Wild About Utah Archives - Page 188 of 220

February 17, 2011January 9, 2023

The Sistine Chapel in Utah

Utah is famous for the beautiful and mysterious rock art found on its colorful canyon walls.

There are two main types of rock art. A petroglyph is an image that is pecked, incised, or scratched into rock. Petroglyphs are often found on rock surfaces coated with desert varnish. The dark stained varnish provides high contrast as the image is carved into the lighter underlying stone.

Pictographs, however, are painted onto rather than carved into a rock surface. Mineral pigments such as hematite, limonite, azurite, and gypsum were used to produce long lasting liquid and solid paints. Paint was applied with brushes, fingertips or hands, with fiber wads and even by spraying or blowing paint. It’s possible that vegetable dyes were also used by ancient artists but these would have been washed away without leaving a trace.

Archaeologists classify ancient rock art into different styles according to image content, drawing techniques, location, and the relationships between various picture elements. The so-called Barrier Canyon Style is well-known in eastern Utah where its greatest level of expression is found.

The Barrier Canyon Style features human-like figures with a supernatural appearance. Torso lengths are exaggerated and shaped like mummys or bottles. Heads may have horns, rabbitlike ears or antennalike projections. Eyes of the figures are often round and staring. Hands, if present, may be holding plant-like images or snakes. Aside from the human-like figures, birds, canines, bighorn sheep, and rabbits are also common in Barrier Canyon Style compositions.

Cultural affiliations of the Barrier Canyon Style artists are still not fully understood. But most archeaologists agree that the artists were part of small bands of nomadic people who roamed the Colorado Plateau between 7500 BC and 300 AD.

Perhaps the best place to view the Barrier Canyon style is in the Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon near Canyonlands National Park. The Great Gallery features a 300 feet long mural with over 60 figures. David Sucec (pronounced Soosek)–who is coordinating an effort to photograph and record all Barrier Canyon Style rock art–calls the Great Gallery ‘Utah’s Sistine Chapel.’

So far over 230 different sites featuring Barrier Canyon Style rock art have been discovered. In Utah, look for them in the Book Cliffs area, the San Rafael Swell, around Moab and in Canyonlands National Park.

Thanks to the Red Cliffs Lodge in Moab, Utah for supporting research and development of this Wild About Utah topic.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Images: Courtesy & Copyright David Sucec
Text: Holly Strand, Stokes Nature Center

Sources & Additional Reading:

BCSProject. https://www.bcsproject.org/about.html

Cole, Sally. 1990. Legacy on Stone: Rock Art of the Colorado Plateau and Four Corners Region. Boulder, CO: Johnson Printing

Repanshek, Kurt. Traces of a Lost People. 2005. Smithsonian magazine. March 2005. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/lost.html

Schaafsma, Polly. The Rock Art of Utah. 1971, Third Printing 1987, Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 65, paper, 169 pp. https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Art-Utah-Polly-Schaafsma/dp/0874804353

Take the Pledge to Protect the Past, Utah State Historical Preservation Office, Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, State of Utah, https://ushpo.utah.gov/shpo/upan/

February 10, 2011May 9, 2016

Snowshoes

Imagine yourself living in Utah hundreds of years ago – before cars, before horses, before European influences. Summers provide you with abundant game and a multitude of plants for food and other materials, but the winters are harsh and full of snow. How did Native Americans manage to survive winter without modern amenities like snow plows and grocery stores? These hearty individuals owe their ability to hunt and travel in our snowy climate to one important tool – the snowshoe.

Snowshoes have been a part of life for humans in cold-weather climates for at least 6,000 years. From what historians can tell, people living in central Asia learned to strap thin planks of wood to their feet in order to help them travel through deep snow. Snowshoes work by increasing the surface area of the wearer’s foot, which distributes his or her weight across more snow – allowing them to basically float on top of the snow.

