The Cave Valley Pictographs in the Kolob Terrace is an American Indian rock art site in Zion National Park, left by the nomadic Southern Paiute who camped seasonally in the area. (They came after the Ancestral Puebloan people, who lived here until about 1300 AD).
There are a number of pictographs in the Birthing Cave, and beyond this the Altar Cave has a shelf in the middle of the cave covered in animal bones.
There are a number of interesting pictographs in the Birthing Cave, with the most obvious one being a set of seven white figures in white.
The largest figure is an anthropomorph, which is surrounded by smaller figures with the same design – and two even smaller seated human figures.
Another panel has multiple figures, which includes more anthropomorphs, and what look like sheep.
There are a few more picrographs scattered around the cave; some are very hard to make out without image processing.
Getting to the Cave Valley Pictographs
Located near Kolob Terrace Road, there used to be informal trails leading to the pictograph site. However, to protect the fragile rock art this site is now closed to the public. For the safety of visitors and protection of the site, the National Park Service and their tribal partners are assessing the area and developing a plan to stabilize it and protect it over the long-term.
Violation of visiting a closed archaeological site maybe result in a fine of up to $5,000.00, six months in jail, or both. Park rangers are actively monitoring the site for visitation and issuing citations when necessary.
An alternate site which can you can visit is Petroglyph Canyon on the eastern side of Zion National Park, reached by a short walk from the main road through the park.
4 Comments
Rick Pathman · January 6, 2025 at 9:57 am
The reason the caves were closed was because their location was published, and those visitors damaged the very fragile pictographs. This place was kept secret by the rangers for this reason. I went there 3 or 4 times with a native American medicine women in the early 2000s. This a sacred place used for certain spiritual initiations, and there are specific meanings for all the pictographs that anthropologists have no idea about, as this is sacred knowledge. Unfortunately people like you in your ignorance have helped destroy this site. I hope in the future you will not publicise anything native American that you find. We live in a culture that has no sense or perception of the sacred,so it is understandable that you could not recognize what you found.
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oliverd :-) · January 6, 2025 at 10:44 am
Thanks Rick – I’ve sent a longer response via email. I have removed all location details of this site some time ago in response to a request by the Zion NP rangers – at the time I documented this site, its location was publicised and certainly not a secret!
KLS · November 7, 2025 at 4:17 am
It’s OK for you to go just not any other schmucks?
oliverd :-) · November 13, 2025 at 8:15 pm
I was lucky to visit many years ago. The Tiny House we stayed at in the area had a page explaining how to reach the site. I learnt a few years later that access had been restricted, and at the request of NPS I updated the page to reflect it was not longer publicly accessible.