A high point in one of the Basin and Range mountain ranges, Davidson Peak is a fun ridge scramble on ancient sea limestone with great views of eastern Nevada and western Arizona.  ​

A high point to one of the many parallel Great Basin mountain ranges, the horn-shaped summit of Davidson Peak with its steep west-facing cliffs rises solitary over the expansive Mojave desert as you drive on I-15 heading north from Las Vegas.  Formed during the time of shallow seas, when North America was closer to the equator, its rocks are 500 - 300 million years old and contain coral and brachiopod fossils.   This hike is a ridge ramble for the entire 2.5 miles to the summit, gaining roughly 1,000 feet per mile, and is surprisingly scenic and full of intriguing sights, like bright orange fossils and a gaping, seemingly bottomless gulch.

Our goal this year is to hike to as many high points of the Great Basin mountain ranges as we can, and Davidson is our third.  We hiked Wheeler Peak and Virgin Peak last autumn, both in the eastern-most Basin and Range region.  From Davidson's summit, we could see another target summit, Mormon Peak, the highest point in the Mormon Mountain Wilderness, northwest of Mesquite, a town on the border of Nevada and Arizona.  Nevada is the most mountainous state, so we have a lot of choices!

Another planned summit is North Schell Peak, a nearly 12,000-foot high point near Ely, Nevada.

Our Hike
The hike begins after a 12-mile drive north from I-15 that initially follows the Old Spanish Trail.  It is a good gravel road but nevertheless slow-going.  We parked on Sheep Pens Road just north of the radio towers.  A short spur road takes you to the base of Davidson's east ridge.  We walked to the end of this road and started up the ridge on the left side of a wide gulch;  a few cairns were present.   About 1/3 of the way up,  we encountered large rocks, so we skirted the left side of the ridge.

After skirting the ridge top, enter a beautiful valley/saddle with great places to take a break and enjoy very healthy Joshua trees, red barrel and prickly pear cacti.  Ahead, confront a steep climb to remain on the east ridge.  On the way up, we circumvented the actual ridge top to the right, looking down into the deep and wide gulch coming from the peak.  Davidson Peak is an easy scramble straight ahead.  However, it is not too difficult to stay on top of the ridge, requiring some use of hands for hoisting and balance, but mostly a Class 2.  The ridge to the summit is long and flat.

Summit Views
Mormon Peak is seen to the northwest, and the solitary hulk of Moapa Peak to the southwest.  The west side drops almost straight down .  We could see Virgin Peak to the southeast, an 8,000' summit we hiked last autumn, out of the Gold Butte National Monument.

On the way down, we stayed on top of the ridge all the way to the saddle, hiking over a fun, steep, smooth and relatively rockless limestone slab which elevated us high above steep drops on both sides.  We stayed for the most part on the ridge the rest of the way down and then descended through a shallow canyon to arrive at the spur road lined with yellow poppies.

The ancient Basin and Range mountain ranges rise above a stark and dusty desert; it appears as if there is not much there to discover.  But when you get into the "heart" of them, walk over their scratchy limestone and volcanic rocks, circumvent sharp yucca leaves and cactus spines, catch the sudden crimson blooms of a claret cup hedgehog, and feel the desert space you know you are in a special, unique and maybe even spiritual place.  

What do they "mean"?
Thirty years ago, I liked to hike to a single large boulder with a petroglyph of a rattlesnake curved around a recumbent human reaching for a cross in the Indian Canyons of Palm Springs, California (see below).  It's made of connected squares, a concentric circle, and a line-enclosed cross.  At least that was my interpretation of this petroglyph in the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Reservation.  But after reading more about petroglyphs, I've discovered that it might not represent a rattlesnake at all, but a series of connected abstract shapes such as chained squares.  Many archaeologists have concluded that questions of "what does this mean?" cannot be answered, especially regarding abstract geometric rock carvings.  Instead of attempting to decipher meanings and assign symbols, scientists try to identify similarities in rock art and its occurrence in certain southwestern regions.  In some cases, however, a definitive symbol or meaning can be attributed to certain petroglyph images, like zigzags that portray lightning to the present-day Hopi Indians.  The spiral petroglyph is consistently interpreted as multiple migrations.

In his book, Other Truths not Guessed:  The Story of the Sevier Fremont Indian,​ Kenneth Olsen Kohler says,  "The study to interpret the meaning of this pecking or painting may never be found as it lies hidden in the heart of those who understood what they wanted to communicate upon the rock."
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**  Since writing this post, a reader, who is passionate about petroglyph sites, contacted me with a book recommendation that I found helpful:  A Field Guide to Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest by Alex Patterson.  It is a comprehensive guide to identifying petroglyph symbolism for human-like, animal-like and abstract forms.  It illustrates and explains a large array of petroglyphs.  Thanks for the suggestion!

