Toquima Cave (Nye County, Nevada)

My friend Nick has a great interest in ancient Native American petroglyphs and pictographs, and has inspired interest in me as well. When was suggesting this trip, he included Toquima Cave, which is in a remote area of Central Nevada.

After a long drive down forest service gravel roads, we finally reached the trailhead. Its cold up here tough and there is a light dusting of snow on the ground. We follow the short trail and eventually climb up the rock face to the cave itself, which has been fenced off to protect the treasures contained within. The fence still affords as a terrific view of the pictographs though. These are some of the brightest and boldest, I have seen to date. Whites and Reds illuminate a huge number of figures along most surfaces inside the cave. If only we had a better understand of the ancient peoples that left these artworks for posterity.