Quail rock art panel explained

Quail Panel
Map Type:	USA Utah
Coordinates:	37.4654°N -110.072°W
Location:	San Juan County, Utah
Cultures:	Basketmaker, Fremont
Archaeologists:	Richard Wetherill, Michael Harner
Ownership:	public
Management:	Bureau of Land Management
Public Access:	yes

The Quail rock art panel is a panel of Native American rock art located at the intersect of Grand Gulch and Step Canyon in Cedar Mesa, San Juan County, Utah. Grand Gulch contains a large number of relatively well-preserved rock art and ledge dwellings. The Quail Panel is a grouping of pictographs that were probably created by people of the Basketmaker II or Fremont culture. Cedar Mesa is located at a point where the two cultures overlapped.

The panel is probably named for a conspicuous depiction of a quail or quail-like bird with a vivid green and red-brown eye. The panel contains a row of anthropomorphs or warriors with shields and topknots or feathered headbands. The collection includes two green figures, which is a rare pigment for southwestern rock art. The panel also includes a red, scowling visage that may represent a mountain lion.^[1]

Hiking to Quail Panel is 9.6 miles via the "Government Trail" past Polly's Island. This is typically the easiest and shortest route. The Government Trail passes the Big Man Panel. Hiking to Quail Panel is 18.5 miles from the Collins Spring trailhead through Collins Canyon and 19.5 miles from the Kane Gulch Ranger Station trailhead through Kane Gulch.^[2]

External links

- - Web site: Grand Gulch Plateau Recreation Area, UT . . Recreation.gov . USA . 11 Jul 2015 .

Notes and References

Book: Roberts, David . 2010 . In Search of the Old Ones . Simon and Schuster . 139 . 9781439127230 . 3 Jul 2015 . The Trail to Awatovi . One day in Grand Gulch in October 1994, I sat on a natural bench at the mouth of the tributary canyone. At my back, stretching across many yards of smooth sandstone wall, ranged the Quail Panel, one of the finest displays of pictographs on Cedar Mesa. The paintings date from the Basketmaker II era, probably between A.D. 200 and 400. The panel is named for a striking white bird, drawn in profile, with one glaring, round eye painted red-and-green. The complex panorama also includes anthropomorphs with crescent heads, two green humanoids (green being one of the rarest colors of Anasazi art), two yellow anthropomorphs with red bird heads, three jumping stick-figure humans in profile, and a fierce red visage with teeth bared that looks like a mountain lion—or a mask of a mountain lion..
Web site: Grand Gulch Trailhead Distances . Stinson . Morey . 9 Jun 2001 . The Cedar Mesa Project . 11 Jul 2015 .