Wolfe Ranch, Ute Petroglyphs and a Fiery Sunset

Saturday September 6, 2014
Portal RV Resort near
Arches National Park
Moab, Utah

 

 

Yesterday’s post was all about Petroglyphs so if you love them you should read that one here first since there is only one petroglyph in this post and it’s not ancient.   Old yes, but not ancient like those this morning.   We spend the afternoon inside out of the sun and the heat.

 

When the sun moves low enough in the sky for it to start to cool off, we head out for our last visit to Arches National Park.  I want to see the last petroglyph site near Wolfe Ranch and David wants to see the sun on the Fiery Furnace.  We are late getting out and it’s an 18 mile drive so I drop him off at the Furnace just in case I get delayed at the petroglyphs.

The petroglyphs are near the Wolfe Ranch site.  I pass the cabin on my way and take a couple of quick pictures. 

These petroglyphs are entitled the Ute Hunting scenes and are on a short spur trail just past the bridge over the wash off of the trail to Delicate Arch.  The wash is pretty cracked and dry.

The sign tells me that the petroglyphs are typical of Ute Rock art and were done between 1650 and 1850. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I take some close ups for a better view of these figures which are between 363 and 163 years old they say.  After these, the Utes were in a battle for their land which they ultimately lost.  Of course the state of Utah was named after them.   Was it a consolation?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stay a long time here in this spot sacred to the Native peoples.  No one else is around.  It’s quiet and beautiful.  Just as I turn to leave, a couple is coming up the path.  Now they can have their time alone here. 

 

The moon is full and high in the sky.  As I come near the intersection of the trail to Delicate Arch I see the rocks are ablaze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope David gets to see the fire over there at the Furnace.  I’m on my way to join him but stop for a closer look at the Wolfe cabin on my way back to the car.

 

John Wesley Wolfe settled here in the late 1800’s with his oldest son Fred.  He moved west from Ohio looking for a drier climate prompted by a nagging Civil War leg injury.  He chose this site of more than 100 acres for its water and grassland. 

The Wolfes built a one room log cabin, a corral and a small dam across Salt Wash.  They lived alone on this remote ranch for more than a decade.  In 1906, Wolfe’s daughter Flora Stanley and her husband and children moved to the ranch.  The story is that she was shocked at the primitive conditions and convinced her father to build a new cabin with a wooden floor which is the one here today. 

I’ve heard that Wolfe’s wife was not about to leave her home in Ohio and didn’t come initially or later.  In 1910 they returned to Etna Ohio where John Wolfe died in 1913 at the age of 84. 

 

The two buildings here are the cabin and what may be a spring house to its right.  I’m not sure, and the information didn’t say.

 

 

 

This picture was taken through this side the window of the cabin.  The buildings are not open.

 

 

 

This is the outbuilding.  It’s the step down that made me think it might be a spring house.

 

 

As I leave, I think it looks like a lonely place to live.

 

 

 

The sun is setting as I hurry over to the Fiery Furnace. I miss the event but David shares his pictures.

 

Here’s my sunset at Wolfe Ranch.

 

 

Here are David’s sunset and Fiery Furnace pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clouds are starting to take over the moon as we leave the Fiery Furnace behind on our last day in Arches National Park.

 

 

It’s a full moon over Winnona as we head to bed for a good night’s sleep before getting on the road tomorrow.  We are headed back east.  We’re going to try to go over 2000 miles in about 2.5 weeks with a couple more stops on the way. Wish us luck.