Newspaper Rock Petroglyph Site

Newspaper Rock, a State Historical Monument, is part of the Wingate sandstone cliffs at the upper end of Indian Creek Canyon falls within the Bears Ears National Monument.


There are in excess of 650 designs on the rock making It is one of the largest collections of petroglyphs in the country. These designs include animals, human figures and religious symbols.

The petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock have been chiselled into desert varnish. This is a black manganese-iron deposit that gradually forms on exposed sandstone cliff faces due to exposure to rainfall and bacteria. The weathering process means that some of the older figures are themselves becoming darker in colour as new varnish slowly develops.

The earliest carvings at Newspaper Rock were made around 2,000 years ago with the latest being created by the first modern day explorers of the region in the early 20th century.

The petroglyphs mainly fall into three groups: Anasazi (AD 1 to 1300), Fremont (AD 700 to 1300) and Navajo (AD 1500 onwards).