Utah State Route 211, 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Monticello and 53 miles (85 km) south of Moab.

It is along the relatively well-traveled access road into the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park, 12 miles (19 km) from US 191 and 30 miles (48 km) from the park boundary. The 200-square-foot (19 m²) rock is a part of the vertical Wingate sandstone cliffs that enclose the upper end of Indian Creek Canyon, and is covered by hundreds of petroglyphs—one of the largest, best preserved, and easily accessed groups in the Southwest. The petroglyphs feature a mixture of human, animal, material, and abstract forms.

Newspaper Rock was designated a State Historical Monument in 1961, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in San Juan County, Utah as Indian Creek State Park in 1976.

Our Brief Visit

Colleen Miniuk, our guide and workshop leader,  didn’t tell us we were stopping here so it was a surprise to see what was at this location!

I pulled out my iPhone 14 Pro Max to get an even wider view.  I changed it to Black & White to highlight the petroglyphs.

Then I zoomed in a bit to get the details of some of the glyphs.

There was a sign posted at the entrance that gave some interesting details so I made a quick snap of it as well!

This site is along a main access road in Canyonlands National Park so I highly recommend a stop to see these ancient drawings at Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, they are quite incredible to see!

For larger versions of these images and to purchase prints and other merchandise please visit my gallery:  Newspaper Rock Archeological Site

My next blog will be about our late afternoon and sunset visit to Squaw Flat Trail, the location we were headed to when we made this stop!

That is all for now!

Lynn