Cub Creek

The Cub Creek rock art is located within Dinosaur National Monument. Currently, the fee to enter the park is $15.00 for bicyclists and pedestrians, $20.00 for motorcycles, and $25.00 for cars. The pass is good for seven days and can be purchased in advance here.

It consists of stops 13 & 14, and everything in between on the Tour of the Tilted Rocks autotour. Guidebooks for the tour are available for a small fee at the visitor center. Castleton features Cub Creek in his book, stating: "Some are along the road, but most of them-especially the best ones-extend for about 200 yards along red sandstone cliffs north of the road." Castleton v.1, p.49.

Coordinate for parking:

UTM: 653922, 4475963
Decimal Degrees: 40.42007, -109.18566
Lat/Long: 40º 25' 12.25", 109º 11' 8.37"

Coordinate for the panels:

UTM: 653699, 4475882
Decimal Degrees: 38.55422, -109.58705
Lat/Long: 40º 25' 9.78", 109º 11' 17.91"

Maps:

1:100,000 Vernal
1:24:000 Split Mountain

Because of the lack of contrast between the glyphs and the surrounding rock and the position of the sun, these were very difficult to photograph. We both tried several angles and settings.

Castleton, v.1 p.51; Schaafsma, p.23.

A little closer view.

Early on, when I would read books about rock art, it always bothered me that the author often included drawings instead of photographs. However, we have equipment infinitely superior to what they had in the 20th century, and yet we struggle sometimes to get a decent photo, so I'm beginning to understand the drawings.

Both of these photos are in a small alcove between stops 13 and 14 on the Tilted Rocks Tour. As I was driving from one stop to the next, Sean spotted those four dots a couple of hundred yards away, high up on the cliff.

It's hard to see, but there is a pecked line running from the hand in the lower left of the photo to a shape near the top center.

This site is loaded with glyphs of lizards. The big one, deservedly, gets all the attention, but I thought this one running straight up the cliffside was really cool. I also found it interesting that every glyph we saw of a lizard, their legs were facing forward.

Sean and I wondered why this site had so many glyphs of lizards. Was it because there are lizards everywhere, did later artists see the area's 'theme' and continue with it, or was there another reason? Schaafsma, p.24.

There is a circle near the center of the photo and a u-shaped glyph up and to the left of that.

At all the rock art sites we've visited, I've never seen figures done in part petroglyph and part pictograph until we went to the McConkie Ranch and Three Kings on the first day of the trip. (Sean thinks we have, but can't remember where.) We speculated that these were once part of such a combined glyph, and the pictograph portion has been erased by time and the elements. There are several photos of glyphs on this page where we believe that is the likely explanation.

The last two photos are close-ups of the previous one.

Schaafsma, p.24.

Castleton, v.1 p.49; Schaafsma, p.24.

A close-up of the previous photo. The large lizard is 8-10 feet long. Dinosaur NM uses this glyph to alert one to the stops on the Tour of Tilted Rocks.