Overview: The Grapevine Canyon Petroglyph Trail leads to an amazing collection of rock-art, or "rock stories" as some native people would say, that were created by ancient people who lived among these rocky canyons thousands of years ago. The rock stories depict abstract forms, the meaning of which has been lost to time, and representational forms such as bighorn sheep and humans.

The Grapevine Canyon Petroglyph Trail departs from the far end of the parking lot, immediately drops into the wash, and follows the wash upstream for 0.3 miles to rocky crags at the entrance to Grapevine Canyon. The walking is technically easy, but the sand in the wash is soft. Most of the rock stories were written on the rocky outcrops at the entrance to the canyon.

For more adventuresome hikers, the Grapevine Canyon Waterfall route runs 1.7 miles up the rocky canyon into granite mountains (unusual for the Las Vegas area) following a seasonal stream past stands of cottonwood trees and water-sculpted narrows to a nice 15-foot waterfall with a bathtub.

Link to map.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this hike is fairly safe, but for those of us used to walking on rough, almost sticky, limestone and sandstone, the water-polished granite is surprisingly slick. There is a fair bit of scrambling over and around boulders and walking on granite slickrock, so be careful when you get high enough to fall and hurt yourself.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, this is a fairly short hike, so just bring what you need of the 10 Essentials.

This hike goes into the Bridge Mountain Wilderness Area, so pay extra attention to respecting the land, and don't touch or otherwise mess with the petroglyphs.

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located near Laughlin, about 75 miles south of Las Vegas (7 miles west of Laughlin).

From Las Vegas, drive south towards Laughlin to Christmas Tree Pass Road, off Highway 163. Watch for a small sign indicating a left turn. This point is 6.7 miles before the bridge in Laughlin. There is no turn lane, so consider stopping on the right shoulder and waiting for traffic to clear before making the left turn.

Turning onto Christmas Tree Pass Road, drive north 1.8 miles to Grapevine Canyon Road. Turn left onto Grapevine Canyon Road and drive west 300 yards to the end of the road. Park here; this is the trailhead.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 1, Waypoint 01), a trail drops into Grapevine Wash. The trail runs west (uphill) for 0.27 miles to a gap in the cliffs where Grapevine Wash comes out of Grapevine Canyon (Wpt. 02).

There is an amazing number of petroglyphs on the granite walls on both sides of the gap. There are some nice petroglyphs at eye-level right where the trail gets to the cliffs, but there are better ones a few feet higher up the cliffs on both sides of the canyon. Most of the petroglyphs is within a 1-minute walk of the gap, but petroglyphs are scattered farther up the canyon. Be careful if climbing on the cliffs to see petroglyphs up close. Don't fall, and also don't climb on the petroglyphs. These are treasures from a time gone by, and all of us are responsible for taking care of them today.

When ready, either continue up the canyon or return to the trailhead (Wpt. 01) by following your footprints back down the wash.

Link to more information and photos of the rock art here.