Northshore Drive

2:49 p.m. (Arizona and Nevada Time)
The scenery along road from Overton to Henderson is spectacular, but slow; 35 miles per hour. There is some road construction farther south, within the Recreation Area. The road is torn up as they resurface it, but there are already some new sections of road with nice new turnouts. Some of the scenery is very spectacular along in here and well worth the drive. But as the summer months come, it will be hot out here.

It was a slow drive; slower than I’d anticipated. But the scenery makes it worth while.

The road comes out just below the town of Boulder, west of the Hoover Dam. There was a lot of traffic and we turned west and headed to 95 south. That road is now a four lane divided highway with lots of traffic. It’s wide open and the scenery is bland basin and range topography with a mix of Sonoran and Mojave desert vegetation.

Christmas Tree Pass Road

After we turned east toward Laughlin we came to the Christmas Tree Pass Road. This is a dirt road that heads north to Spirit Mountain.

4:24 p.m.
Along the Christmas Tree Pass Road we saw a pink colored constrictor type snake, about three feet long. It doubled back across the road to safety. The road to Grapevine Canyon is about two miles north of the southeast beginning of Christmas Pass Road.

Grapevine Canyon Petroglyphs

4:36 p.m.
There were a couple of other vehicles at the Grapevine Canyon Trailhead, but it is not crowded. There is a modern pit toilet, but no drinking water. The area is pretty exposed; typical basin and range environment. There is a trail to the west which leads about .25 miles to where the rock art is located. The area reminds me a bit of Parowan Gap and the Cat Stair Canyon entrances, with lots of rounded, weathered rock, cliff faces, and a slightly flowing stream.

As you approach from the east, look for rock art on the east facing rocks on the south side of the stream. The art work continues around along the cliffs on the south side of the stream, then diminishes as you get further into the little canyon. There is a small cascade surrounded by lush vegetation. Some of that vegetation may or may not be poison ivy. We didn’t get close enough to have a good look, and since we didn’t see any rock art back that way we just avoided that area.

There is more rock art on the cliff faces on the north side of the stream, back out to the entrance, then on the east facing rocks as they head off toward the north. The greatest concentrations of art are on the high cliffs on either side of the canyon entrance.

There are a variety of petroglyphs here. My guess is that there are at least three groups that worked this area, or there were at least three different periods when the work was done. Some is very unusual (I think they call it Nevada curvilinear) in that it just seems like scribbles on the rock, with no real pattern. Just fanciful scrawls. But then there are very angular graphics throughout the site that seem related to a different group or time. There are a lot of “suns” and only a few humanoid figures and animal representations (mostly desert bighorn sheep). The third type is best represented by a large rock on the south side, which has human stick figures and a very prominent group of desert bighorn sheep. They are bright and almost seem painted on instead of carved into the stone.

On the north side, facing east, there are some relatively recent, large petroglyphs way up high that seem to be cut in over earlier work. There is one large, distinct piece that looks a bit like the rising sun coming up over the rocks.

Another thing that I noticed here that is a bit different was the number of the pieces that are carved along the top ridge of some of the rocks, and up near the top of the cliff faces, as if the artist hung over the edge of the rock and worked on his stomach.

No matter, the entire site is interesting and I’m sure that if we had more time we could have explored more and found more interesting designs. To get good photos of some work would require climbing up over the rocks.

5:44 p.m.
Back at the trailhead we decided that we wouldn't mind coming back to explore more. There is also a trail up to the top of about 4 miles round trip.

Alan Bible Visitor Center

11:47 a.m.
After the dam we stopped at the Alan Bible Visitor Center, for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and got info and talked to the rangers. They gave us some good hiking maps of the area.