Nine Mile Canyon March 28, 2020

Today was the first "Stay Safe, Stay Home" directive from Governor Gary Herbert due to the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) disease, which is caused by a virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). His directive is not an order, which would include legal penalties, although it is an order in Salt Lake City and other locations. Governor Herbert's directive said that recreation is okay remain at least six feet apart from individuals from other households when  engaging in outdoor activities (i.e., walking, hiking, running, biking, driving for pleasure, hunting, fishing).

So, today we took a pleasure drive with the Austins to Nine Mile canyon near Price, Utah. Nine Mile Canyon is about 40 miles long and is called "the world's longest art gallery," thanks to the thousands of petroglyphs (carvings in rock) and pictographs (paintings on rocks) made by the Fremont and Ute native Americans about 1,000 years ago.

The freeways and Highway 6 to Price had very little traffic. We met at the Chevron station in Wellington, which is also where the Nine Mile Canyon road begins, at noon, and explored the canyon until about 5:30. We saw about three other parties at Rassmuessen's Cove, which has picnic tables and an outhouse, and met only one family on the trail. One couple was also just leaving The Big Hunt site when we arrived. Otherwise, we didn't see any other people all day.

This is the first panel, about 26 miles from Wellington. 

Another look at the first panel. 

We hiked a ways above the first panel looking for some more petroglyphs that we didn't find. 

Here's Emi in a perfect resting place during a rainstorm, if there were one, which there wasn't. 

The Austins climbed above the panel for a picture. 

Chieko is pointing out a petroglyph panel 

Here are the Austins posing for a picture above the petroglyph panel. 

Austins hiking around. 

Caleb hanging around above everyone else. 

This is either a snake (which the maps we downloaded called it) or a river. We think the vertical squiggly lines are snakes, and the horizontal squiggly lines are rivers. 

This panel is one rock over from the snake/river. 

At first I thought this was a bird, but there are a lot of goats, and this now looks like a goat without legs. Maybe the "artist" got caught scribbling on the walls and had to stop before he finished the legs. 

Another panel of artwork. This canyon has a lot of these panels. 

This one is ver close to the ground, strengthening our theory that these pictures were made by children. Some of the people have arms coming from their heads, much they way little children draw people. 

Here's an overhead picture. 

This is a pictograph, which is a picture painted on the rock rather than craved into it. 

The Great Hunt is probably the most famous panel in the canyon. 

This is a modern explanation of The Great Hunt. 

Here are Jamie and Apollo. 

We tried to maintain the mandated "social distancing" six-foot space between members of other households. 

Here are Chieko and me in front of the Big Buffalo. We are in the same household, so the six-foot rule doesn't apply. 

Here's the group posing for a picture in front of the Big Buffalo. 

We saw a lot, a LOT of deer. Several hundred for sure. In herds all up and down the canyon. 

A small group of deer we saw grazing as we were leaving the canyon.