Round Trip Distance: 0.25 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4987 - 5000 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: 39.35543, -111.94682
Fee: $15/vehicle
Attractions: pictographs
The Painted Rocks Pictographs are located north of Gunnison, Utah in the Yuba State Park. Found on a cliff overlooking the lake the pictographs are most easily visited when the water in the lake is low enough to drive within a few hundred feet of them. When the water is that low then it isn't as difficult to scramble over the rocks and boulders on the shoreline to get to the pictographs without a boat.
For turn-by-turn directions to the low water trailhead enter 39.35669, -111.95037 into your driving app.
To get to the low water trailhead, after turning off of UT-28, stop at the entrance station to pay the required fee and proceed on to the boat ramp. The high water trailhead is in the parking lot nearby.
Near the lower end of the boat ramp there is a road that travels across the gravel bar along the shoreline. The pictographs are on the west side of the hill almost straight ahead.
A good place to park is where the boulders begin. Standing near the water at this point the pictographs can be spotted. As you get closer they disappear behind part of the cliff and can't be seen again until you are almost under them.
Scrambling over to the pictographs is probably easier than this photo makes it look. For the most part we walked in the sand right on the water's edge. As you can see the slope is quite steep so if you slip into the lake the water probably gets deep really fast. Crossing this expanse during high water might not be all that hard. Having never done it we can't say. If the water was just a bit lower there might be more of the sand exposed making it much easier. This is what the water level of the lake was at the end of November on an average year for moisture. Be sure and test each rock before trusting it. We found one that was big enough to fill the back of our pickup that moved surprisingly easy.
Before reaching the main panel of pictographs there is another panel that is tucked up high in a corner of the cliff that has a few more faint images. Besides the 2 obvious anthropomorphic figures there are also 2 sets of concentric circles and a bighorn sheep.
This is the main panel with its 3 anthropomorphic figures, an image of concentric circles, and a few smaller faint images.
Looking closer at the figures on the left you can make out necklaces and some facial features. The larger figure appears to have the head of an animal with a long snout like a deer or elk. In the dark red area at the end of the snout you can see 2 nostrils.
The large figure on the right is holding what looks similar to an eagle staff.
The view along the shoreline below the pictographs, with some boulders lying high and dry, and others still partially submerged, is a pleasant scene.
