Petroglyph Canyon - Sloan Canyon (Clark County, Nevada)

The next stop of the day turned out to be extremely difficult to find due to very recent and ongoing housing community construction. The Sloan Canyon Conservation Area was probably at one time far from the streets of Henderson, Nevada, but as the population of Southern Nevada continues to explode, new development pushes closer and closer to the federal border of the conservation area. Streets in the area are, in my opinion, very poorly designed as one way streets circle community areas, but make it difficult for out-of-towners to navigate.

Eventually, Bill and I reach the visitors center, which is nothing more than a trailer dragged to a parking lot high above the subdivisions below. As I mention the difficulty in find the site, the ranger comments that he hears that often and has left maps with many guard offices of the local communities in an effort to assist the lost and searching culture enthusiasts. He provides a map of our intended hike, Petroglyph Canyon, and offers some directional guidance before seeing us off.

The trail is well marked as it leaves the parking lot and enters a dry wash. Here, the trail is pretty unremarkable, but is representative of this hot dry environment. Soon, we reach a fork, described by the ranger, and head up the path to the right, knowing that the trail will loop around and we will return to this point on the left path. The trail has a slight grade to it, but the hike remains fairly uneventful at this point. 

Finally, we turn back into the wash and just as I mention a distinct lack of petroglyphs on desert-varnish surfaces where I would most likely expect to find rock art, I turn to find our first example. Just above the trail, two medium-sized rocks have glyphs carved into all visible surfaces.

From here, we begin finding numerous petroglyphs on both sides of the shallow canyon. Some are lone on laying rocks, while others are part of large panels covering entire hillsides. The patterns here are mostly familiar, but a number of them appear to almost be character-like. These specific glyphs are in some cases are almost like letters or super-hero logos from an unknown cultural language. I comment to my friend, Bill, how much I think I would enjoy working as an anthropologist trying to decipher the meaning of these ancient marks.

As we continue around the loop, we reach a series of dry waterfalls that we must climb and jump down from. Each is from 6-12 feet high and the series of four or so falls are separated by 10-20 yards. It provides some excitement to an otherwise uneventful exit from the canyon.

Arriving back at the jeep, we begin to talk about camp locations for the evening. The hike was about 4.3 miles, but now it's time to think about relaxing. We have some time left and decide to head up through Valley of Fire State Park and either camp there or in the adjacent northern end of the Lake Mead Recreational Area.