Overview
About Wolfe Ranch Petroglyph Panel
Why stop
- A distinctive rock-art stop before the steep Delicate Arch climb.
Heads up
- Wolfe Ranch parking is often busy for much of the day.
Map
Where it is
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Arches Tour Guide
Your drive to Wolfe Ranch Petroglyph Panel, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Arches National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Arches audio tourRecorded for this place
Delicate Arch and Wolfe Ranch“You're approaching Wolfe Ranch and the trail to Delicate Arch. Choose the hike for a close look at the freestanding arch, which stays hidden until the final approach.”
Plays as you drive up to Wolfe Ranch Petroglyph Panel in the Parkwolf Arches Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Delicate Arch Viewpoints
- The Dark Streaks on Sandstone
- Shrimp Waiting for Rain
- The Desert's Living Skin
- 35 audio storiesacross Arches’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bighorn Sheep, Pronghorn, Raven, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 28 trails, 41 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“I can’t believe how helpful this app is and how interesting the information is for each highlight along the Arches Scenic Drive! This is the first park I’ve used it in.”
Guide
More about Wolfe Ranch Petroglyph Panel
See the figures without hiking to the archWolfe Ranch Petroglyph Panel is a group of pecked figures on a sandstone wall beside Delicate…
Wolfe Ranch Petroglyph Panel is a group of pecked figures on a sandstone wall beside Delicate Arch Trail, a short walk from the Wolfe Ranch cabin and parking lot. You can visit the panel without taking on the full Delicate Arch hike. It is a brief stop, but there is plenty to look at if rock art and the area's Indigenous history interest you.
Horse-and-rider figuresLook for people on horseback among the animal figures.
Look for people on horseback among the animal figures. The National Park Service believes some images may be Ute because horses appear in the panel, but that is a careful attribution: it does not identify every figure or give the panel a firm date. Don't treat the whole wall as one clearly dated scene.
A much longer Indigenous historyPeople have lived in this region for thousands of years.
People have lived in this region for thousands of years. The park's archaeological record reaches back about 10,000 years, and farming in the Four Corners region peaked between AD 500 and 1300. Those dates describe the wider region; they do not establish when this panel was made or who made each image.
Make the short visit workThe first trail section to the panel and cabin is wheelchair accessible.
The first trail section to the panel and cabin is wheelchair accessible. Beyond it, the Delicate Arch route climbs steeply over rock. Wolfe Ranch lot is usually busy for much of the day; it has year-round toilets but no drinking water, and dogs aren't allowed on the Delicate Arch Trail. For a photo, step back enough to include the full marked area and some of the surrounding sandstone so the figures stay in context.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Arches
14 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
10 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
608 sightingsRavenMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
187 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
51 sightingsPrairie DogMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
15 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Arches. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
