Round Trip Distance: 1,000 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4970 - 4996 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 3 hrs. 45 mins.
Trailhead: Desert Mtn. Rd. mm 1.6
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
Desert Mountain Site 3 is the third of four petroglyph sites that are located along a primitive road on the south side of Desert Mountain. The area is in the dry, sparsely vegetated, desert about 26 miles due north of Delta, Utah.
Site 3 is only about one tenth of a mile past Site 2. It is a low-lying outcrop that angles up the slope of the hillside. On the west side of the outcrop the images stretch from one end to the other. There are also a few image on top and on the east side.
The surface of the rock is very smooth and reflective. From some angles all the images show up easily. Where the surface is uneven some of the images show up while others disappear in the glare. It's difficult to find an angle where all the images show up at the same time.
Various interconnected concentric circles.
Here is a footprint or bear paw.
Here you can see how the densely packed images stretch out all along the west side of the outcrop. This photo is only a small portion of what stretches out for over 50 feet.
The two dice looking images are attention getters.
So is this little square bodied dude.
Bear paw.
Interesting abstract examples of anthropomorphism. If they represent gods I wonder gods of what?
Various geometric images.
There are a couple of rainbow images on this rock. The one on the right looks kind of like a person holding up a rainbow.
Ah ha! A tetradent! It looks a little like the skeleton of a forearm and hand.
Maybe stars or a necklace???
The photos that we took don't do Site 3 proper justice. It is really quite remarkable with scores of images stretching out for over 50 feet. Most of the images are very easy to see when viewed from the right angle. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
The photos that we took don't do Site 3 proper justice. It is really quite remarkable with scores of images stretching out for over 50 feet. Most of the images are very easy to see when viewed from the right angle. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
