Petroglyphs and More on Mouse's Tank Trail at the Valley of Fire State Park

Bighorn Sheep

 

 

 

Date: December 28, 2020

Place:Valley of Fire State Park, Las Vegas, Nevada

Coordinates: 36.441083, -114.516093

Length: 0.9 miles

Level: easy

 

The original destination we planned for the the winter break of 2020 was closed down due to the pandemic so we changed plans and went to Las Vegas to have our family vacation there. Not once did we visit The Strip or any casino - we focused on nature only. by the third day of our trip we have hiked at the Petroglyphs at Sloan Canyon, the Clark County Birding Center and part of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Now we headed a bit further northeast to explore the famed Valley of Fire State Park. 

Right off the bat, a short distance into the park we pulled over into a road side parking area and joined the few other cars that were parked there. The attraction that attracted us from the main park road was a herd of bighorn sheep.  These sheep were very docile and seemed to be completely non-phased by human presence nearby, allowing is plenty of time to observe them and take photos. This was unprecedented - all other times we've seen the bighorn sheep, as in Carrizo Canyon or in Death Valley, they were very hard to find and when we did find them they were skittish and kept a distant. 

Bighorn Sheep

It was hard to detach ourselves from the sheep but eventually we did go over to the visitor center which was, to our surprise, open to the pubic. Inside the visitor center we received information about the park and outside the building we had some more encounters with the local wildlife, especially the feathered type. 

Cactus Wren

Quail are always fun to see. In that part of the country there are no California Quail, but the beautiful Gambel's Quail that are very similar in both colors and behavior. 

Gambel's Quail

Phainopepla is perhaps the signature bird of the southwest desert, even if it wasn't made famous by a cartoon as the roadrunner (which we didn't get to see that day).  

Phainopepla, male

At the visitor center we received recommendation for hikes for that day, and shortly after we were parked at the trailhead of the first hike - that of the Mouse's Tank Trail. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

The main attraction of the Mouse Tank Trail were the petroglyphs, we were told at the visitor center. We haven't seen a single petroglyph yet and I was already awe-struck by the beauty of the place's geology. 

At the Trailhead

The rocks here were of red sandstone and the erosion created beautiful patters. The trail was made of fine, red sand. There were other hikers on the trail but it wasn't too crowded. 

The trail delved into a canyon. The wider parts of the canyon had quite a bit of vegetation growing there, most of it seemed dry. Of the plants that did look thriving were a number of large cholla cacti. 

Cholla, Cylindropuntia sp. 

About a third of a mile into the hike we came upon the first petroglyph wall, but the first thing that caught my eye wasn't the human-made artifact but an interesting rock shape. 

Under certain conditions rocks in arid areas develop what is called, "desert patina" which is a thin dark layer of oxidation - a rust, in a sense. Scratching that surface leaves a contrasting mark, and that is exactly what the ancient people of the desert did when they inscribed the petroglyphs in the rock. 

The rock walls of of the petroglyph canyon along the Mouse's Tank Trail are some of the most dense canvases for petroglyphs I've ever seen, both in numbers and in variety of figures and shapes. Many of the figures were easily recognizable as human or animal shapes. Many more figures were completely abstract to me, and I couldn't even imagine what they might have meant to the people who created them. 

The large petroglyph walls were an attractive backdrop for people to take their photos with. In two occasions (not that in the photo below) I've seen kids climbing these rocks with their parents cheering them on, which I though in the best case was a bit of a bad taste and in the worse case, could be destructive to the ancient artifacts. 

The Valley of Fire is in the high desert and it does get pretty cold in the winter. It was a cold and windy day when we were there, and clouds raced fast high above. No rain was anticipated that day, but we were bundled up for the chill. 

Among the plants that I've seen growing in the wash were some rabbitbrush bushes that were in full bloom, as if we were not heading into deep winter. It was lovely to see the unexpected flowers. 

Rabbitbrush

The next petroglyph wall was high above the wash bed and it was more difficult to see the inscriptions in the rock face. 

Giant Petroglyphs Wall

The strongest zoom setting of my lens revealed some interesting figures such as the hand prints petroglyphs. The patina of the wall seemed to have peeled off much of the rock face, an erosion that probably eliminated many petroglyphs and had rendered many others much harder to detect because the contrast was gone. 

Giant Petroglyphs Wall Closeup

Even without the petroglyphs, these rock shapes were interesting and inspiring to the imagination. The one in the photo below reminded me of a pirate skull. 

Deeper into the canyon were more petroglyphs, and they were closer to the wash bed and easier to see. I assume that at the time these were created, the wash bed was higher. Otherwise inscribing them would have been a very risky business. 

Bighorn sheep were a regular theme in these petroglyphs. They were probably a staple of the local people in ancient times. 

For the most part the trail was comfortable enough to simply walk on, but there were places where we needed to hop on some rock face. Nothing too challenging though. 

More and more petroglyphs appeared before us the deeper we got into the canyon. The richness of these markings was simply staggering. 

