Grimes Point Petroglyphs

Rock art on a Lake Lahontan shore

Grimes Point is a field of basalt boulders along US 50 east of Fallon, many of them carved with petroglyphs. The Bureau of Land Management says Native Americans first visited the area “perhaps 8,000 years ago or more.” The surfaces of the boulders carry desert varnish, which Travel Nevada describes as a crust formed when manganese and iron combine in an arid climate.

The landscape has changed. A Northern Nevada Business Weekly profile says the level of ancient Lake Lahontan fluctuated widely with climate over the past 10,000 to 21,000 years, and that the Grimes Point area was periodically covered with marshland that supported abundant wildlife. Travel Nevada points out that the carvings are drawings, not writing. It lists swirls and desert bighorn sheep among the designs to look for, and mentions an aboriginal drift fence along the ridge.

The sources do not agree on distances. BLM puts the site about 12 miles east of Fallon. Travel Nevada says about seven miles. Northern Nevada Business Weekly says about 10 miles southeast. None of them gives a count of carved boulders.

Hidden Cave

Hidden Cave lies within the same archaeological area. BLM says the cave formed around 21,000 years ago, while Lake Lahontan’s waves were rising, and that four schoolboys found it in the mid-1920s. The newspaper profile gives 1927. BLM says it was excavated in 1940, 1951 and 1979-1980, the last by the American Museum of Natural History. Artifacts suggest people used it mainly as a cache rather than a home. BLM dates that use to about 3,500 to 3,800 years ago. The newspaper profile describes storage over about 9,000 years, with caches of baskets, tools and projectile points, and excavations that cut through 12,000 years of deposits.

Travel Nevada says the cave was used by ancestors of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe and is protected by both the tribe and the BLM. The newspaper profile adds that there is no access to Spirit Cave.

Visiting today

BLM describes a quarter-mile self-guided interpretive trail at Grimes Point, named Nevada’s first National Recreation Trail in 1978. It says restrooms and picnic facilities are available. Travel Nevada calls the site open 24 hours a day and says admission is free. BLM lists no entry fee. BLM says the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Hidden Cave can be entered only on a scheduled tour. BLM says free tours run on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, start at 9:30 a.m., and are skipped on three-day federal holiday weekends. The newspaper profile says to meet at the Churchill County Museum in Fallon and drive to the site. BLM warns the tour involves a climb. Confirm dates with the Churchill County Museum or the BLM Carson City District before going.

BLM asks visitors to stay on the trail, not to touch, chalk, rub or damage the petroglyphs, and to take nothing but photographs. Overnight camping is not allowed. For the Hidden Cave tour, BLM advises sturdy walking shoes, water and clothing suited to the weather.