Western Subartic Antique Indian Snowshoes. circa 1890 – 1920., Photo Courtesy & Copyright VintageWinter.com — Western Subartic Antique
Indian Snowshoes. circa 1890 – 1920.
Photo Courtesy & Copyright VintageWinter.com

From this common ancestor in central Asia, both snowshoes and skis arose. Over the years, people began to spread out and move to new locations. Those who went west, into Europe, eventually developed the ski and those who went east across Siberia and into the Americas developed the snowshoe. The early snowshoes used by Native Americans were constructed of a wooden frame which was laced with babiche, un-tanned animal hide.

While we will likely never know why that first person decided to strap a plank of wood to their foot, perhaps they took their cue from Mother Nature. You see, humans are not the only ones who have figured out how to keep ourselves afloat on snow – some members of the animal world have too, and Utah holds two standout examples: the aptly named snowshoe hare and the Canada lynx. Both of these animals have extraordinarily large feet, which act much the same as our snowshoes, distributing the animal’s weight across a larger surface area.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that both snowshoe hares and Canada lynx share this amazing adaptation. These two species are closely connected to each other in a special relationship: that of predator and prey. Leaving us to ponder the question: whose snowshoes came first, the lynx or the hare?

Eastern Subartic Indian Snowshoes. circa 1855 – 1900, Photo Courtesy & Copyright VintageWinter.com — Eastern Subartic Indian Snowshoes. circa 1855 – 1900
Photo Courtesy & Copyright VintageWinter.com

For more information and photos of traditional snowshoes, please visit our website at www.wildaboututah.org. Thank you to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for supporting the research and development of this Wild About Utah topic.

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy Hudson Museum,
University of Maine
www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum/
Nick Thomas, SkiEO, VintageWinter www.vintagewinter.com
Text: Andrea Liberatore, Stokes Nature Center

Click to visit Vintage Snowshoe Slideshow, Courtesy & Copyright VintageWinter.com — Vintage Snowshoe Slideshow
Visit the Vintage Winter Sports Museum
Courtesy & Copyright VintageWinter.com

Additional Reading:

Prater, Gene. 1998. Snowshoeing, 3rd Edition. Seattle: The Mountaineers

Zeveloff, Samuel I. 1988. Mammals of the Intermountain West. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press

February 3, 2011June 30, 2020

Huddling for Warmth

Beaver in snow, Courtesy US FWS — Beaver in snow
Image Courtesy US FWS

When temperatures dip below freezing and wind hurries on its way, we often find ourselves looking for another warm body to huddle near and share heat. Children snuggle into laps and dogs lean close.

Many animals huddle to stave off the cold. Species that are strong individualists in balmy seasons seek warmth from a group when temperatures drop. Many non-colonial rodents will share a den come winter.

[Kevin Colver recording: Songbirds of the Southwest Canyon Country]

Pygmy nuthatches jam themselves tightly together into tree cavities as do flying squirrels. Through the winter, worker honeybees huddle tightly around a central patch of wax comb where developing larvae are growing. The larvae die if temperatures drop below 83 degrees, so a living blanket of worker bees shivers to generate the heat equivalent to a 40 watt incandescent bulb.

An animal loses heat in direct proportion to its surface area. By huddling together, each animal reduces its exposed surface area. This in turn allows them to reduce their metabolic rate and so conserve energy at a time when food can be scarce or inaccessible.

Nests or dens occupied by numerous individuals can be much warmer than ambient. A snow covered lodge with at least 2 beaver occupants can be as much as 35 degrees warmer than the outside air temperature. A study of taiga voles showed that underground nests containing 5 to 10 residents remained 7 to 12 degrees warmer than the surrounding soil and up to 25 degrees warmer than the air above. Individuals take turns going out to forage so their nest remains toasty.

