Horseshoe Canyon, Utah Canyonlands

Red, brown and white pictographs of alien-like figures silently adorn the Great Gallery panel of rock art in an area known as Horseshoe Canyon, a part of Canyonlands National Park. The artists of the archaic people, as they are known, left these ghost-like messengers as reminders of their lost civilization of long ago At least 2,000 years old and perhaps created as much as 8,000 years ago, these figures defy interpretation.

The Great Gallery of Canyonlands National Park's Horseshoe Canyon measures 200 feet long and 15 feet high. Some twenty life-sized figures provide a mystery that may never be solved. These armless and legless figures stare out from the sandstone walls. They resemble human forms, but contrasting insect shaped eyes and skeleton heads give the figures an alien appearance.

Dominating this gathering of figures is the seven foot "Holy Ghost'', an out-of-this-world figure commanding attention and inviting imaginative speculation about its meaning and origin. Traveling past mammoth sandstone walls and aging cottonwood trees, finding this ancient pictograph at the end of the trek almost seems appropriate.

What form of life do these figures represent, or did the artists simply lack the skill to accurately depict the human form? This question automatically poses itself once the seven and one half mile hike brings the traveler to this Great Gallery which is just another mysterious marvel of the intrigue of Canyonlands National Park.