Gallery › Barrier Canyon Style

The (Perfect) Hitchhiker Panel

The full Hitchhiker panel: tapering painted figures along a sandstone wall

Rock art panels often have various names and some insist this is The Perfect Panel, possibly for its location, or that it looks pristine, but more likely because it is such an amazing panel. It is exposed to sun and the elements daily but the paint, for the most part, is still bright and colorful and hasn't smeared.

Large Barrier Canyon Style figure decorated with white dots, with one arm outstretched toward a bird

This artist's use of "dots" and patterns is distinctive. Similar large figures are seen at the Great Gallery and at Hog Springs.

Tapering Barrier Canyon Style figures decorated with white dots and zigzag patterns

Although thankfully not vandalized, this panel isn't truly pristine as remnants of white paint show that one or more figures in the middle have faded away. Note the white "shadow" on the snake at the far right.

Close view of the two left figures, with red paint running below them

At first I thought the artist spilled the paint pot but after I saw the same thing at another Barrier Canyon Style panel I wonder if it was intentional.

Eroded Barrier Canyon Style figures on a weathered sandstone wall

In the canyon upstream is this heavily eroded panel, seemingly by the same artist.

Wide view of a shallow alcove above the creek

The eroded panel is above the creek in a shallow alcove, which looks as if it may once have been a rock shelter.

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