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Mud Wash Road at Gold Butte National Monument

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This page last updated on 03/14/2018
EFP-P1060553 - P1060554
(Fig. 01)
MAP-04-North Mud Wash Road
(Fig. 02)
MAP-05 Lollipop Petroglyph TH
(Fig. 03)
Directions: After travailing down Gold Butte Road from Whitney Pockets for about 3.8 miles you come to the northern end of Mud Wash North Road (Fig. 02). After a little over 3 miles you come to an intersection where Mud Wash Road heads east (left) towards Devil’s Throat and back to Gold Butte Road. Continuing on from here, heading west, it is about another half mile to the petroglyphs (Fig. 03).
                         
03/14/2018 Trip Notes: Today, Harvey Smith, Bob Croke Jim Herring and I made yet another visit to the Mud Wash Road Petroglyphs, as well as Devil's Throat, Kirt's Grotto and Little Findland. For pictures and a description of this visit, go to ... Visit to Gold Butte National Monument - Trip Notes for 03/14/2018.

Mud Wash Road Petroglyphs: The view in (Fig. 01) above was taken from a stop on Backcountry Byway (Fig. 02), several miles south of Mud Wash Road, showing Bitter Ridge and the geology north of the wash. As you approach this area you will encounter a rather large red sandstone outcrop (Fig. 01) on the northwest side of the road. A portion of this outcrop protrudes out towards the edge of the road (Fig. 04). The view of this in (Fig. 03) was actually taken coming from the opposite direction. High above near the top of this alcove in the northwest rock wall where massive amounts of either water or wind has worn this protected wall and allowed it to be covered with very dark desert varnish, you can see where Native Americans covered it with rock art. These Mud Wash Petroglyphs are probably about the most easily accessible glyphs on the butte and well worth spending some time at and photographing. They can be easily missed coming from this direction unless you are on the lookout for them. As you can see from (Figs. 05 thru 08), this rather large panel contains a large number of both human and animal figures, as well as some abstract symbols. There appears to be different types of goats, bighorn sheep and a serpent. On the rock wall to the south, about chest height, is a brass geological survey marker.
                                 
EFP-P1060562
(Fig. 04)
EFP-P1060557
(Fig. 05)
EFP-P1060557-2
(Fig. 06)
EFP-P1060555
(Fig. 07)
EFP-P1060556
(Fig. 08)

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