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.

Vermillion Canyon

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 2.5 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 5855 - 6180 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 3 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: 40.77551, -108.71398
Fee: none
Attractions: rock art

Vermillion Canyon is located in the northwest corner of Moffat County, Colorado about 18 miles east of the Colorado/Utah border and about 14 miles south of the Wyoming border. The canyon shows ancient signs of habitation by Native People in the way of rock art and several rock shelters. Most of the rock art is in the form of Fremont and Basketmaker petroglyphs. There is one rock shelter that does have 3 or 4 red pictographs.

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.