Round Trip Distance: 3.5 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 4340 - 4572 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 2 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: 39.12589, -109.05401
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, grinding slicks
The Stateline Petroglyphs are located along the Colorado River near the Colorado/Utah Stateline. Faint, but distinct, petroglyphs can be found in a shallow alcove and a couple of places on the cliffs. Beneath another shelter there is a boulder with 4 deep grinding slicks and a few more petroglyphs.
For this post we are getting to the site through Rabbit Valley on the Colorado side of the border. For turn-by-turn directions to the trailhead enter 39.12589, -109.05401 into your driving app. A 4WD medium clearance vehicle is preferable do to possibilities for deep sand. You will be directed through Rabbit Valley for about 5 miles to the Knowles Canyon Overlook Campground where you will continue to the right for another 1.7 miles to the trailhead.
The old 4WD road continues after crossing the fence and serves as a good enough trail.
Eventually the route meets up with the Colorado River E Road. If you cross the tracks you can continue following the road to the Stateline where you will have to cross the tracks once again and then double back on the north side of the tracks along the cliffs to find the petroglyphs. An alternative would be to not cross the tracks but instead head directly toward the petroglyphs along the north side of the tracks.
If you continue to the Stateline you will find UTAH COLORADO painted on the cliff in large white letters. Someone has put this on Google Maps with the label: Utah/Colorado Rock Carving.
There are some old inscriptions here but there aren't any petroglyphs that we could see.
Once we discovered that we had been buffaloed by what someone put on Google Maps we began hiking back along the cliff. The first petroglyphs that we found were in a small cave.
There is one anthropomorphic male figure here with a round head and arms bent downward. The guys penis is longer than his legs. The arms are pretty faint but if you look closely you can also make out some fingers.
Besides a few tool marks the rest of the cave is heavily graffitied.
On the west end of the cave there are 3 bighorn sheep and a rectangular shape amongst more graffiti.
At the next place along the cliff there are a couple more anthropomorphic images. This one has a concentric circle with 2 long antennae for a head and a V shaped body.
About 10-15 feet further west is this bird handed figure.
The next place along the cliff has a figure with a lot of connected lines and shapes. Most of the images are very faint.
The last stop is at an overhang with a large rock beneath it that has 4 large grinding slicks, a smaller cupule, all surrounded by some pecked images. Lying about on the rock and elsewhere are some of the grinding stones that were used at the site.
The petroglyphs are pretty faint but still interesting and the grinding slicks were a big surprise that made the trip worthwhile by themselves. If you would like to see it all for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
