White River Narrows

Basin and Range National Monument

(map link)

The three rock art brochures I picked up at the Caliente Field Office included one for the White River Narrows. When I had iffy signal, I had seen, but not kept, the printable map from this site. That would have got me to the sites, but the brochure has more to say about them besides don't touch, not even to take a rubbing. (But also, don't touch. Especially not to take a rubbing. It's illegal for a reason.) I did try to visit anyway, but it didn't work out well. I debated if I really wanted to backtrack out of my way 24 miles to try again, but while flipping through the Rock Art book from the Nevada Rock Art Foundation (also available in PDF here), I spotted a particularly interesting panel and found it is part of the site here. Okay, I do. But first, this is what it is like to visit without the brochure in hand:

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20 Nov 2023

I was traveling from the Wayne E. Kirch Wildlife Management Area toward Caliente with a few stops in mind. The first would be in the White River Narrows Archaeology District where there are petroglyphs. Some of them are marked on USGS. I parked at the northern parking area on the map above, a huge turnout south of the highway beside a pair of roads, crossed carefully, and let myself through the unlocked swinging gate on the road on the north side. The marked petroglyphs are not all that far north from there.

The west side of the valley as everything thins down to the White River Narrows. The river would be a few feet to the right if it were flowing.

I was surprised to find that, according to USGS, I was walking on the main road. I'd already noticed that they had missed out the "1" in the middle of the road number. The dirt road is what is left of NV-38. It was replaced with paved NV-318 around 1980. It's just been that long and longer since some of these quads were updated and now there's a National Map instead. I could see where this old road used to be graded to 2 lanes wide.

There's certainly a lot of cliff surface that could have been used.

I spotted a slapstick sign beside the cliffs and expected it to be a warning against disturbing artifacts. Nope. Wilderness. I would be visiting the Weepah Spring Wilderness, but only in the most superficial way. I continued north to the marked point. There was nothing. I looked further and further. Nothing.

The white-tailed antelope squirrel hopes I'm not looking for it.

I continued to find nothing. Nothing. More nothing. I walked back next to the cliffs rather than the road to be most sure of seeing something if I had passed it. Nothing. There's nothing.

Okay, the regularity of these lines of holes is interesting.

One could almost believe. Maybe? No. Unlikely.

There are more levels higher up, but the map is pretty certain the petroglyphs are at the bottom.

So that was disappointing. It's right there on the map and I still can't find it.

I continued south to the far side of the narrows and turned to stop at a kiosk (the south parking area on the map above) that contains information about visiting the Basin and Range National Monument and visiting the White River Narrows Archaeology District. For this second, I should turn right (when going north) on the road with a cattle guard (yep, a cattle guard serves as a sign). I turned and looked down the road I was on to the only cattle guard on the roads by the narrows. From there, I should take the left at the Y. I looked the other way where there was a split in the road followed by another. It was silent about the second split. Anyway, it is weird for a sign to contain instructions to get to that sign. Maybe there was another cattle guard after all.

There were no brochures in the various boxes, and clearly I couldn't see the things when I got there anyway. With great frustration, I continued on toward Caliente, missing a few stops I'd planned and failing to find any trilobites either, once I got there. A frustrating day all around. At least camp turned out to be solid although traffic noise, which was fine this night, was a bit much the night before Thanksgiving.

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26 Nov 2023

I had picked up the brochure (also available online here), and chatted with a poor young firefighter tasked with dealing with the public as the holidays came on and who had just been to see that panel I missed and didn't see how one could, and I had seen the interesting panel in the fancy rock art book. I was ready to try again. I parked beside the kiosk since the road gets a tiny bit rough for a Scion quite quickly. With my pack and brochure, I headed out to Narrows I.

The old NV-38. Keep left to stay on it through the White River Narrows and keep right for the other canyon. The road gets rough at the hill.

There's a bit of distance to the first location marked, but after the first little hill, it's basically flat. There are no markers for these sites. The brochure gives a map and pictures of the cliffs near the site. With the landmark of the old highway, it should be enough to find each site. In the more traditional pattern of interpretive trails, it each site is written about separately after an introduction. Most sites are Basin and Range style, but one contains Fremont style.

The pink and black stripes in these tuff cliffs are quite striking upon entering the Narrows.

It's not exactly what I would call narrow. There's a river here somewhere, sometimes.

Finding the location is particularly easy as those driving have provided a rough road right to the spot.

The echo of the striking pink and black layers above the user generated road.

An antiquities slapstick is the only marker.

This first panel is simple and I'm all for simple and abstract, so it is pleasant to ponder it and ponder the words. Hunting magic or a solstice calendar are put forward as two very different possible explanations. This does make me think about forced boarding schools with rules against speaking one's own language and without that, the point of this bright not-so-old-as-the-others rock art might have just been a matter of asking.

First I relish the simplicity of the whole.

Then look closely to yield complexity after all.

Then onward around the looping, flat road to the next one.

Continuing around the Narrows. I have found the (dry) river! It is just a few inches lower than the road, there to the right.

Another cryptic mark in the cliffs.

