Judd Creek Site

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.2 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 5639 - 5659 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Judd Creek
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, rock circles

The Judd Creek Site is located about 47 miles north of Delta, Utah. The site consists of a short lava ridge that has at its base a fast moving perennial stream. Many of the basalt boulders that form the ridge display various archaic style petroglyphs. On the little mesa above the ridge are found several rock circles

Pretty much any way you go to get to the Judd Creek Site there will be a lot of gravel road driving. For turn by turn directions you can try entering Judd Creek Trailhead into your driving app or give it the GPS coordinates of 39.903928, -112.651557. From Delta it will send you almost due north over Desert Mountain Pass. The pass is more of a hump than what you would imagine a mountain pass to be. If coming from the direction of Salt Lake City it will probably direct you onto the Weiss Highway by turning off Highway 6 as if going to the Little Sahara Recreation Area. Don't let the name Weiss Highway fool you into thinking that it is a paved road. That's it in the photo and it is 100% gravel.

Regardless of which route you take you will end up turning north onto the unmarked River Bottom, aka 6 Mile Road, and following that for 4.1 miles and then going right onto the also unmarked Judd Creek Road. This photo was taken at the turnoff from the Weiss Highway onto the 6 Mile Road. Basically you are headed across the flats toward the distant mountains where the Judd Creek Road will lead a short distance up one of the valleys. It is 4.4 miles from the 6 Mile Road to the site.

There is a large pullout on the left directly after crossing a cattleguard. Some petroglyphs are immediately visible while others appear after getting your eyes accustomed to the search.

This boulder is down low and one of the most obvious as you first approach the hill. It has images that are a little reminiscent of a 'dream catcher'.

Anthropomorphic, or human like, images seem to be the most prevalent.

This faint anthropomorphic image has a Fremont body style setting it apart from most of the other.

There are several scrambling routes up to the top of the ridge that are all lined with images.

Once on top a couple of rock circles can be seen.

This guy looks like he's getting ready for a gunfight. It's interesting to see the rounded shoulders.

Stick like male figure.

 Another stick figure.

A few of the circles are situated next to other boulders that might cast shadows to create solar calendars.

When we made our visit to take the photos for this post the roads were in good enough condition for most 2wd highway vehicles. With all the various anthropomorphic images, each one slightly different from the others, scattered around the side of the hill, the Judd Creek Site seemed like a primitive portrait gallery. We've seen much better photos from Judd Creek than what we took but seeing that we are behind posting over 150 other sites we didn't spend any extra time fiddling with our raw images. If you would like to see Judd Creek for yourself and take your own pictures then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.