Gold Butte N M - Black Butte Rd (3/29/2018)

Indians have lived in the Gold Butte region for thousands of years, leaving behind many artifacts and records of their time here.  Rock art, both petroglyphs and pictographs, can be found all over the monument, but there are several large clusters that are well documented and easy to find.  One of these is on Black Butte Road just a few miles from my camp.

As background, there is a web site produced by a man named Jim Boone, who has a PHD in Ecology.  Jim lives in Las Vegas and describes on his site many, many places around southern Nevada for birding, hiking, off-road driving, and rock art.  I used his information extensively while in the area, as he gives very precise and detailed directions for locations I wanted to visit.  As a rule, however, he does not tell how to find rock art, his way of protecting it from vandalism.  Since many of the Gold Butte sites are already documented, he describes explicitly how to find the art here.

Overall, this is an area of large, colorful rock formations similar to Whitney Pockets, but with more formations closer together.  There is evidence the Anasazi lived for a time among these formations.  Potsherds, flakes from making arrow heads, signs of roasting agave plants and lots of rock art are all proof of a semi-permanent encampment, although there are no ruins of housing.  It's possible they simply lived in natural settings, such as alcoves and caves that are so plentiful. 

The rock art here includes several styles ranging back in time as much as 6000 years.  Some of it has faded over the years, some has been damaged by careless or mean spirited visitors, and weather has caused some deterioration.

One of the most famous petroglyphs, that probably draws more attention than any other, is called "The Falling Man".  With printed instructions from Boone's website, it was easy to find, but I would never have found it on my own.  Access requires going up a sloped rock "ramp", crawling through a small tunnel, easing down to a narrow ledge and moving to the left until the ledge makes a turn.

Here is the view from the tunnel, including the ledge.

Along the ledge, there are some interesting colors and features in the rock wall.  I think of it as Mother Nature's art, the best there is.

Finally, "The Falling Man" can be seen about seven feet above the ledge.  Does it tell the story of someone who actually fell from here?  Is it simply a warning that one should be careful in this area?  I certainly took it as a reminder not to get too frisky up here.

Boone's instructions soon became ambiguous, at least to me.  I was told to pass a series of tinajas in the wash, and to turn right after the last one. (Tinajas are pot holes in the rock that hold rain water, very important in this arid land.) 

Tinajas

How does one know when the last has been reached?  I kept walking in the wash and found more holes that could be considered tinajas, but no sign of "Newspaper Rock", the next art panel.  By this time, I was far from the last large tinaja and didn't feel like going back to look.  I decided to simply return to the trailhead and enjoy the beautiful rocks all around me.  Fortunately, there were more panels of art along the way, both natural and man made. 

One of the panels had a man who was either falling or jumping.  Since the image showed him feet down, I couldn't be sure what was happening.

Back at the main trail, I met a recently-retired couple, Jim and Chris, who live in Las Vegas.  Having similar interests, we hit it off right away and shared several adventures over the next couple days.