Great Basin Whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris)

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(Fig. 01)

Picture Notes: On 08/09/2014, while hiking near the Willow Springs Picnic Area inside Redrock Canyon looking for some pictographs, I spotted a Great Basin Whiptail lizard (Fig. 01) in some brush ahead of me attempting to capture a caterpillar. He spent the first couple of minutes sizing up his victim (Fig. 02) before actually latching on with a big bite (Fig. 03). When I attempted to move closer for a better shot he scurried off. Climbing up and around a large boulder, I found him wrestling its victim in an open area of the rock.  As seen in the next series of photos (Figs. 04-07), he then spent the next 10 minutes wrangling in and devouring this tempting morsel. As you can see in (Fig. 06), he is sucking every last ounce of “juice” out of him. Having nearly completed this huge meal, notice in (Fig. 07) how much fatter his body appears.

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Description: Great basin Whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris) as a species is slim-bodied with a long slender tail, a thin snout, and large symmetrical head plates, and can grow to 2 3/8 - 5 inches long snout to vent, and up to around 13 inches total length. Depending on the individual, Western Whiptails may appear to have a light ground color that is marked by a dark reticulated pattern, or they may appear to have a dark ground color that is marked by numerous light colored spots. Regardless, there is always a striped pattern down the full length of their body that is apparent. The four stripes are a light tan, gray or cream color and extend dorsolaterally from the base of the head towards the tail. The stripes are most prominent in juveniles, and they tend to fade posteriorly in adults. The previously described pattern of contrasting spots and markings extends onto the base of the tail, but the color darkens towards the tip, becoming a more bluish-gray. Western Whiptails have fine, granular scales dorsally, and large rectangular scales arranged in 8 rows ventrally. The lower limbs of these lizards have a distinct scalation, being covered anteriorly with large, smooth scales that contrast with the granular scales elsewhere on the limbs. In fact, the genus name loosely translated means "bearing armored legs". The long tail of the Western Whiptail can be more than twice the snout-vent length if it is unbroken. There is a fair chance that a Western Whiptail may be encountered with a tail that is regenerating, as they will readily lose their tail to predators and would be captors.               Western Whiptails mate in the spring, laying 1-4 eggs in June or July, which in turn hatch in August. The juveniles resemble the adults but are more vividly colored (including the tail, which is more blue in coloration). The back and sides are grey, tan, or brown, marked with dark spots or bars or mottling, which is often very sharply defined. Dark marks on the sides often form vertical bars. The belly is made of large, smooth, rectangular scales in 8 lengthwise rows. Often there are reddish patches on the sides of the belly. The throat is pale with with obscure black spots. Scales on the back are small and granular, and scales on the tail are keeled. The tail can reach up to two times the length of the body. They can be wary and very active, moving with abrupt stops and starts with side-to-side head movement and tongue flicking. Often seen digging rapidly when foraging. Typically foraging near cover, they are very difficult to approach and are capable of quick bursts of speed into heavy brush or holes. They like to eat small invertebrates, especially spiders, scorpions, centipedes, termites, and small lizards.                   The species (Aspidoscelis tigris) ranges from North central Oregon and southern Idaho, south through California and Nevada to Baja California, and east into Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas. From sea level to 7,000 feet, they are found in a variety of ecosystems, primarily hot and dry open areas with sparse foliage - deserts, chaparral, sagebrush, woodland, and riparian areas. They generally avoid areas with dense growth.

Pauline Mine Road Petroglyph Pictures

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Area Description: About a mile and a half hike up Pauline Mine Road at the base of the Potosi Mountain Range in the north western corner of Goodsprings valley, there is a large sandstone monolith outcrop (Fig. 01). Surrounded by desert plain on all sides, it stands out like a sore thumb. Located on its north east corner, relatively close to the ground (Fig. 02) are a series of petroglyphs and pictographs that run for more than 75 feet.