I took a huge number of photos on that hike, most of them of petroglyphs. Choosing which to post here was probably the most challenging part of the this hike's accounts. I had to include the ladder and the pronghorn image, of course. 

Many of the rocks and the eroded slopes of the canyon looked like they would be fun to climb. The chikas did indeed climb a bit, bit not very high and not for too long. I resisted my urges and stayed below, on the trail. 

The clouds were beginning to recede but for the most part we remained shaded from direct sunlight. We did warm up enough to begin peeling off some layers. 

The canyon opened up a bit and on the side was a hill that looked holed with many little caves. The caves looked natural and way too small to house people but I presume that animals to find shelter in them when needed. 

I took a closeup photo of one of the lower holes. This one did look like people may have blocked the entrance with large stones, but I suspect this is recent work, possibly done by the park authorities to stop visitors from going inside.

We kept moving on down the canyon. We were in fact, going downstream the wash, with the flow of the creak when it flows. 

More petroglyphs appeared before us. One of them pictured, very clearly, a hunting scene. In good timing the sun appeared from behind the cloud to shine on the ancient art. 

Next to the hunting scene was a petroglyph that looked to me like a barrel cactus, and to its left some marks that could have been a saguaro with some birds flying around it. 

Off to the side was a lone human figure engraved in the rock. It wasn't more special than the other human figures we've seen but he looked very lonely there. 

A face looked at me from the rock - not a human made one, but a natural rock formation. It looked like a sad baby elephant. 

Meanwhile the sun was winning the battle over sky space, and the canyon lit up as the clouds split and moved away. 

Rock spires were another prominent feature on the sides of the canyon, each with its own shape and character. 

In some places I found erosion holes in their early formation stages, with circular markings just like I saw in the Calico Hills of the Red Rock Canyon NCA. 

The canyon curved north and at that spot another tributary wash joined in from the south. The trail continued north and entered a very narrow part of the canyon. We had to squeeze ourselves sideways to go through. We were getting very close to the end of the trail. 

At the end of the trail was another large petroglyph wall, but what attracted my attention first was a lovely, lush mesquite bush that was growing near it. 

The petroglyphs wall at the end of the trail wasn't was impressive as those we've seen earlier on the trail. We looked at it for a while but we spent more time sitting for a bit of a snack break. It was the point of turning around and walking back. 

Walking back up the trail was much faster. We didn't stop anymore at the petroglyph walls or the rock formation - both Pappa Quail and I wanted to squeeze as much as we could into this one day that we allocated for the Valley of Fire, and we didn't want to delay. 

It was very nice though, to see the rock spires now fully lit with direct sunlight. This really brought up the lovely red color of the rocks. 

Cushions of brittlebush, another one of my favorite desert plants, adorned the rock mounds by the trail side. The brittlebush was past its bloom season and the dry inflorescence stems surrounded the main bush body like a spiky yellow halo. 

The canyon opened up and widened - we were getting close to the trailhead and the hills on the other side were already visible. 

Like the petroglyphs, I photographed also many rock formations. Here too I had a difficult time choosing which to include in this hike's accounts. One last formation for this blogpost is the rock arch I saw high above the trail. On a different time I might have climbed there - it didn't look difficult and there were plenty of evidence that other people have climbed there before. As it was, I simply admired it from below, then run ahead to follow the rest of my family which were already at the trailhead. 

At the trailhead I turned around and took in the view of the hills above the plateau near the trail. The broad scenery was breathtaking. 

The ancient people that lived in this desert were very artistically prolific. Like the petroglyphs of Sloan Canyon, those that we saw in the Valley of Fire were many, and very rich in imagery. There is no direct historical link to the people who made these petroglyphs, and we can only guess what they meant and what were the reasons for inscribing them. I am happy to have seen these though, and I hope that they will be preserved for many more years to come. 

Finding the Lost Creek and the Petroglyph Wall at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

 

Date: December 31, 2020
Place: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Las Vegas, Nevada
Coordinates: 36.161113, -115.498838
Length: 2.2 miles
Level: easy

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is a big enough place to merit more than a single day's visit. On our winter of 2020 family vacation to the larger Las Vegas area we visited Red Rock Canyon NCA twice. On the first visit we hiked the Calico Hills Trail and the Calico Tanks Trail, and in the morning of our second visit we hiked the Keystone Thrust Trail, a nice hike that ended with a bit of a weather damper. 
The weather cleared up fairly fast after our morning hike. We ate a picnic lunch at the Petroglyph Wall trailhead where there was a picnic area. Then the elder chika spotted a little bush bird in the nearby Juniper and got all excited. She thought it was a Juniper titmouse - a lifer for her, and wanted to get the bird's photo. She an Pappa Quail were busy for many long minutes trying to spot that bird again. Eventually they gave up, hoping that they'll see it, or more of its species on the trail we were about to hike. 

I was content with the place's geology - the beautiful rock formations and the colorful boulders that flanked the picnic area. 

The Lost Creek trailhead was about half a mile down the road but there was a trail going there and back on both sides of the road so we didn't need to move the car or walk on the asphalt. We started hiking the trail that run northeast of the pavement, going southeast. 

