Round Trip Distance: 0.4 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4908 - 4911 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Hole in the Rock
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
The Hole in the Rock Site is located about 15 miles west of Kanosh, Utah. A few petroglyphs can be found on some of the basalt boulders that form a ridge near the road. More petroglyphs can be seen as you walk along the base of the ridge. At the point where a gap appears in the line of the ridge there are found a good deal more petroglyphs of even better quality.
Turn-by-turn directions can be had by entering 'Hole in the Rock' into your driving app and choosing the one near Kanosh. At the 2.3 mile point, after turning off of the Little Black Rock Road, at the sign in this photo, the turn-by-turn directions might try to divert you onto a road that no longer exists. Simply continue a little further and they should recalculate and display the rest of the route to the site.
There is no danger of missing the trailhead which is right on the side of the road at the top of a small hill.
The kiosk at the trailhead mentions several other well known sites in the area, such as Devil's Kitchen and the Great Stone Face, but leaves out others like Paxton's Corral and the Water Tank Site, It does point out where the best petroglyphs are at this site if you bother to read what it says before staring out.
For a little variety a loop can be made by traveling out along the base of the ridge on the right and returning from the gap over the top of the small hill.
There are quite a few images representing elk and bighorn scattered about the boulders. This is one that is noticeable on one of the very first boulders that is passed. They continue to appear even along the ridge south of the gap.
Near the top of the ridge, at the very first, is a large basalt boulder with some good images. They are harder to see when the sun is at its brightest.
We wondered whether the ascending lines between these two figures might represent rising prayers or something of that sort.
Between the first boulder around the hole in the rock more petroglyphs can be found in little out of the way places as you proceed along the ridge.
Continuing along the ridge there is a gap that comes up where on the left side of the gap there are quite a few petroglyphs. Most of them are scrawled over one large boulder but there are probably a half dozen boulders with something to show.
We thought the image on the right was interesting because it looks so much like a tick.
The long rake symbol that stretches across the boulder just below the crack seems to be very common in this area where it appears, like here, in conjunction with numerous other images.
There are even a few faint petroglyphs in the brown area just to the left of the rock with the eponymous hole.
We actually had to make two trips to the Hole in the Rock Site to get photos of the petroglyphs around the gap in the ridge. On the first trip, which was early in the day, someone was lingering in front of the kiosk where it mentions the finer petroglyphs, and we had turned around before reaching them. All day we had a nagging feeling that we missed something and didn't make it back until just before sunset when the ambient light was not in our favor for taking pictures. The site is probably worth returning to for a third visit sometime when we are once again in the area. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
There are even a few faint petroglyphs in the brown area just to the left of the rock with the eponymous hole.
