Parowan Gap Petroglyphs are really off the beaten path. After leaving Cedar City, UT; you drive for a while before there is a sign that points you in the right direction. This small canyon is out in the middle of nowhere in the Escalante Desert but has a ton of Petroglyphs. Join me on a journey back in time with a walking video and a short drive through this unique place.
15 million years ago sedimentary rock broke away from the crust and pushed its way up. On its journey upward a stream crated a path through the rocks. Once the rocks stopped ascending and the stream dried up, erosion by the wind and rain shaped the gap as it is today. This is a typical example of a Wind Gap and can be felt while walking or driving through the Gap.
In 1849, the Parley Pratt expedition made camp and discovered the petroglyphs and not only recorded the location in their pioneer journal but included some of the drawings. The explorers thought that this might be the place that Chief Walder called the “God’s Own House” that included huge pillars on the north and south that pointed upwards toward the heavens. Today with a little imagination, one of these pillars looks like a dinosaurs head looking up.
It’s believed that Native Americans passing through the gap pecked designs on the smooth parts of the larger boulders. These picked designs are several centuries old and through time other have chiseled figures which became known as Petroglyphs. Some originally thought these were doodles from people who had nothing better to do however it has been noted that Indians that spent that much time picking images into the rocks were not doodling but leaving messages for others to follow.
Today many of these Petroglyphs are behind barricades that protect them from the oils in people’s fingers and hands that can damages these designs. Archaeologists today still don’t know what some of these petroglyphs mean because several Native American cultures created them which includes the: Sevier-Fremont people that lived in the area over a thousand years ago or even earlier nomadic Archaic people. Some of the figures could have been created by the ancestors of today’s Southern Paiute people.
Parowan Gap is listed on the National Register of Historic Places that lets others know that this is a cultural treasure. Because of this and how fragile the designs are, current “dating” technology’s including chalking can’t be used. The hope is that as new technologies are developed the actual age of these petroglyphs will become known. Until then the Native Americans will have their stories to tell about their ancestors way of life, which is an important part of their cultural history can and should be respected.
Taking pictures and sketching is a great way to save the memories of this Historic Place along with saving the petroglyphs for future generations to appreciate.5
Sandy Moniz Parowan Gap Petroglyphs, Parowan Gap Petroglyphs, Sandy Moniz, Sandy Moniz Traveler Author Imagineer
