Lower Price River

Udink

Still right here.
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
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I didn't expect that the lower Price River held so much rock art, but I accompanied Alan on a trip there this past weekend and we found a lot. I was glad to have a guide because much of the rock art is difficult to find unless you know where to look. Alan drove his truck and we got about as far as possible in an F-250 before beginning to hike. We hiked farther down the road and saw some petroglyphs and pictographs that I'd missed on my previous trips in the area. There was one pictograph panel in particular that was amazing, but we couldn't find a way to climb up to it. It appears that since the rock art was made a rockfall has rendered it inaccessible. We continued past the point where the road leaves the canyon and looked for a place to cross the river.


Starting the hike with blue skies
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Petroglyphs high above the road
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Petroglyphs high above the road
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Red and yellow pictographs
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Closeup of red and yellow pictograph
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Amazing and inaccessible pictograph panel
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Cottonwood along the Price River
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I had never attempted to cross a river on foot before. We changed into sandals, rolled our pant legs up, and waded across the bitter cold water. The water was only mid-shin deep, and it was so cold that it was painful. Torrey and both of Alan's dogs followed us without complaint, but Boulder refused to follow me across. I had to wait until the pain in my feet subsided, then I crossed again to leash her up and bring her back to the opposite side of the river.


Torrey in the icy water
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Our crossing point
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Breaking through ice after crossing the river
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There were a couple of really nice petroglyph panels that had bighorn sheep similar to many I've seen in Nine Mile Canyon. Our turnaround point was at some white pictographs that Alan had heard about, but when we arrived he remembered seeing them on a previous trip.


Sheep and dog
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Long-necked sheep
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Sheep with hooves
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On each side of this petroglyph panel, there appear to be human figures pointing arrows at each other
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Archer (top left) and sheep with an arrow in its back
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Bighorn sheep
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Possibly another dog with bighorn sheep
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Awesome sheep petroglyph
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Natural arch
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Beaver skull
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Alan photographing some rock art
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White pictographs
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We hiked back upstream alongside the river and passed up the place we'd crossed earlier in the day, hoping to find rock art that wasn't easily visible from the opposite side. We did find some new-to-us rock art on that side, but it was nothing spectacular.


A flower hanging on despite freezing temperatures
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Bear scat
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Climbing high above the river
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Faded pictographs
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Faded pictographs, DStretch enhanced
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Red dots
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Frozen Price River
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One last time we crossed the river--it was my fourth crossing but only Alan's second. We couldn't find a nice place to cross. This time it involved a lot of heavy bushwhacking, and the water was a lot deeper, coming up to mid-thigh on me. We stopped at one last rock art panel, one that we'd both seen before and is probably one of the few well-known sites in the area. As soon as we got back to the truck it started snowing, which, according to a text from my wife, it had been doing much of the day in Price. We'd lucked out and had decent weather for our hike, and combined with the amount of rock art we found it made for a great day.


Alan crossing in relatively deep water
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Hiking out to the road
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My legs and feet turned red from the freezing water
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Pictographs
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Horned anthropomorph
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Abraded sheep overlaid with newer petroglyphs
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Low clouds that brought snow right at the end of the hike
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Photo Gallery: https://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Udink/LowerPriceRiver

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that inaccessible panel is really nice
 
Nice report. Am I correct in assuming that this is the road to Mt Elliot that you reported on earlier? I've driven to where the angle of the road is just too risky to proceed.
 
Nice report. Am I correct in assuming that this is the road to Mt Elliot that you reported on earlier? I've driven to where the angle of the road is just too risky to proceed.
Yeah, that's the road in question. I rode it on an ATV in 2010 and I was sketched out on what I assume is the same section you mentioned. This time, however, it didn't look to bad, and I would probably not hesitate to take my Grand Cherokee (but still not an F-250) all the way to where the road fords the Price River before climbing up onto Beckwith Plateau.
 
Yeah, that's the road in question. I rode it on an ATV in 2010 and I was sketched out on what I assume is the same section you mentioned. This time, however, it didn't look to bad, and I would probably not hesitate to take my Grand Cherokee (but still not an F-250) all the way to where the road fords the Price River before climbing up onto Beckwith Plateau.
If one could get past the nasty place in a Toyota Tacoma are you saying that would still not be enough to drive all the way to Mt Elliot?
 
If one could get past the nasty place in a Toyota Tacoma are you saying that would still not be enough to drive all the way to Mt Elliot?
I'd say you probably couldn't get a Tacoma up on top. I only hesitate because I know a group of Jeeps made it up in 2010 (see photo below), but when I was taking an ATV up there I kept thinking to myself there's no way a full-sized vehicle could do it. Obviously they can, but it's probably not easy.

From Old Jeeper's geocache log:
78a9818f-0b8a-48bd-9909-8bc2c49b3f47.jpg
 
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