Hickison Petroglyphs Interpretive Trail

Stairs to petroglyphs and vista points

The Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area is a Great Basin prehistoric site located next to Highway 50 about 20 miles east of Austin, Nevada. When I arrived at the trailhead of the Hickison Petroglyphs Interpretive Trail on an early spring day in 2019, I made the same experience Valerie Norton described on a 2017 visit [1]: the brochure-box was empty and the panel with the trail gave no site details. Also, I couldn't find a website with a detailed map for the self-guided tour. Alongside the unpaved trail loop, sites were clearly marked by numbers. So, I keep my pictures marked accordingly with the hope of coming eventually across an interpretive map.

Hickison Petroglyphs Interpretive Trail between its trailhead and the first marked site

Lucky Gretchen: when she was visiting with her family, she found a brochure for pick-up and they all were in front of petroglyphs in just a couple of minutes [2]. She writes that the brochure describes the Hickison petroglyphys as typical of the Great Basin curvilinear style. Curvers and carvers are unknown.

Curvilinear carvings

The loop trail and the dead-end vista side trails make for a pleasant walk, traversing mostly open pine forest and providing easy access to the numbered petroglyph faces carved onto the rock slabs. There are distinctly different carvings: deeply carved, lightly carved, geometrically abstract and figure-representing. How much did erosion change the original carvings? How often were they modified or overscrawled? I think, I spotted some very recent “scribbles,” i.e. vandalizing scratchings.

The petroglyph site is named after ranch owner John Hickerson [3]. How did the name mutate to Hickison? The petroglyphs are said to give evidence of prehistoric hunting and dwelling sites dating back to 10,000 B.C., when the Great Basin was a “Great Lakes” area, including Lake Toyiabe and Lake Tonopah [3]. I wonder if the shorelines of those lakes were near the rock croppings in the period during which the Great Basin petroglyphs were created.

Rockscape view from vista point

Keywords: Nevada; Great Basin; National Forest; US Route 50; roadside attraction; prehistoric site.

Getting there

On your way from Austin to Eureka on Hwy 50, drive over Hickison Summit (6546 ft., 1995 m). Soon, on the left side of the road, you will see a large sign in the shape of an isosceles trapezoid with the longer of the parallel sides at the top. It reads “HICKISON PETROGLYPHS Recreation Area & Interpretive Site.” Turn left and follow the northwest-bound gravel road for a quarter-mile to the Interpretive Trail site and camping area [4,5].

Vista point canyon view south with Monitor Valley farther back

 

References

[1] Valerie Norton: Hickison Petroglyphs Interpretive Trail. “Moments in Dirt and Ink” Blog,  May 15, 2017. Link: valhikes.blogspot.com/2017/05/hickison-petroglyphs-interpretive-trail.html.
[2] Gretchen:  Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area, Nevada. “Desert Survivor” Blog, October 17, 2017. Link: desertsurvivor.blogspot.com/2017/10/hickison-petroglyph-recreation-area.html.
[3] Hickison Petroglyph Reacreation Area. Travel Nevada. Link:travelnevada.com/discover/27113/hickison-petroglyph-recreation-area.
[4] Hickison Petroglyph Reacreation Area. Bureau of Land Management. Link: www.blm.gov/visit/hickison_petroglyph_recreation_area.
[5] Map of Hickison Summit area including Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area:  https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=39.446000000000005%2C-116.75170000000003&z=15&mid=1UvljiHxGw4ZlmWSOp3jm3wTpy7M.