Legend Rock State Petroglyph Site

Along a quarter-mile of near-vertical cliff above Cottonwood Creek northwest of Thermopolis, more than 92 panels hold over 300 petroglyph figures, the densest expression of the Dinwoody tradition, a rock-art style found west of the Bighorn River and known for large human and human-like figures with headdresses and line-patterned torsos. The images were pecked over thousands of years by prehistoric hunting-and-gathering groups of the Bighorn Basin, and the Wyoming State Historical Society's encyclopedia states that Legend Rock includes the oldest and best-preserved Dinwoody tradition rock art known, a claim this entry attributes to that source rather than states flat. The state's own site describes the cliff as a sacred site for Native Americans of the region for thousands of years; local concern for the site's protection drove its acquisition as a Wyoming State Petroglyph Site in 1973, the same year it entered the National Register, after a history that included documented defacement.

The state runs it lightly and honestly: open sunrise to sunset year-round, weather permitting, with a small visitor center built in 2011 staffed by volunteer site hosts in summer, interpretive trails along the cliff, and an explicit note that the site is fragile. Expert interpretation is available periodically, through tours arranged via the state park office and museum-led visits with archaeologists, and the tourism board describes a winter arrangement where visitors get a gate key from the Hot Springs State Park bath house or the chamber of commerce; the official page's simpler wording is the one printed here, with the key detail as a seasonal practicality. As with Canyon de Chelly, the entry's cultural work is to present petroglyphs as the record of peoples whose descendants and relations are still in the region, not as an open-air gallery.

Visiting

Wyoming State Parks operates the site at 2861 West Cottonwood Road, Thermopolis, Wyoming: open sunrise to sunset year-round, weather permitting; visitor center with volunteer hosts in summer; interpretive trail along the cliff; 307-864-2176; 29 miles northwest of Thermopolis. In winter months, gate keys are available per the local tourism board at the Hot Springs State Park bath house or the Thermopolis Chamber of Commerce.

Photo: [GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LegendRock.jpg)