The trail that paralleled the road on the northeast was a nice gravel path with open views down to the valley. It was easy to walk on and we made good, quick progress.

As usual, my family walked ahead and I fell behind, pausing here and there to check out the local vegetation. It didn't matter that I've already seen these plants many times on other hikes in this park. 

Pine, Pinus sp.

Especially I enjoyed the cacti that grew there between the other shrubs. More than any other plant perhaps, the cactus symbolizes the desert to me. The plant that stores so much moisture inside its stems and protects it with those nasty thorns. Yet when it blooms, the cactus has the most gorgeous and accessible flowers. We weren't hiking there during the bloom season, so I enjoyed seeing the cacti without their flowers. 

Cholla Cactus, Cylindropuntia sp.

It didn't take long before we made it to the parking lot south of where we parked, where the Lost Creek trailhead was. There was very little traffic on the road. We crossed it and immediately went on the trail to the Lost Creek. 

The Lost Creek Trail was leading us directly to the Rainbow Mountains. I couldn't tell which creek opening was the one we were going too - there were several of them coming down the mountain ahead of us. 

Lost Creek Trail

Like the cacti, yucca plants are also very much a symbol of the desert. They too are  succulent but their thorns are not covering the entire leaf surface. Still, not many animals eat the yucca leaves for their moisture. 

Mohave Yucca, Yucca schidigera

Unlike the Keystone Thrust Trail, the Lost Creek Trail had plenty of information signs along the path. It was nice to read about the nature and the history of the area as we moved along the trail. 

Lost Creek Trail

We crossed a large wash before delving into the mountains. The wash was flanked by large bushes and shrubs. The wash bed was littered with large stones, indicative of its flow power when it floods. Thick clouds hung by the La Madre Mountains on the north, where we had hiked earlier that morning, though it didn't look like any precipitation there would result in a flow down where we were. At least, not at that time. 

We saw the information sign posted by the spring of Lost Creek before we saw the water. The sign said that this spring was flowing year-round. The flow was well hidden beneath the vegetation, accessible to animals only. The sign also said that the area had been replanted with native species after much damage cause there by humans trampling around the water. The information sign told us about an endemic and endangered species of snail that lives in the spring water of Red Roc Canyon NCA, including at Lost Creek. We didn't get to see the snails.

Lost Creek Spring

It looked like we were getting to a dead end of the trail. We had to do some scrambling through thick riparian vegetation but right ahead of us were sheer rock cliffs and no way up for regular hikers who don't practice rock climbing. 

When we emerged from the vegetation we found ourselves at the bottom of a dry waterfall. The only way up that would be with climbing gear. That meant, not us. The rocks above us carried the marks of many years' seasonal water flow. 

Rock climbing is practiced regularly at Red Rock Canyon NCA. Another sign posted by the Lost Creek Trail informed us that this locale is one of the popular climbing sites in the park, but we haven't seen any rock climbers there that day. 

We looked around for a while, but eventually we turned around and started back down the trail, plunging again into the thick bushes that thrived on the underground moisture of the creek. 

Once outside of the vegetation and the mountain part of the Lost Creek we started northeast on the trail that paralleled the road on the south. This trail stretched below the foothills of the Rainbow Mountains and the rock formations along the path were very pretty. More information signs were posted along that trail, some of them telling about the native people of this area and their traditional, pre-contact practices. 

From this part of the trail we had a very nice view of the Turtlehead Mountain on the east side of the park. The peak of the mountain was brightly illuminated. 

Turtlehead Mountain

We walked past an area that was marked as prehistoric kitchen, where the native people dug large pits where they roasted agave cores. I would love to try roasted agave if I only knew where to have it. 

We continued along the large wash that we crossed when we started on the Lost Creek Trail. Many of the stones that littered the wash bed had some very interesting patterns that looked almost like they were drawn by a human artist. 

Going north, we now had the view ahead of the La Madre Mountains peeking through between the sandstone hills that flanked the wash we were walking on. The clouds were still hanging over on the north, but they seemed to be receding, revealing mire blue sky.  

To balance off the emerging blue sky on the north, more clouds were gathering south of us, moving slowly over the Rainbow Mountains. 

We reached the Petroglyph Wall Trail and took it right to the dark rock wall that was inscribed with numerous petroglyph images. Many of these symbols were completely abstract to me, although some of them reminded me the petroglyphs that we saw at Sloan Canyon on the first day of our trip. 

The wall was covered all the way up and down, left and right, but much of it was obscured by the vegetation, and it was clear that the park's authorities didn't wish for people to get too close to these artifacts. 

At least in one of the corners of the rocky canvas it was clear that it wasn't human hands that damaged the paleolithic art - a piece of the outer rock had eroded away. 

By the time we finished admiring the petroglyphs and got back to the outer, large wash that separated us from the parking lot, the clouds had moved away again. 

The elder chika wanted to stay longer at the parking lt, hoping to see the elusive juniper titmouse again, but we had about three hours of daylight left and we decided to move on immediately and hike as far as we could into the Icebox Canyon, which a bit further south if the Lost Creek Trail.