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Southern Nevada

Southern Nevada, including the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, Gold Butte National Monument, Valley of Fire State Park, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and sections of Lake Mead National Recreation Area

23 posts

Cottontail Petroglyphs

Cottontail Petroglyphs

Just a few miles south of fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, the Cottontail Petroglyphs are two adjacent sites at either end of an Aztec sandstone bluff. The site consists primarily of abstract symbols with some representational symbols of bighorn sheep. Despite being close to town, this is still an interesting site

Hackberry Springs Pictographs

Hackberry Springs Pictographs

Hidden in a limestone canyon in the Mormon Mountain Wilderness of southern Nevada are two alcoves with pictographs (and a faint petroglyph or two) on their walls. Some of the pictographs are of riders on horseback—a clear sign of historical contact with the Southern Paiute and really fascinating to

Picture Canyon Pictographs

Picture Canyon Pictographs

Picture Canyon, a well-named canyon in the southern Sheep Range (and part of the Desert Wildlife Refuge), has been rediscovered by hikers in recent years as they searched for missing long-distance hiker Kenny Veach. He disappeared in 2014 while searching for a cave he discovered on a previous hike. His

Southern Nevada Mine

Southern Nevada Mine

The Southern Nevada Mine was an early mine in the Searchlight District and started out with the Spokane Shaft in the 1900s. In the first few years, the miners encountered water at 200 ft depth and abandoned the Spokane Shaft. They started working on the Blossom Shaft a half mile

Oakland Mine

Oakland Mine

The Oakland Group of mines never produced much. The mines were worked for gold from 1922 to 1934. A vertical shaft is reported to have gone down to at least 75 feet with drifts, and a separate incline shaft dropped to 85 feet. Water was encountered at these depths, and

Crescent Peak Arrastra

Crescent Peak Arrastra

I visited a fairly modern arrastra in Southern Nevada in 2019. It is mostly intact, with the drag stones still in place. That is a rare find! The district was worked prehistorically for turquoise, but there are some small gold deposits here. A shallow shaft and other prospects are behind

Super Cave Pictographs

Super Cave Pictographs

This sandstone rock shelter in southern Nevada has an interesting assortment of pictographs. Native American Southern Paiute and Mohave made their homes here, and either could have made these markings. The site itself looks like it could have been a small encampment above a wash. I explored a few different