Dinosaur National Monument recently encouraged the public to visit the three main rock art sites on Cub Creek Road within the Monument. The sites are amazing examples of Native American rock art from approximately one thousand years ago. In archeology, artifacts, such as tools, weapons, pottery, or granaries, can tell a lot about the culture because it can tell how the people hunted, what food they ate, how they built things, how they made clothes, and how they grew crops. Rock art is the one thing that the Native Americans from long ago left us in which they are directly communicating something. Just down from the Quarry Visitor Center is the “Swelter Shelter” site. Six miles further down Cub Creek Road is a series of petroglyphs called “Fremont” by archeologists. The third site shows several of the well-known “Lizard” petroglyphs which are just two hundred feet further down the road. Please note that pictographs are composed entirely of paint on rock. Petroglyphs are made by chipping bits of rock off the cliff face.
