Nine Mile Canyon, UT - Part II

Granary high up on a cliff

Nine Mile Canyon must have been a comfortable place to live a thousand or more years ago. There is evidence of good hunting, grain storage, and multiple tribal cultures over the centuries.

So called “Fremont Culture” that once populated this area actually includes several different tribes and cultures spanning hundreds of years. There are several places where evidence of their occupation can be seen, such as granaries and stone foundations for pit houses, and other primitive structures.

If you care to hike the hillsides, guides available on the web (see below) will direct you to the stone rings that identify the location of pit houses and watch towers built by the first inhabitants. Granaries where provisions were stored are still visible, and some were found with grain still stored inside.  It's fascinating to view these ruins and wonder at how they were built in the first place. The big draw of the canyon for visitors today, however, is the petroglyphs.

Most of the petroglyphs were created approximately 1,000 years ago, and considering these are pecked into or painted on relatively soft sandstone it is a wonder they are as well preserved as they are.

Many still appear crisp and clear, others have suffered the ravages of vandalism and weather. Still, there is much to admire, whether for the art, or for the challenge of attempting to decipher the message intended in the drawings. 

Some of the panels and areas with a lot of rock art are named for the pioneers that lived in the area. Daddy Canyon (presumably named for ranch owner Katherine Nutter's nickname for her husband), and Rasmussen's Cave, for instance.

These two sites are actually right next to each other, and just across the road is a gas processing plant, as well as the ruins of a small stone building, partially buried in the sagebrush.

Stone house ruins

Sixty three of the rock art panels are listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, and many of the panels and motifs have been replicated in museums as being among the finest examples of specific styles and eras in American rock art.

Visit our album to see a few of the photos we've selected as being the most outstanding examples. We had to be selective, considering the number of shots we took, and it was hard making those decisions!

We used the Climb Utah guide and the Utah Outdoors guide. There's also good information available from the BLM on this site.

These self-guided tour publications help identify these sites, but you'll have to do a lot of searching too as landmarks are hard to come by and everyone's mileage varies a bit. The guides will provide you with invaluable information about each specific site, far more than we can include here. You’ll need to drive slowly, get out and walk, do a lot of looking at the cliffs with binoculars, and always turn around and look behind you, as often glyphs are pecked in all sides of a cliff or boulder. Shifting light can also obscure or display carvings you didn't notice before. I really think you could visit this canyon many times and see something different on each visit.