Living in close proximity does have its problems. Disease and parasites are readily transmitted in tight quarters. Local food competition could potentially lead to hunger or starvation. Predators may more easily discover prey in groups. But for many animals, the advantages of huddling for warmth far outweigh the risks during our chilly winter months.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.
Credits:

Photos: Courtesy US FWS

Audio: Courtesy Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections

Text: Linda Kervin, Bridgerland Audubon Society
Additional Reading:

Life in the Cold: An Introduction to Winter Ecology. Peter Marchand. 1991, University Press of New England. https://www.amazon.com/Life-Cold-Introduction-Winter-Ecology/dp/0874517850

Lives of North American Birds. Kenn Kaufman. 1996, Houghton Mifflin Company. https://www.amazon.com/American-Peterson-Natural-History-Companions/dp/0395770173

The Birder’s Handbook. Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin and Darryl Wheye. 1988, Simon & Schuster, Inc. https://www.amazon.com/Birders-Handbook-American-including-Regularly/dp/1435277589

January 27, 2011August 19, 2025

Utah, the Red State

Hi, I’m Holly Strand for Wild About Utah

Straddling the four corners region is a massive geologic province known as the Colorado Plateau. Varying from 5 to 10,000 feet in elevation the region covers an area even larger than Utah, and is composed of thick horizontal layers of sedimentary rock. Wind and water have whittled Plateau rock into dramatic cliffs and steps as well as fanciful domes, towers, turrets, and arches. A predominance of red bed deposits in the central area of the Plateau has prompted the nickname “red rock country.”

So what’s behind these spectacular red hues? The color of rock is primarily influenced by trace minerals. The red, brown, and yellow colors so prevalent here result from the presence of oxidized iron–that is iron that has undergone a chemical reaction upon exposure to air or oxygenated water. The iron oxides released from this process form a coating on the surface of the rock or rock grains containing the iron.

Utah, the Red State: Entrada sandstone is responsible for some of the reddish rock found in Arches National Park. Photo Courtesy USGS — Entrada sandstone is responsible
for some of the reddish rock found
in Arches National Park.
Courtesy USGS

Just think of what happens to a nail when you leave it outside. Upon prolonged exposure, the iron in the nail oxidizes and rust is formed as a coating on the surface of the nail. So basically what we have in red rock country is a lot of rusting sandstones and shales. Hematite is an especially common mineral form of iron oxide in Utah, the name coming from the Greek word “heama” or red blood. It only takes a tiny bit of hematite make a lot of red rock.

Certain rock formations in Utah are particularly well-known for their beautiful reddish colors. The Permian Period gave us Organ Rock shale which caps the buttes and pinnacles of Monument Valley. The deep ruddy browns of the Moenkopi formation were formed in the Triassic. In the early Jurassic, eastern Utah was a vast sea of sand with wind-blown dunes. These dunes became the red bed deposits of the Wingate Formation which today forms massive vertical cliffs. Entrada sandstone, from the late Jurassic, forms the spectacular red, slickrock around Moab.

Reddish brown Moenkopi Formation in Capitol Reef National Park, Photo Courtesy USGS — Reddish brown Moenkopi Formation
in Capitol Reef National Park.
Courtesy USGS

So now you know what I’m thinking of when I hear Utah referred to as a Red State. I’m picturing the extraordinary splendor of the red, orange and rust- brown rocks that help to form the massive geologic layer cake in the south and east of our state.

For Wild About Utah I’m Holly Strand.

Utah, the Red State-Credits:

Photos: Courtesy National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/brca/ and

United States Geological Survey (USGS), https://www.usgs.gov/

Text & Voice: Holly Strand

Utah, the Red State-Additional Reading:

Discover additional Wild About Utah pieces authored and voiced by Holly Strand, https://wildaboututah.org/author/holly-strand/

Chan,Marjorie A. and William T. Parry Rainbow of Rocks . Public Information Series 77. Utah Geological Survey. https://ugspub.nr.utah.gov/publications/public_information/pi-77.pdf [Accessed August 2025]

Geology Underfoot in Southern Utah by Richard L. Orndorff, Robert W. Wieder, and David G. Futey, Missoula, MT Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2006, https://mountain-press.com/products/geology-underfoot-in-southern-utah

Chronic, Halka. Roadside Geology of Utah. Missoula, MT Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1990 https://mountain-press.com/products/roadside-geology-utah

Fillmore, Robert, The Geology of the Parks, Monuments and Wildlands of Southern Utah, University of Utah Press, 2000, https://uofupress.com/books/geology-of-parks-monuments-and-wildlands-of-southern-utah/