Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area

National Conservation Area (Bureau Of Land Management), Designated 2002; The Sloan Canyon Petroglyph Site Holds Hundreds Of Rock Art Panels · Henderson, Nevada

Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area is a block of rugged volcanic desert on the southern edge of Henderson, set aside by Congress in 2002 and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Its reason for being is the Sloan Canyon Petroglyph Site, a narrow canyon whose dark volcanic boulders carry hundreds of rock art panels, often described as around 300 panels with some 1,700 individual design elements, thought to span thousands of years of use by ancestral and Southern Paiute peoples. Reaching them means a moderate desert hike of roughly 4 to 5 miles round trip from the Nawghaw Poa trailhead, with no water, no shade and short scrambles. The area also takes in the North McCullough Wilderness and the strenuous climb up Black Mountain above the Anthem neighbourhood. It is a small, quiet, local place compared with Red Rock Canyon, and that is its appeal: free entry, few people and a real sense of the desert twenty minutes from suburban shopping centres. In summer the heat here kills; go in the cool months and at first light.

Nawghaw Poa Road (Sloan Canyon Visitor Contact Station), Henderson, Nevada, 89044, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the Nawghaw Poa trailhead road and car park are open daily from around sunrise to around sunset, with a gate that is locked outside those hours, and the visitor contact station is staffed only on some days, often weekends and at limited hours, sometimes by volunteers. Guided hikes run on scheduled dates in the cool season. The traps that ruin a day are staying out for sunset and finding the gate locked on your car, arriving before the gate opens, relying on the contact station for water on a day it is closed, starting the hike at noon, and attempting it at all in summer. Confirm current times with the BLM before relying on them.

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