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Parade of Rock Art

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.3 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 5865 - 5890 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Visitor Center
Fee:$3/individual or $6/vehicle
Attractions: petroglyphs




The Parade of Rock Art trail is in the Fremont Indian State Park in Sevier County, Utah. The trail, which is interpretive in nature, follows a barrier free paved path that loops around the cliffs of Little Dog Canyon behind the park's Visitor Center. Enroute the trail passes numerous panels of petroglyphs that are mentioned of in trail guides that are available within the Visitor Center or you can print out your own copy from their website and bring it with you.


Fremont Indian State Park is located about 21 miles west of Richfield, Utah on Interstate 70 and 18 miles east of the junction of I-15 and I-70. The trailhead for this hike can be found on the south side of the Visitor Center.


The trail is interpretive in nature with numbered stops that correspond to a trail guide that you can borrow from the Visitor Center. If you would like your own personal copy you can print one from their website to bring with you.


Much of the rock art is very faded and hard to see. We even had a hard time tracing these images on our computer where we could enlarge them. The object of this particular stop is called 'Shrike Rock'. According to Paiute legend it was the shrike (a bird) that found the hole out of the underworld. This rock is a shrine to the shrike.


The cement path makes a big loop around the edge of Little Dog Canyon.


This panel has an image of Spider Woman and her Twin Warrior sons.


Back when all of these petroglyphs were originally made a walk around Little Dog Canyon must have been like viewing a story or history book or perhaps even like a Fremont bible. That must have made the area very sacred.


The panels include hunting scenes and the Paiute Creation Story.


The Fremont are also well known for images that remind some people of extraterrestrials.


At times there are people that feel a reverent awe when visiting places like this. They may feel inclined to rest in the midst of it all and meditate upon the scene while they let their minds drift back in imagination over the centuries.


All total there are 10 stops along the trail even though there are many more petroglyphs to see.


A person can actually spend quite a bit of time just around the Visitor Center in the Fremont Indian State Park. Besides the museum that they have inside there are a half dozen or so hiking trails that can all be accessed from here. We discovered that there was more to see than what we could accomplish in a single visit. If you find yourselves with very little time you might try to at least see the museum and hike the Parade of Rock Art and perhaps the Cave of 100 Hands trails. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.