Nine Mile Canyon
Archaeological · Wellington, Utah
A canyon in Carbon and Duchesne counties carrying one of the densest concentrations of rock art in North America — at least an estimated 1,000 sites and more than 10,000 individual images, with the true figures possibly ten times higher. Most was made by the Fremont culture between about AD 950 and 1250; the Ute arrived by the sixteenth century and added their own, including scenes of hunters on horseback from the 1800s. It is promoted as the world's longest art gallery. It is also not nine miles long — it runs about forty.
Nine Mile Canyon Road, Wellington, Utah, United States
FREE and open at all times — it is a public road through a canyon, with no gate and no admission. ⚠ IT IS ABOUT FORTY MILES LONG, NOT NINE; the full route through Gate Canyon runs 78 miles between Wellington and Myton, so budget most of a day rather than an hour. ⚠ THERE ARE NO SERVICES IN THE CANYON — no water, no fuel, no food and effectively no shade — so supply and fuel up at Wellington or Price first. Get a route guide from the Price or Carbon County visitor centres before driving in: most panels are unsigned and high on the canyon walls, and visitors without one see a fraction of what is there. Early morning and late afternoon raking light is when petroglyphs are visible; flat midday sun makes them nearly disappear. ⚠ THIS IS A WORKING GAS-FIELD ROAD with industrial truck traffic, and much of the canyon floor is private ranch land. NEVER TOUCH, CHALK OR WET A ROCK ART PANEL — it causes permanent damage and is illegal.
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