In researching Dubois Wyoming, we've come across numerous references to the ancient petroglyphs in the area. Some anthropologists and archaeologists claim these rock carvings date from up to 3000 years ago. The interesting thing is, although lots of locals have mentioned the petroglyphs as being a main Dubois attraction, no one would tell us exactly where to find them.
The internet is full of references, and even photographs of them. Do a Google search on "petroglyphs Dubois Wyoming" and you'll get over 16,000 webpages. There is even a wikipedia photo of them, but no directions on how to get to them.
The museum tells us they have tours of them, but when we started asking for details, the lady went to answer the phone and for 15 minutes left us standing at the counter, and seemed relieved when we finally just walked out. The lady at the Chamber of Commerce was much more polite, but even she said that she didn't want to tell us exactly where they were. She said the locals were very much afraid of vandalism. (A friend at church Sunday verified that the government recently took away a lot of land from local landowners to expand an indian reservation nearby and that has stirred up some anti-Indian sentiment in certain circles.)
However, from the internet, we learned that the petroglyphs were near Torrey Lake, which is technically on private property. However, a forest-service road easement allows access on its 9-mile route to a hiking trail and wilderness wildlife conservation area. So we drove the 9-mile gravel road, and when we got to Torrey Lake, we started exploring.
It took a while, but to our surprise, we were actually able to find them. They are protected under overhanging rocks, otherwise they would have eroded away, even though they are carved in really hard stone.
We even found the one that his pictured in the Wikipedia commons photo gallery:
There are no signs, no markers, or anything, but there are some slight paths worn in the underbrush which we followed further up the hill. After about a quarter hour, we figured we had seen enough, and although there are assuredly many more to see, since we were on private land, we figured we didn't want to wear out our welcome.
We got back in the car (along with a million hungry mosquitoes), and drove to the end of the 9-mile gravel road. The scenery was spectacular, as is all of the scenery out here. Maybe if I ever get back to this area, I'll take a couple of hours and hike the trail up to the glacier.
At the Chamber of Commerce, we found a postcard with the view from the end of the road looking up the gorge towards the glacier. Unfortunately, I hadn't taken a picture from there for comparison.
We did take a picture of the badlands. In this photo you can see the smoke from a wildfire which is about 30 miles away to the north of Dubois. It has consumed about 4000 acres so far, but the firefighters are simply watching it and monitoring it, letting it burn. It is in wilderness, and no structures are threatened, and Wyoming is so big, they can let thousands of acres burn without worry.
While Debbie and I were on the petroglyph exploration expedition, the kids had all gone target shooting again, then gone grocery shopping. We returned home to find them preparing to cook a very nice dinner: grilled steak, mashed potatoes, grilled buttered squash, green peas, and later, brownies. After dinner, the boys cleaned the guns at one table while the girls played Swap at the other.
Very relaxing vacation.
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