Pah Rah Petroglyphs (Washoe County, Nevada)

Early this year, I read about another collection of rock art just above Sparks in the hills above the Pah Rah Range. In the spring, I had done some exploration in the jeep, but I was unable to find any sign of the ancient Native American carvings, but I was not deterred. However with reports of high rattlesnake populations in that area, I wanted to wait until the late fall or winter to take my next shot and finding them, since I intended to do it on foot. When I mentioned to my plans to my buddy, Bill, he was more than ready to join the adventure. 

We met up at 8 AM and drove to Golden Eagle Regional Park, which is home to a lot of our local softball tournaments. We parked our jeeps and started up the rocky hills on foot. I was hoping we would encounter some signs of a trail, but unfortunately, we never found one. That's not so much a problem, as we are both pretty capable hikers and navigators, but the lava rock strewn terrain was really hard on the ankles and feet. 

Climbing to the first ridge above the park and then the one above that, we make a line for our intended destination, which is at the northern end of the highest ridge, but below a medium-sized peak towering over the local landscape. The rocky grasslands go on as far as the eye can see in all directions and paint the landscape a light golden yellow, with the occasionally orange-brown boulder large enough to stick up higher than the grass. 

On the way, we encounter our share of wildlife. The first is an extremely young bull snake stretched out on a rock. I might have missed the little guy in the tall grass, but I nearly stepped on him. As it got below freezing overnight in these hills and has only reached the mid-forties by the time we reached this point, the little guy was still frigid and didn't even move to acknowledge our presence. Almost immediately after encountering the young snake, we raise our heads to see a buck and two doe off in the distance. The look back at us to determine if we are a threat and then continue on up the hillside. As we follow the topography of the hills, we weave around above a small canyon only to see a heard of antelope racing away from us. I can't help but think of the song "Home on the Range", which talks about a place where the deer and the antelope play. Apparently, the songwriter was talking about this place.

One saddle to one peak and then on to the next, we keep searching the rocks for any sign of figures carved into the desert varnish. I convince Bill to keep going for a bit further, and then finally, I stumble across a single panel low on an outcropping. It's fairly typical of most petroglyphs of this region, but a couple of the figures are slightly odd to me. I have to wonder if they were modern additions, but it's impossible for me to tell. 

Finding the first panel only inspires us to keep looking, but after a couple of more saddles and peaks, we finally decide to turn back and head for the park. As we aren't looking for more rock art on the way back with any real dedication, we do our best to head straight for the jeeps. The way is somewhat treacherous as we cross rock flow after rock flow, but we eventually make it back covering just over 10 miles on this rocky terrain. Only finding the single panel was a bit disappointing, but at least we found that one and saw some beautiful creatures along the way. Perhaps, I'll return again at some point and look for more.