Nine Mile Canyon

The rock art of Nine Mile Canyon was made largely by the Fremont, a Native culture that lived across much of Utah roughly a thousand to fifteen hundred years ago. The Fremont grew corn, beans, and squash, hunted game, and built pit houses, granaries, and stone structures, and this canyon was one of their strongholds, rich in water, game, and shelter.

The Fremont left no written language, but they left an astonishing visual record on these cliffs: hunters and bighorn sheep, human figures with elaborate headdresses and ornaments, snakes, birds, and abstract designs. Later peoples, including the Ute, added their own images as they passed through the canyon. The meanings of much of this art are not fully known, and it remains living heritage connected to Native nations still present in Utah.

The most celebrated site in the canyon is the Great Hunt panel, a large, beautifully preserved scene of a hunt, with a herd of bighorn sheep surrounded by figures with bows. It is considered one of the finest rock-art panels in North America, remarkable for the skill of its carving and the sense of action it conveys. Reaching it is a short walk from the road, and it draws visitors from around the world.

But the Great Hunt is only one of countless panels. Along the length of the canyon, cliffs and boulders carry petroglyph after petroglyph, some easy to spot from pullouts, others requiring a sharp eye or a short scramble. Interpretive stops and guides help visitors find the best-known sites, and a full drive can turn up images almost anywhere the walls close in.

Nine Mile Canyon holds more than art. Tucked into ledges and alcoves along the walls are Fremont granaries, small stone structures built to store grain, and the remains of dwellings and other structures. These give a sense of daily life in the canyon a thousand years ago, of families farming the canyon floor, storing their harvest high in the cliffs, and marking the walls as they went.

Together the art, the dwellings, and the granaries make Nine Mile Canyon an outdoor archive of an entire culture. It is one of the reasons the canyon has drawn scholars for more than a century, and one of the reasons its protection has become such a priority. Everything here is fragile and irreplaceable, and visitors are asked to look but never to touch, climb on, or disturb any site.

A visit to Nine Mile Canyon is a long, slow drive, and that is the point. Reached by a back road from Wellington, the route runs for many miles up the canyon, mostly paved but remote, with pullouts at the major sites and long stretches of quiet ranch and desert country between them. A full day, a full tank of fuel, and good maps are essential, as services and cell signal are scarce.

Spring and fall bring the mildest weather and the best light for spotting and photographing the art. Summer is hot and dry, and winter can bring cold, snow, and slick or impassable stretches of road. In any season this is remote country, so it pays to check conditions, carry water, and respect the fences and gates of the ranches whose land borders the road.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.