Black Canyon Loop, Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, NV

Hiked March 30, 2025. This post got pushed back a bit because of my recent comet adventures.

I took this hike right after the early morning hike at Cathedral Gorge, and breakfast in Panaca. We then started the long drive back to Henderson. Early in the drive, we passed a sign for the Oak Springs Trilobite Site. Sort of figured actually finding anything there would require some digging, which I wasn't willing to do. But we made a U-turn, drove down the dirt road, and walked around the site, a bit. It was just a short hike, for me. No photos, and no digging. Lots of broken shale. No obvious visible trilobites. Then, back in the car, and continued south, on to Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge.

We had stopped here once before, last April, during the time I was supposed to see the total eclipse, but cancelled various plans due to forecasted clouds in TX and NY.

It's about 90 minutes north of Henderson, so doable as a long day trip, which is what we did, last time.

Since that trip, on my various facebook and what not scrolling, I learned that there was a recently-reopened trail in Pahranagat NWR, with petroglyphs you could see with binoculars. It's the Black Canyon Loop, about 1.5 miles, if you take the spur trails. AFAIK, all trails in the Refuge that are open are open dawn to dusk. During hunting season, you may wish to revise your hiking plans.

The small parking area is on the opposite (east) side of US-93 from where you'd turn towards the Refuge visitor center. If you are driving from the visitor center, you cross directly across the highway to get to the dirt road. The dirt road is the start of an off-highway route, but there's the small parking area with swinging gates, on the left side of the dirt road. Some informational displays are there.

The trail itself is a narrow oval loop, which passes by several clusters of petroglyphs, one the far side of the loop, and another where the loop turns back towards the south, with a short spur to view Pahranagat Man, and other petroglyphs adjacent to him.

You're not adjacent to the water/lakes, though there are some vernal ponds and an intermittent stream, but not much water, so few or no waterfowl, unless they're flying to or from the lakes. Some sizable raptors were cruising above the volcanic areas, however. The turkey vulture, in particular, made a number of low loops around me. The red tailed hawk also got pretty close to me, but not as close as the turkey vulture, and he's quite a bit smaller. That shot was cropped by about half, while I only slightly cropped the turkey vulture shot, to center the bird.

Most petroglyphs were pretty faded, and not strikingly bright. But they're always nifty to see, as it's a way for long-dead people to talk to us, today. In this case, we're looking back one or two thousand years, which is a long time, for humans.

The star of the show is Pahranagat Man. He's apparently specific to this general area and that general time period. He's supposed to be a watchful, benign figure, overseeing his people. The Shoshone and Paiute consider themselves to be descendants of these people.

Pahranagat Man is visible in the picture adjacent to this paragraph, with a slightly wider view directly above this paragraph.

A stylized Pahranagat Man is also on the NWR visitor center building. That's the last picture in this post.

Along the various trails, there are metal representations of some of the local widlife -- squirrels, frogs, whatever. The one here made me jump back somewhat when I first saw him.

In speaking to the (volunteer?) in the visitor center, she mentioned that there are several other areas in the refuge with petroglyphs, if you were willing to walk around and find them on your own. I may try that on my next visit.

I didn't spend that much time looking at the exhibits in the visitor center. I was mainly there at Pahranagat for my specific goal of hiking Black Canyon, and, before and after that, making use of the flush toilets and running water at the VC!

But I do seem to recall from my previous visit that the migratory bird season is earlier, so if I want to see more migratory waterfowl, I should come earlier in the spring, or during late fall. That'll be something to keep in mind for fall or for next spring.

I will note that there were a LOT of turkey vultures we saw flying around while driving between Henderson and Cathedral Gorge. Most seemed to be flying north.

By itself, this morning in Pahranagat NWR alone wouldn't qualify as a "hike" under my old rules of three miles, minimum. Probably even adding the wandering early that morning in Cathedral Gorge wouldn't bring me up to that total. Maybe adding the walks to and from the visitor center? At any rate, it was a nice bonus reason for visiting Cathedral Gorge that weekend. And I do plan to make additional trips up here, maybe for the petroglyphs elsewhere in the refuge, and maybe for the ones on BLM land further up, near Hiko or Caliente.

Just for informational purposes, I can say that pets (mainly dogs) are allowed on trails, if they are leashed. Different rules for hunting dogs during hunting season.

The information on the website says pets, not dogs. So, I suppose in theory, if you have a well-behaved, leash-trained cat, he or she can come, too. But my cats aren't trained, and I did not ask.