A GORP Content Partner Adapted from Backcountry Byways by Stewart Green

Backcountry Byways Near Vegas Red Rocks and Gold Butte Drives

Gold Butte

Gold Butte Back Country Byway traverses sixty-two miles of rugged desert country south of Interstate 15 and Mesquite in southeastern Nevada. The byway is paved for the first twenty-four miles, with another nineteen miles on a well-graded gravel road to Gold Butte, an historic mining area at the southern end of the byway. Beyond there, the byway follows another nineteen-mile stretch that can be traveled only in a four-wheel drive or high clearance depending on how many stops are taken and if the unmaintained section is driven.

General Description: A Type II, sixty-two-mile paved, gravel, and unmaintained road that traverses an area of stunning desert scenery in southeastern Nevada Special Attractions: Whitney Pockets, Devil's Throat, Joshua tree forest, excellent views, Gold Butte mining area, wildlife, hiking. Location: On BLM lands south of Mesquite and Interstate 15 in southeastern Arizona. The drive begins on Nevada Highway 170 five miles southwest of Mesquite and Bunkerville, and about seventy-five miles northeast of Las Vegas. Byway Route Name: Gold Butte Road. Travel Season: Year-round, although fall and spring with their pleasant temperatures ranging from fifty to ninety degrees are the best times. Be prepared in summer for temperatures over 100 degrees. Plan on carrying plenty of water, both for yourself and you radiator. The BLM urges caution when traveling on the unmaintained section of road; in the event of a breakdown it could be days before another vehicle passes. Be sure and let someone know your travel plans. Camping: Primitive camping is allowed along the byway. The best places are at Whitney Pockets and Gold Butte. Commercial mapping is at Mesquite. Services: All services are available at Mesquite, including motels, restaurants, groceries, and gas. Nearby Attractions: Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Bitter Springs Back Country Byway, Red Rock Canyon Back Country Byway, Mt. Wilson Back Country Byway, Valley of Fire State Park, Zion National Park, Las Vegas. For More Information: BLM, Las Vegas District Office, 4765 W. Vegas Drive, P.O. Box 26569, Las Vegas, NV 89126, (702) 646-8800. A detailed byway map is available on request.

Fall and spring are the ideal times to drive the Gold Butte Byway, with pleasant daytime temperatures ranging from fifty to ninety degrees. Summer is prohibitively hot, you can expect temperatures to climb to 100 degrees and above almost every day. If you do drive the byway in summer, be prepared. Carry lots of water for yourself and your radiator and bring a working jack and spare tire. If you are stranded, it is best to wait for a passing vehicle, or for those you notified of your trip plans to contact local authorities when you are overdue.

The byway begins just south of Interstate 15 on Nevada Highway 170 on the south side of Virgin River Bridge, or five miles west of Mesquite. The narrow paved road follows the Virgin River southwestward along tawny benchlands above the broad river valley. Tamarisk trees, an Asian import, thickly border the riverbanks. The byway travels through a patchwork of private and public lands along this section. Respect private property by crossing it only with the owner's permission.

After a few miles the road swings away from the river and crosses a wide creosote-covered bajada or outwash plain sloping west from towering Virgin Peak. The jagged 8,066-foot-high peak, centerpiece of the Virgin Mountain Natural Area, rises almost 6,000 feet above the byway. The road continues climbing away from the river and over Black Ridge, a low spur of the Virgin Mountains that reaches toward Lake Mead.

Forest of Joshua trees, a tree-sized yucca in the lily family, line the road as it swings east toward the Virgin Mountains. The further south you travel on the byway, the denser the Joshua tree forests. On the bajadas, close to the mountains, where sufficient moisture exists it is the dominant plant. As you drive away from the mountains to lower elevations, the Joshua trees become smaller and fewer until they are replaced by creosote. The yucca trees, popular symbol of the Mojave Desert, were christened by early Mormons. Captain John C. Fremont, however, called them "the most repulsive tree in the vegetable kingdom."

After twenty-four miles the byway curves around the south end of Virgin Peak into Whitney Pockets, a dazzling valley of red and buff-colored sandstone outcrops. This hard fine- to medium-grained sandstone, called Aztec Sandstone, was deposited 180 million years ago in a large dune field that blanketed parts of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. The area, named for a pioneer rancher, offers excellent primitive campsites and is a good place to see desert wildlife.

Some of the animals seen include turkey vultures, prairie falcons, desert bighorn sheep, golden eagles, Mojave rattlesnakes and sidewinders, great horned owls that nest in the rock formations, and the rare desert tortoise, state reptile of Nevada. Visitors should exercise extreme caution when hiking around the area's cliffs and boulder; rattlesnakes are present.

Beyond Whitney Pockets, the gravel byway drops south between Bitter Ridge and Wechech Basin over a plain studded with Joshua trees. Dramatic views of lofty Tramp Ridge lie straight ahead, while to the southwest glistens the deep blue of Lake Mead in the sunlight. Long, hazy mountain ridges in nearby Arizona punctuate the eastern sky.

On the flat below Tramp Ridge, the byway divides. The seventeen-mile, nonmaintained section of the road leads west around Tramp Ridge. If you don't have a four-wheel drive or high-clearance vehicle, it is inadvisable to travel that section of the byway. There are both rocky and sandy sections that cannot be driven safely in a passenger car.

It is well worth the effort though, to take a quarter-mile jaunt down the road to Devil's Throat, an impressive, yawning sinkhole that is over 100-feet wide and deep. Expanding sinkholes are very rare in this area. Keep outside the fence around Devil's Throat. It is constantly eroding, with undercutting along the hole's rim just below the surface.

From Devil's Throat, the rough byway segment continues west along Mud Wash before turning south up Hold Butte Wash. Lime Ridge, a proposed wilderness area, lifts its ragged scarp above the track. Primitive camping and hiking opportunities exist along this wold section of road.

From the road junction at Devil's Throat, the graded gravel road climbs south to the now-abandoned and badly vandalized town of Gold Butte. This road section is spectacular. Dramatic vistas unfold in every direction: Virgin Peak's rocky profile zig-zags across the northern horizon, eastward lies row upon row of wild Arizona mountain ranges, to the west looms the abrupt folded uplift of Tramp Ridge, and southward are shapely granite peaks. Thick Joshua tree forests border the byway as it ascends Horse Spring Wash.

Gold Butte, halfway point of the byway journey, lies in the shadow of rough granite outcrops south of the road. Gold was discovered in 1905. By 1908, the town boasted a store, post office, hotel, and stable. Little gold and silver was extracted from the desert here, but copper was abundant. Nothing remains of Gold Butte today, except the traces and tailings of the Gold Butte Mine, Hill Top Mine, Black Jack Mine, and Vermiculite Mine. A branch road continues southwest from Gold Butte another ten miles to the shores of Lake Mead.

Primitive campsites are all along the byway. The best places are at Whitney Pockets and around Gold Butte. Use proper camping etiquette by packing out all your trash, using established sites, and camping at least 600 feet from a water source. There is plenty of desert hiking along the roadževery desert peak looks inviting. Hikers and campers need to carry enough water for all their needs, especially in the warmer months, and to be alert for rattlesnakes around rock outcrops and in bushes. Visitors should be aware that all archaeological and cultural resources are protected by federal law. Leave the artifacts and ruins of the Anasazi and Paiute Indians who once lived here intact for future byway travelers.

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Las Vegas Drive Away: Red Rocks

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