The Search for the Rattlesnake
A few months ago, Fred and I met a Bureau of Land Management guy patrolling 4-wheel drive roads near St. George, Utah.  He gave us a "tip" about a "rattlesnake" petroglyph on a giant boulder overlooking the Santa Clara River.  A short bike ride took us to what might be the boulder we were searching for, but there were no petroglyphs on the side facing the river.  It had tumbled down from the vertical cliffs above.  We grounded our bikes and made a short steep hike to its backside facing the cliff and there it was - a serpentine form weaving around different abstract images, most of them ovals of connected circles, reminding me of necklaces.  The whole rock, petroglyphs included are covered with lichen.  The bottom markings are mostly obscured by desert varnish, a thin dark coating made of clay minerals and manganese and iron oxides - more so than the top petroglyphs. 

We were amazed that most of this boulder was covered with various carved shapes, including animals, perhaps desert bighorn sheep, which are among the most prevalent animal petroglyphs in the southwest.  The lower petroglyphs could have been made before the upper petroglyphs, because they were covered with desert varnish.

Most of the petroglyphs shown here are located in the Santa Clara River Reserve, administered by the Bureau of Land Management near St. George, Utah.  The Anasazi Valley Trail (Tempi'po'op) leads to petroglyphs on tops and sides of sandstone boulders.  Many were made about 1,000 years ago by ancestral Puebloans who were farmers in permanent settlements.  It must have been an inspiring site for these ancient people because it overlooks the Santa Clara River far below, steadily eroding a route over the millennia, a huge valley of tilted layered rock mesas and drainages, and the Beaver Dam Mountains, snow-covered in winter.

Since moving to the St. George area, petroglyph-finding missions have yielded not only fascinating ancient rock art, but also countless places to explore and a growing appreciation of southern Utah as one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  

The "Geometric Enigma"
Some of the oldest petroglyphs in the New World are 13,000 - 14,000 years old - coinciding with the final stages of the last ice age (Pleistocene epoch).  An excellent book, Early Rock Art of the American West:  The Geometric Enigma thoroughly discusses abstract-geometric petroglyphs, the oldest form of rock art.  In the American West, the authors call this art the "Western Archaic Tradition."  It preceded figurative art such as human and animal forms.   The authors, who have written other books on prehistoric art, propose theories as to why early American West inhabitants created art, and discuss ancestral minds and symbolism and hypotheses regarding the "peopling" of the Americas.  

The Sexual Duality Hypothesis identified a sexual polarity symbolism which included male signs of dots, barbed elements, short strokes, and spear-thrower signs.  Female geometric designs included oval, triangular and quadrangular shapes.   The Shamanistic hypothesis indicates that shamans acted as a connection to the spiritual world through altered states of consciousness.  The initial stage of the shamanistic trance identifies geometric mental images such as grids, sets of parallel lines, dots and flecks, and zigzags.  After emerging from the third stage of shamanistic trance, a participant would pay tribute to their visionary experiences by engraving them on rock surfaces.

A third hypothesis is the Neurovisual Resonance Theory, whose premise is that geometric shapes and patterns are appealing to humans, and they were built into the neural structuring part of our brain millions of years ago.  Making these petroglyphs helped humans to feel emotionally rewarded and reinforce survival behavior. The brain's visual cortex "resonates" when geometric shapes and patterns are made and a feedback loop is created that provides the stimulus for making abstract marks.  
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We may never know exactly why these abstract-geometric designs were made and what specific purposes they had, but we may conclude that they are evidence of the artist's desire to to find meaning by presenting it in a tangible form - a petroglyph.​  Viewing petroglyphs in an inspirational setting causes one to suspend time for a few minutes and imagine how it was made hundreds and thousands of years ago.

I added some images of petroglyphs from my post Utah's Red Rock Country from other adventures in southeast Utah.

References
Breeding, A.  2019.  Written in Stone.  Palm Springs Life Magazine.  Desert Publications, Inc.
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Jones, K.  2019.  Standing on the Walls of Time:  Ancient Art of Utah's Cliffs and Canyons.  University of Utah Press.

Lingappa, U., Yeager, C., Sharma, A., Fischer, W.  6/14/2021.  An Ecophysiological Explanation for Manganese Enrichment in Rock Varnish.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  (from the internet).

Malotki, E., Dissanayake, E.  2018.  Early Rock Art of the American West:  A Geometric Enigma.  University of Washington Press.


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