Falling Man Petroglyphs - Gold Butte (Clark County, Nevada)

About a year ago, I received an email concerning an initiative to have the area known as Gold Butte declared as a national conservation area. This undeveloped and arid desert area is about an hour east of Las Vegas and north east of Lake Mead. The area includes beautiful examples of wind-carved sandstone, early mining sites, and a large number of ancient Native American petroglyphs. The last item was of particular interest to me and as I was planning a trip to Northern Arizona with a night in Las Vegas, this seemed like a terrific add-on to the trip. In advance of my trip, I had emailed an organization known as the Friends of Gold Butte, who are the primary driving force of the conservation initiative. My contact there was able to provide some very helpful information and even invited me to tag along on a trip they were planning on the same day, but unfortunately, my schedule was pretty tight and I had to go it a lone.

The drive to the site takes the adventurer far out into the open desert, but the directions provided were pretty easy to follow. Though there is very little signage, as one would expect, the gravel jeep trails are pretty well defined. I arrived at the trail head at about 8:30 am. I was surprised to find a number of vehicles here and one gentleman who confirmed that I was at the trail head for the Falling Man Petroglyph Site. He gave me some helpful advice in finding the nearby rock art.

Hitting the trail, I notice the 'rabbit ear' formation, which was mentioned in the information I had received. The lower section of the formation contains the first petroglyphs along the trail. They are faint, but unmistakable. The trail leads on around through a wash carved into the white sandstone, making the trail a bit difficult to follow, but still manageable. I always enjoy some mild rock-scrambling anyway. Following my 'Leave No Trace' principles, I do my very best to only walk on durable surfaces. Luckily, sand is a durable surface. 

Moving on around to the next section, I circle a panel on a tall solitary pillar known as Calvin's Rock. The rock art contains a number of human figures, desert-dwelling fauna, and basic geometric shapes such as spirals. It is similar to other ancient artworks I have seen at other sites in the west, but that doesn't make it any less spectacular.

Looking ahead, I see a rock formation referred to as 'the tunnel'. Though it is more of a hole underneath two large boulders, but to get to the unique petroglyph for which this site is named, one must crawl through this small hole. I climb the sandstone up to the feature and then pull myself through. It's somewhat tight fit, but not terrible. Emerging on the other side, I find myself on a small cliff, about 20 feet above the desert below. Looking to my left, I see the namesake piece, the Falling Man. An obvious path leads out to the figure, which seems to represent a lone person falling, perhaps to their death. The location of such a glyph on a narrow ledge like this forces me to wonder if it chronicles the misadventures of an ancient inhabitant. I'll be careful to not share his fate. In addition to the man in peril, a number of other glyphs can be seen on around the face.

Working my way around and finally off of the ledge, I arrive in a small open area between two larger buttes and find the solitary rock known as 'Newspaper Rock', which contains a dense panel of petroglyphs along the flat and smooth eastern face. There are a large number of pieces on this panel, all packed together in dense collection - much like a newspaper.

The next section takes me several hundred yards across the open desert and past some truly amazing rock formations carved over the centuries by the desert winds. The trail is easy to follow across the sand, and less so in sections crossing rock, but I eventually walk into another open area between buttes known as 'Twenty-one Goats'. This broad panel contains a number of figures, but at the very top a line of twenty-one goats make their way across the smooth surface. The 'goats' are most likely big-horn sheep, which are and have been far more prevalent in this area, but whomever named the panel may not have known that. The 'goats' themselves are impressive in their straight line formation. Most are facing to the left, but some stubborn individuals face to the right. I can't help but wonder what story is being told by the art work.

Finally, I make my way back to the jeep and as I do, I encounter a large group of hikers, perhaps the group I was invited to join. I wish them a good adventure and make my way back to the road for my next stop of the day. In total, I only covered a little over 2.6 miles on this hike, but sometimes it's more about what one is seeing than the distance covered. I will return to Gold Butte when I have more time. I suspect this landscape has a lot more to offer.