Red Hills & Utah's Native American Locations

Parowan Gap is a 650 feet deep and 65 feet wide gap in the Red Hills, a long mountain ridge north of Cedar City. A river that has dried up a long time ago carved it. The Native Americans that lived here used the narrow gap as a passageway for many centuries. It is possible that the gap was even used as an astronomical structure to help determine calendar dates. This presumption comes from the many unusual petroglyphs covering the dark rock walls to the left and right of the passageway - unlike the paintings at other rock art sites in the Southwest there are no depictions of humans, animals, or other concrete figures. Instead, the walls show a number of abstract, geometrical patterns with lines and dots, which presumably helped the local Native Americans to count or calculate.

Due to its convenient location between Provo and Moab, the town of Price serves as a great starting point and lodging location for expeditions and day tours to the San Rafael Reef. The town's main attraction, however, is Price Prehistoric Museum. It is famous far beyond Utah's state lines, mainly for its impressive collection of dinosaur skeletons from the area. At least as interesting are the collection of mammals from the ice age and the exhibition about the Anasazi and Fremont cultures (especially the unique Pilling Figurines made of unbaked clay.)

East of Zion National Park, near Orderville / Mt. Carmel, there are several beautiful slot canyons made of red sandstone. You can explore them by yourself or on a guided jeep tour. Red Hollow is part of these canyons, as well as both arms of the Sand Wash River, which are better known as Upper Red Cave and Lower Red Cave. Lower Red Cave is the more interesting one, offering very attractive photo opportunities when the angle of the light is right. Unfortunately, it's not possible to explore the full length of all three slot canyons without technical equipment and experience in canyoneering. There are too many deep potholes and large boulders inside, along with steep chimneys and high dry falls.