I found another user road extending the outside round of the already looping former highway all the way to the area indicated by the brochure for Narrows II. It says there are four panels to find in the area. This one is also Basin and Range style, but contains elements unique to the area.

The colored bands have vanished from the cliffs.

The most obvious of the four panels at Narrows II.

Some of the more common Basin and Range elements.

One of the lined circles and horns that are unique to the area.

The other panels are smaller and harder to find. I'm certain of three, but not sure I found four, particularly the high one. One single low one actually looks like a modern addition.

A small panel next to mystery holes in the cliff.

I returned to the main road and continued around it to one more panel. Narrows III is also marked on the map by USGS. Now there is a turn around to mark the end of the road, a register (also with no brochures in it), and a trail to the large panel.

East canyon walls.

The old highway as it comes upon the new highway. The new highway is the bank of land climbing to the left from the right. The canyon is quite narrow to the right.

This panel has suffered through the years and is the subject of ongoing graffiti removal. Initials and dates seem to attract more initials and dates, so the disruption of removal could well justify removing the encouragement for more destructive graffiti. There is a particularly soft rock here, so particularly vulnerable. Some of the symbols are incised instead of pecked because of that soft rock. The bottom 2 feet or so might have to deal with the river, too. The rock is distinctly lighter and smoother there.

Some of the figures in the soft rock. There's a lot of artificial contrast in this and many others to try to see the elements better.

There's an antiquities notice beside the register and another beside the first great concentration of art. From there, the art continues on the changing faces of the rock for a very long way.

The art gallery.

The mapped location on USGS corresponds to these two elaborate panels.

More detail of the left hand side. Note the bottom smoothed by the river flooding.

More detail of the right hand side.

Detail of the bighorn sheep on the left side.

Detail of the feet on the right side.

A walk along the wall is fascinating, but also depressing. Someone drew a target and recorded for generations their own great need for target practice. Thin scratches seem out of character for the old art and are also likely more recent additions. There is so much art here that the brain absolutely swims in it.

A scene plays out in this ancient short story prompt. Just a piece of a whole connected by a long line.

I missed a few by looking too much forward. They go around the corners and fill in every flat spot here.

One of the behind spaces. The figures on the right are some of the few Fremont style. Both have red pigment in them, being painted as well as carved.

I continued walking toward where the road now runs. The density reduced greatly, but there were still a few panels.

A jumble that seems of a different character to me.

The canyon continues.

The cliffs at the far end. Very blocky at the top.

Once I got to the end of the line of cliffs, I ate and returned.

Another, the upper part, that doesn't seem to fit the style to my untrained eye.

To get to Narrows V, I followed the road back most the way and took a small connector road over to the other canyon. I was really aiming at IV, but V works too.

A look down the road in the second canyon.

Left the Narrows once more.

Narrows V is a cluster of small surfaces in a rock outcrop.

After looking a bit, I realized I'd not seen a particular figure they called out in the description and got a little obsessed with finding it.

Some quite darkened, so old, sheep.

More patterns on the rocks. Some got quite full.

Found it, although I would describe it differently from the brochure.

Narrows IV is visible from Narrows V, which made it very easy to spot. I headed cross country to it, finally crossing the dry riverbed in a way that made it obvious.

A little outcrop of rock with the highway and Weepah Spring Wilderness behind it.

The blurb includes a mention of animals with longer necks that might have been a particular artist's style. Two lighter sheep to the left of the image below might be part of what they mean.

Up close, there's a lot of art.

Some brighter lines, presumably newer, but they have darkened a little already.

Some that could be older, with lines nearing the background in darkness.

Then I crossed back over to the road and followed it back to the car. And did I want to try again for Narrows VI? May as well. I parked just about the same place as I had before, then made the northern march.

Back to the bit of old NV-38 just north of the narrowest Narrows.

When I got to the USGS marked spot, there still weren't any petroglyphs. So frustrating. Okay, but what if I didn't have that information? Just working off the brochure information, I probably hadn't made it there yet. In fact, I walked more than twice as far north before coming to a fenced in rock face so crowded with rock art, it really would have been hard to miss. Well, unless you were looking for it half a mile south.

This cluster of images goes a good way up the hill to the right too.

This site is known for the number of designs, stacked new on old. It is Basin and Range, but may have some Fremont style and there is one figure that appears to be the northernmost Pahranagat style. (Well, so says the brochure. A couple years have passed since printing.) And why do all that in one place when there is plenty of rock nearby? Well, clearly the placement of art takes more than just a blank canvas, it says.

The sheep are going up the hill.

Another complicated and many layered panel.

Hum. Perhaps the lighter lower level is from a changing ground level, not flooding. Or not just.

Hundreds of years between layers, I expect.

Sheep and apparently a rider, but the figure might be older than the animal.

Tall wonders.

Very layered in long lines.

That was satisfying, but also a little overwhelming. Good grief, there's a lot. I did not find the few special figures from other styles in the collection, but that's okay. It was getting late, and I headed back to the car.

Back again.

Before leaving, I tucked the brochure into the box at the kiosk sized for it. I decided against braving the road to the Mount Irish Archaeological District, so tucked that brochure in next to the other.

*photo album*




©2023,2024 Valerie Norton
Written 26 Jan 2024