Colonnade Arch, Utah

 Colonnade Arch. Really cool arch!

I had never heard of Colonnade Arch or Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness. During some search for hikes in our 2024 Winter trip in Utah, this came up and we gave it a try after a big hike, which was Holy Ghost Panel hike in Horseshoe (Barrier) Canyon in Canyonlands National Park. 

Colonnade Arch hike is only 2.3 miles with less than 200 feet elevation change, so it was nice to add to a big hike to conclude a day. Holy Ghost Panel Hike was no any other person, and after that, no single car or a person to the trailhead of Colonnade Arch, and during hike absolutely nobody else. Perfect solitude day!

The hike is pretty straightforward. Relatively flat trail until a little before arch. The view is gorgeous and massive. You see the vast Utah's world with magnificent mountain range in the distance as below picture. 

It is already rewarding of this view, but this is just one of many great scenery. Of course another big highlight is the Colonnade Arch. Every arch is unique. This one has continuous arch together as you see in the below picture. So cool, isn't it? The arch even exists behind in the back of first layers of arch. People don't know much about the fact there are so many cool arches in addition to Arches National Park, for example in American Southwest. 

It is fun exploring under the arch as well. The bottom picture is now looking the canyon view from the arch. Priceless view. Because it was evening, the sun was going down and every minute the lightning was changing. It was warm orange sunshine hitting the rock. That makes the rock color really beautiful. 

When we came back to the trailhead, the sunlight got really orange and the scenery was different than the time we started (you can compare with the first picture). What a bonus. 

Barrier Canyon Style Rock Art, Sego Canyon

So Fascinating to see Barrier Canyon Style Rock Art. 

One of the focus in 2024 Winter Trip to Utah was seeing Barrier Canyon Style Rock art. I previously wrote about Horseshoe Canyon hike to see Barrier Canyon Style (actually same as Horseshoe canyon) rock art. In Horseshoe Canyon we saw Holy Ghost Panel. Holy Ghost Panel is the most famous Barrier Canyon Style rock art. Besides that, Sego canyon is also a great place to see Barrier Canyon Style Rock art. For Holy Ghost Panel, you need to hike 10 miles, but for Sego Canyon, only 0.1 mile, which is good for people physically difficult to hike 10 miles. 

Barrier Canyon Style Rock art is found in Southeast Utah mainly. It is made a long time ago, as far as 7800 BCE.  Some are new as 500 BCE. Rock art is more known as Native Americans like Anasazi or Fremont style, which is more recent like 1000 years ago. Barrier Canyon style is really distinct from those. I really think Barrie Canyon style is fascinating. When I see them, I feel somewhat scary, sacred, and my soul is something connected with those images. Hard to explain. You need to really see them in person. 

The below picture is the most striking panel in Sego Canyon. This panel is really high. You see the top of tree is the bottom of the panel. Also you can tell how big the panel is based on the trees on the ground and on the top of cliff. The ground level might be higher when the panel was made, but still upper section of the panel cannot be reached easily. How could they paint these? 

The second picture above is the section of panel zoomed in. Looks like alien, especially the most left person with big "hole" eyes. The left picture is the focus of that one. Everyone has some decoration on their heads like horns. Those are made from lines. Some have earrings. 

This one in the left has chains of circles (another solid circle in the each circle). Each circle is connected with multiple lines. What does this mean? Interesting. 

Head's decoration has two layers. First with two thicker lines, then thinner three lines on them. So much detailed design. 

Due to the long time exposure and erosion, it looks like some rocks were fell off over the time.

This is another set of panel. This time it is petroglyph. Another detailed design. Decoration with circles for neckless. Each one's head has many decorations. The right person is crying?! The style of the humans are triangles. Huge shoulder width reminds me of the shape of Olympic swimmer body shape. 

Some panels are unfortunately vandalized heavily, although BLM erased some of them. It is still worth visiting here and you WILL feel the Barrier Canyon soul floating around.