In Gold Butte, ancient rock art and rugged beauty abound
by cobbling together a sheaf of maps of varied detail that I printed off the internet. As I would later learn, there are designated routes for off-road vehicles and a main road, Gold Butte Road, which is designated as a National Backcountry Byway by the BLM, but as for hiking, you have to figure that out as you go along.
I stopped at the library in Mesquite and asked if they had anything on Gold Butte. The helpful librarian guided me to a shelf of books on Nevada history, but none of them mentioned Gold Butte in their indexes. However, from behind the desk she did find a book from a local author. She handed me a 1992 copy of “Crazy Ed’s Sagas and Secrets of Desert Gold” by the late Eddie Bounsall.
Bounsall, a prospector and maker of build-your-own-airplane kits, educates the reader about mining and minerals in the region but also covers a lot of ground on other subjects. “I’ve never believed in ghosts before but in the last 22 years living in the Gold Butte area we have had many very strange supernatural incidents happen with my family and to people who either worked for us of who were just visiting,” Bounsall wrote before recounting some goosebumps-inducing events. In a chapter on UFOS, he presents a sure-of-himself argument that the humanshaped petroglyphs found on the rocks are space people, and the local Native American tribes have been in touch with them for a long time. He also theorizes about how the early Spanish explorers left behind hidden treasure vaults of gold and silver in Gold Butte and the surrounding region. The Spaniards figured they could always get it later, so they left symbols etched to rock walls that indicated the secret way to the mother lode.
Suddenly, Gold Butte National Monument got a lot more interesting.
On the way to Gold Butte, I crossed the Virgin River. On the north side of the river were two flagpoles, each with an American flag flying. Atop one pole was some metalwork that said “We The,” and the pole next to it was topped with “People.” Down below on a fence, a tattered banner hung limp. It read:
Liberty freedom
For God we stand
This is the stomping ground of Cliven Bundy, the anti-government provocateur who grazed his unpermitted cattle on Gold Butte rangeland and had a standoff here with government authorities in 2014. His ranch is right down the road. Across the bridge and at the turn off for Gold Butte Road, there is a gravel pull-in with some Plexiglas-covered BLM signs about respecting and enjoying the desert, packing out trash and encouraging drivers to stay on marked routes. The signs are peppered with bullet holes. This is a common affliction among signs in the Gold Butte area.
Gold Butte was deemed worthy of monument designation for historical and cultural assets but also for environmental and conservation reasons. It is where the Great Basin, Mojave Desert and Colorado Plateau merge. The Joshua trees are a rare and iconic American treasure, and Gold Butte has plenty of them, along with its cousin, the Mojave yucca. It holds multiple subspecies of cholla and prickly pear cactuses. All of the plants take a long time to grow. The barrel cactus that dot the hillsides can live to 130 years. Near 21 Goats, the Las Vegas bearpoppy is being restored. The plant grows only in Clark County, where all of Gold Butte is located, and cannot be transplanted. Near the Devil’s Throat, a giant sinkhole more than 100 feet deep, grassland is being restored after wildfires in 2005.
The desert was surprisingly full of life. Every time I hiked through the scrub, road runners, fence lizards, kangaroo rats and blacktail jack rabbits skittered under the creosote bushes. Up above, I spotted a golden eagle soaring on the drafts, and in the distance, I caught a glimpse of a prairie falcon diving at some doomed ground-dwelling creature.
Gold Butte is a large, flattopped hill, and the only settlement here went by the same name. Upon my arrival at the ghost town of Gold Butte, jack rabbits bolted from every direction. At one time, this spot had a post office, store, saloon and hotel. An estimated 2,000 miners lived here — mostly in tents — during its peak in 1908. They mined copper, gold, zinc, lead and magnesite. The boom died off in 1910.
I hiked around and found mattress frames, tangles of rusty wire, an old oven, a sink, water tanks, an old stovetop range, a collapsed corral, metal drums, a couple of concrete pads and a large mining contraption. Most of these items had been used for target practice. There are two graves surrounded by a fence of metal piping.
On the hillside, I found a mine. The entrance to the mine was fenced off, but there was no sign stating you can’t go in there, so I climbed over the fence. When I illuminated the mine with my penlight, there was an oddshaped rock. It slithered. Maybe a panamint rattlesnake or a Gila monster. I climbed back over the fence.
Although the ghost town left me unimpressed, the highlight of the trip was another petroglyph site near 21 Goats. It was a grouping of sandstone formations; if you imagined for a moment, you could see how the early Native Americans of Gold Butte survived within this harsh landscape. The formations provided shelter and shade and even water by way of tinajas, which are smooth-sculpted holes that can hold water for a long time.
Hidden in the cliffs is the image of a man falling. The Falling Man is a mystery. No one is sure what it means, much like similar images in the Cave of Swimmers in the Sahara. It stands completely alone
How to get there
From Las Vegas, head north toward Mesquite, approximately 90 minutes away, on Interstate 15, take exit 112 and head south on Riverside Road. Once you cross the Virgin River, you are in Gold Butte country.
Exploring
Some road sections of Gold Butte can be handled by a 2-wheel drive vehicle, but
a high-clearance 4X4 is the smartest and safest way to explore
the rugged back roads. On the dirt roads, you will have an average speed of 10 to 15 mph, and your teeth will still rattle. It is slow going on some roads.
Pack enough food and water to last for at least three days, along with standard emergency and survival gear.
Bringing a can of gasoline is also wise. The possibility of a vehicle breakdown deep in the backcountry, with no cellphone signals and the extreme heat of the Mojave Desert, can make for a dangerous situation. During my explorations of Gold Butte, I saw only two other vehicles and not a single person. The possibility of nobody coming along to help you for an extended period of time is real.
Mesquite is the best town to start or end an adventure in Gold Butte.
It has a handful of affordable resorts, casinos, all-you-caneat buffets and restaurants. In town, you can gather provisions and last-minute supplies at convenience stores and supermarkets and, most important, top off your gas tank.
from the other rock art and this is contrasted by a nearby boulder that is completely covered with petroglyphs. It’s Newspaper Rock, one of many newspaper rocks that are scattered over the deserts in the American West. It’s like an ancient storyboard, but good luck making any sense of it. There are human footprints, a tortoise, more bull’s-eyes, more goats, squiggly lines and a rainbow. I sat in front of it and pondered the images until thirst set in and I had to hike back to the Jeep for water.
I’m sure Crazy Ed led a hell of a life chasing Spanish hoards and prospecting for gold, but the real treasures of Gold Butte aren’t buried underground. They are often right in front your face. You just need to burn some boot leather, and then at the right spot, look up. There they are. They will take your breath away.