Petroglyph Information: As this is the only patina covered sandstone in the area, one has to assume that it was the geologic structure itself that drew some persons from an ancient culture to stop and peck messages into its patina covered faces. It is interesting though, considering its overall size, that only one small portion of this enormous monolith contains any glyphs. In researching the Internet, I haven’t even been able to find a single mention of these petroglyphs. Just about all of them are void of any anthropomorph (human) or zoomorphs (animal) figures. Though it is only a guess based upon my readings, the two symbols in (Fig. 03) may be representative of some type of tribal shield. Other that this, the remainder of the panels (Figs 04-06) are truly abstract in nature. Unfortunately, the pictographs in (Fig. 07), that were located in the northern most end near a cave like area, are so faded that it is nearly impossible to identify anything.

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Hiko Springs - Site Petroglyph Photos

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(Fig. 01)

Area Description: It should be noted that this petroglyph site is not to be confused with the Hiko Springs in Lincoln County. This Hiko Springs is located a short distance off Hwy 163, not far from the Grapevine Canyon site and the city of Laughlin, Nevada. For a more detail description of the site and my visit here, go to … Daytrip - Hiko Springs Rock Art Site. Petroglyph Information: Considering the number of unique petroglyphs found here, it seems  amazing that very little is written on the Internet about this site. Unless you have a 4WD vehicle, I would advise parking just off the highway and walking the 0.8 miles down a very sandy wash to reach the site. Overall, this site seems to have essentially, many of the same rock art designs that can be found at the prolific Grapevine Canyon site, located only 4 miles to the north. The petroglyphs here are also pecked into vertical cliffs of granitic rock (Fig. 01) that are covered with the dark patina called desert varnish. Because the formation of desert varnish is a very, very slow process, it suggests that the etchings found here are quite old. Though the close-up (Fig. 02) of the picture in Figure 01 clearly shows what appear to be several symbols of “hands”, the majority of the glyphs (Figs. 03-06) found at this location contain abstract designs, very similar to those at Grapevine Canyon. There are however, a couple of examples of recognizable “sheep-like” figures (Figs. 07 & 08).

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Falling Man & Mud Wash Petroglyph Photos

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(Fig. 01)

Area Description: All of these petroglyphs are located in an area know as the Gold Butte Region. One of the most popular areas is called the Falling Man Site. This is area is that is full of what just seem like large piles of red and white sandstone outcrops. However, the desert varnish on many of these rocks have made for a fascinating rock art gallery that is filled with dozens of ancient petroglyphs.. Unfortunately, I somehow missed two of the more famous panels, the “Falling Man'” panel or another large panel called “Newspaper Rock” that my friend Kathy Pool found (Fig. 02). The good news is that I did locate several other nice petroglyph panels. The further you hike into this area and the more you look, the more rock art you can find. No matter where we hiked here, there were beautiful views in almost every direction. Hopefully, a future visit will yield some better photos and even more petroglyphs. For more detail about the area, refer to my page… Falling Man Hike. Due to a variety of petroglyph styles, pottery and other artifacts, it appears that Native Americans have made use of this area for thousands of years, making it difficult at best to determine who made what rock art. Some of the panels include superimposition of petroglyphs pecked over older images, meaning that later cultures may have visited the area and left their mark. It is thought that these petroglyphs were made by the Anasazi as early as 2000 years ago but nobody really knows for sure. Whatever the time frame, bands of Archaic hunter-gatherers lived here, followed by the Virgin Branch of the Keyenta Anasazi.  When the Anasazi left sometime around 1000AD the Patayan and southern Paiute made Gold Butte their home.

(Fig. 02)

Here is a panel (Fig. 03 below) that was just full of anthropomorph and zoomorph symbols. As is typical, many of the panels (Figs. 04 & 05) contained what seemed like a variety of abstract symbols. The black and white picture (Fig. 07), a close-up of the panel in the rock face on the top right of (Fig. 06), has several interesting symbols. One looks like a turtle, a few others look like birds.As this was pretty high up on the rock face, I had to use my zoom lens and the picture quality isn't as good as it should be.

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One of the most detailed and complicated panels (Fig. 01) I located was off of North Mud Wash Road. It is located in the dark patina area of rock, just right of center in (Fig. 08). The glyphs in (Figs. 09 & 10) were located to the left of the main panel in (Fig. 01)

(Fig. 08)

(Fig. 09)

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Mud Wash Road at Gold Butte National Monument

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This page last updated on 03/14/2018

(Fig. 01)

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(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.

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(Fig. 08) Back to [Gold Butte National Monument - Summary Page]