Nine Mile Canyon

When we lived in Washington we took quite a few trips to Utah, almost always taking the same route.  Each time we passed through Salt Lake City, got off the interstate in Spanish Fork, and headed over the mountains on highway 6.  After passing through Price, Utah there is a turn off for Nine Mile Canyon, and each time we passed we thought "maybe next time" for a visit.  This trip we have the time, so we made the turn and went for a visit.

All we really knew is that the area was known for rock art, so we picked up a brochure to give us a little background, and headed for the only campground in the area.  Nine Mile Ranch Campground is a working cattle ranch, and this turned out to be a great perk for us.  After weeks of reading books to Madeline that featured farm animals, we were able to introduce her to the real thing, up close and personal.  The ranch has horses, cows, chickens, rabbits, a dog, and at least one cat.  While we were there they were doing a cattle round-up, so she also got to see real cowboys (and a cowgirl).  One of the cowboys was nice enough to stop for her and she got to pet the horse.

Once we left the ranch we spent the day exploring the rock art in the canyon.  There are probably hundreds of panels in the area, and we ended up seeing quite a few.  The brochure we picked up gives directions to find several of the more popular, but we found that driving slowly we spotted a lot of panels that were unmarked, some of them large with unusual figures.  There were several places to park and walk to see some of the panels, so we took the opportunity to pull out the kid carrier again and got some exercise as well.

Because the canyon is fairly remote, we decided to take our time and spent the whole day sight-seeing, and stayed a second night at the ranch.  The great weather that we have been experiencing on this trip held and we enjoyed two more days of sunshine and clear skies.