Round Trip Distance: 0.25 - 1 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 5750 - 5833 feet
Cellphone: 0-1 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Milepost 2.9 of County Rd. 65
Fee: none
Attractions: Weathered petroglyphs and sharpening grooves
The Ute Horse Site is located near Rangely, Colorado. The location is the #3 stop on the Rangely Rock Art Sites Tour. The brochure bills the site as having a petroglyph panel of horses and tepees as well as grooves in the sandstone rocks made from sharpening needles, awls and tools. While numerous sharpening grooves are easy to discover the petroglyph panel is too faded to barely distinguish a single image.
There isn't a trailhead or parking area for the Ute Horse Site. While traveling north on County Road 65 pull off to the side at about milepost 2.9. In the picture you can see a conveyor or something from the Deserado Coal Mine crossing overhead further up the road.
A faint trail leads from the county road directly toward an outcrop of sandstone about 250 yards away.
As you come near to the outcrop you will see one of the 'Who passed this way?' signs.
The petroglyph panel is extremely faded and ridden with bullet holes.
A separate image of a tepee can be found along the cliff to the north.
Some of the rocks and cliff face to the south have numerous grooves made from sharpening small objects.
As well, there are also numerous grooves from much larger objects.
The petroglyphs at the Ute Horse Site are very disappointing and hardly worth the effort. The sharpening grooves on the other hand were much more interesting. If you plan on visiting the Keely Homestead Site then it will only take a few more minutes of your time to stop here as well. We circled the entire cliff area at the Ute Horse Site twice to make sure we hadn't missed anything. It is a nice place to climb around on the rocks and explore. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
