Entry No. 54 — the Durango file — filed under: petroglyphs
McElmo Canyon Roadside Boulder Petroglyphs
Someone decided the best place for a thousand-year-old petroglyph boulder was directly on the shoulder of County Road G, because moving it would destroy the site — so there it sits, six inches from passing pickup trucks, with concentric circles and a disc ringed by spiral rays carved into its face and zero interpretive signage to explain any of it. The boulder forms a natural rock shelter with neighboring stones; an ancient dry-stacked wall at the entrance suggests people once lived in the gap between them. It's technically part of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, but the BLM doesn't advertise it and the pull-off is unmarked — you're on your own to find it about 600 feet west of the Cannonball Mesa Ruins trailhead before the road reaches the Utah border.
The move: Drive County Road G west from Cortez at dusk, pull off at the unmarked shoulder just before the boulder, and work the left panel images in low slanting light before dark swallows the canyon.
📍 Before you go Unmarked pull-off on the right shoulder heading west, just before the boulder — if you pass the closed Ismay Trading Post you've gone too far. Paved road, passenger car fine. 0.03-mile round trip on flat dirt; some petroglyph panels require ducking into the shelter. No cell service, no restrooms. Right-side panels are heavily graffitied; focus on the left panel.
- 📍 Cortez
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: County Road G, Cortez, CO 81321
Hours: Added 2026-06-21 — confirm current hours before you go.
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last checked: 2026-06-21