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Southern Utah's Kodachrome Basin State Park offers a variety of excellent hiking trails, including the short, scenic walk to Indian Cave. The easy-going hike, part of the much longer Panorama Trail, provides hikers with the unique chance to see human handprints scored into the sandstone by Native Americans centuries ago. A great hike for all skill levels, the trail to Indian Cave offers a fascinating glimpse into the past at a unique archaeological site seldom found elsewhere in North America.
Trailhead elevation 5,684'
Water none
Don't miss the hot dogs at the visitor center
Hike to Indian Cave
The hike begins from the Panorama Trailhead, located along the park's main road. Parking can accommodate dozens of vehicles and rarely fills to capacity. From the trailhead, hikers are immediately welcomed to stunning views of Kodachrome's red-tinged rock formations.
As the trail moves on, the Fred Flintstone Spire, one of the park's 67 towering monolithic spires, comes into view. Like the majority of the spires in Kodachrome, Fred Flintstone was formed through a fascinating process involving ancient springs and erosive forces over millions of years.
Following the spire, the gentle path follows beside more beautiful red rock formations before reaching Indian Cave at the 0.6-mile mark. The cave itself is formed from sandstone, characteristic of the striking geological formations found throughout Kodachrome Basin State Park, and measures roughly seven feet deep by fifteen feet wide.
Upon reaching the cave, hikers will find handprints in great concentration along the right side of the cave, as well as more sparsely scattered prints along the left side. These handprints are a form of petroglyph known as **petrosomatoglyphs**, a term derived from the Greek words for “stone,” “body,” and “to carve.” Petrosomatoglyphs represent impressions of human or animal body parts. When someone presses their hand into soft clay or wet cement, they create a modern example of this ancient practice.
Some petrosomatoglyphs, like traditional petroglyphs, are made by carving, striking, or pecking into stone with tools. The prints at Kodachrome Basin, however, are unique because they were formed by people rubbing their hands directly against the sandstone wall. Each hand swipe across the rock caused sand grains to loosen as the fragile cement binding them broke down under friction. Over time, repeated hand movements wore deeper impressions into the rock. Some of the deepest prints in Kodachrome Basin extend 4 to 5 inches into the stone and span multiple hand lengths.
The creation of the Kodachrome petrosomatoglyphs likely wasn't a single event but rather a gradual process. These impressions may have developed over time, potentially across multiple generations. In total, there are more than 100 handprints, many of which appear as though they were scooped out of the rock.
The world's oldest known petrosomatoglyphs were discovered in 2018 at an elevation of 14,000 feet on the Tibetan Plateau. Radiometric dating indicates they were created between 169,000 and 226,000 years ago. Although the handprints at Kodachrome are decisively more recent, archaeologists propose that they may have been made by the Ancestral Puebloans or the Fremont culture between 300 and 1300 AD.
The rock art is thought to have cultural and spiritual significance, linking modern communities to their ancestral roots. The handprints are often interpreted as expressions of identity and connection to the land.
Hikers are strongly encouraged to avoid touching the handprints, as the natural oils from human skin and/or rubbing them can accelerate erosion. After visiting the cave, hikers can either continue along the Panorama Trail for several more miles to form a loop or retrace their steps back to the trailhead for a short out-and-back hike.
