Irish Canyon Petroglyphs

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.3 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6098 - 6111 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: 40.78762, -108.73803
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs

Irish Canyon is a scenic corridor that is located in Moffat County, Colorado, in the northwest corner of the State. County Road 10 runs through the canyon connecting US 40 in Colorado to Rock Springs, Wyoming. At the mouth of the canyon on the south end there are two boulders upon which are some Fremont style petroglyphs.

Penitente Canyon Pictographs

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 7957 - 8016 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: 37.84328, -106.28571
Fee: none
Attractions: pictographs, Madonna Mural

Penitente Canyon is located west of La Garita, Colorado in the BLM Penitente Canyon Recreation Area. The canyon gets its name from a religious brotherhood calling themselves Los Hermanos Penitente who came to the area in the 1880's. In the mid 1980's 3 members of the group painted a mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe high on the canyon wall. Hundreds of years prior to that Native People painted their own pictographs in the canyon.

Ancient Valley Rock Shelter

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 1.1 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 7920 - 7984 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hr. 30 mins.
Trailhead: Ancient Valley Interpretive Site
Fee: none
Attractions: Scenic geology, rockshelter

The Ancient Valley Interpretive Site is located in the Elephant Rocks area between La Garita and Del Norte, Colorado. Besides some scenic geology we found a rock shelter in the area that had some appeared from a distance to have some black charcoal drawings.

Lobatos Bridge Petroglyphs

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.3 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 7442 - 7464 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Historic Lobatos Iron Bridge
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, picnic

The Historic Lobatos (wolf cubs) Iron Bridge is located about 14.5 miles east of Antonito, Colorado where County Road G crosses the Rio Grande River. The BLM has constructed a very nice day use area with a developed trail that leads by a few petroglyphs.

Lobatos Petroglyphs

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.2 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 7439 - 7459 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: 37.06612, -105.76798
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, ruins

The Historic Lobatos Iron Bridge is located about 14.5 miles east of Antonito, Colorado on Road G. Petroglyphs can be found at several places along the Rio Grande River in this area. The first are at the Lobatos Bridge Recreation Site and the next are another mile downstream. This post is for the downstream site where there are several ruins as well as quite a few petroglyphs.