Overview

The Shooting Gallery rock art site is an area of desert-varnished boulders in a bowl-shaped mountain valley with a narrow outlet canyon. Ancient people stayed here during summers flaking stones, building fires, breaking ceramic vessels, and etching the rocks with representational (e.g., bighorn sheep and human figures) and abstract images. They also hunted bighorn sheep using rock piles to simulate hunters and scare sheep down into the narrow canyon where they would easier to shoot.

The BLM and Lincoln County opened this area to the public, and Lincoln County printed a brochure with information about the site (including GPS coordinates) as part of their Get Primitive tourism campaign. Download the brochure from Lincoln County or snatch a copy here.

Link to Wide Area Map or Site Map.

Location

The Shooting Gallery rock art site is located in the Pahranagat Valley about 85 miles north of Las Vegas on Highway 93.

From town, drive north on Interstate 15 to US Highway 93 (Table 1, Site 0674). Exit onto Highway 93 and drive north to Alamo. From the Chevron Station and market in Alamo (Site 0675), continue north of 1.7 miles to South Richardville Road (Site 1119). Turn left and follow South Richardville Road around as it bends to the north.

If you miss South Richardville Road, continue another 1.6 miles north to North Richardville Road (Site 1120), turn left, and follow it back to the south.

Follow Richardville Road around to Canyon Road (Site 1121). Turn left onto Canyon Road, which initially is paved, and drive west. After about 0.4 miles, the pavement ends. Continue west, staying to the right at a fork (Site 1122) about 0.1 miles past the pavement (left to town dump).

Driving west on what is now Curtis Canyon Road, continue towards the obvious canyon in the distance, passing all side roads along the way. In the canyon, the road eventually bends to the left and runs south to a fork (Site 1123). Stay left, and quickly left again, to climb a very steep hill. This hill is extremely steep and marginally 4WD due solely to the percent incline; stay off if the road is muddy.

Atop the hill, the road winds up a canyon, generally trending south. About 1 mile past the top of the hill, stay to the right at a fork (left to a telecom tower) and drive south across a broad mountain valley. About 1.5 miles past the telecom tower road, turn hard to the right (almost a U-turn) at a fork (Site 1124) onto Shooting Gallery Access Road. Drive north on the access road for about 0.3 miles to a turn-around loop and parking area. Park here; this is the trailhead.

Hours

The area is always open, but it probably should be considered day-use only. There are no established camping areas.

Fees

None.

Note: In this area, gasoline is available only in Alamo and Ash Springs.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 2, Waypoint 1), the route (an old road) runs southwest for a few yards and then northwest towards the bottom of the broad valley to the northwest. The trail runs down into a wash, and from that point, any of the rock piles to the north and west might have petroglyph panels.

The area around Wpt. 04 appears to have been a village site with lots of stone flakes, few pot shards, and lots of petroglyphs. Many nice panels can be found on boulders between Wpts. 04 and 06.

Farther up the canyon (Wpt. 07), a nice "Pahranagat Man" can be seen on large boulder, and some nice panels can be found up the gully southwest of the village area (Wpts. 08-10).

This is an area to wander about, marvel at the plethora of fine rock art, and consider the lives of people who lived here for thousands of years.

When ready, follow your footprints back to the trailhead.