Fort Piute Petroglyphs

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.25 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 2743 - 2774 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Fort Piute
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, historic fort

Fort Piute is located in the Mojave National Preserve between Searchlight, Nevada and Needles, California. The fort was occupied for a short period between 1866 - 1867 to protect the mail route and emigrants. Due to its source of water from nearby Piute Spring the area was long before that inhabited by native people who have left numerous petroglyphs on many of the rocks and boulders along Piute Creek.

You can enter Fort Piute into your driving app for turn-by-turn directions but Google Maps on Android doesn't know about the BLM NN035 road so it routes you via the Goffs Road which is a longer out of the way route. Our Toyota driving app does know about BLM NN035. The GPS coordinates for the turnoff on US 95 are 35.10010, -114.82899. BLM NN035 has a lot of soft sand and requires a high clearance 4WD vehicle but that is required for the entire route to Fort Piute other than the short 1.5 mile stretch of BLM NN101. It's a bit of a pain getting there but you get to explore 3 different sites for the effort.

From the southeast corner of the parking area there is a metal post that marks a faint trail that leads from Fort Piute to the Turkey Farm. Petroglyphs can be found on many of the boulders going in that direction between the post and Piute Creek. Piute Creek itself is so tangled with vegetation in this area that it is almost impossible to navigate so most of the trails are along the side of the hill above the creek.

Here is one of the first boulders that you will come upon.

The images on some of the boulders are faint enough to be difficult to photograph but they are still well worth seeing.

Many of the boulders have very elaborate, easy to see, images that make use of their entire surface.

This small boulder is well up on the hill above the creek. It is wrapped entirely with images. Those on the top of the boulder have been almost completely effaced, possibly by making use of it as a grinding slick.

We're guessing that this incongruous looking image was probably left by someone from the fort.

Other than the drive it doesn't take much effort to see the petroglyphs at Fort Piute. It's kind of fun searching all around for them amongst the boulders. There are probably more to be found all along the creek heading downstream as we know there are heading upstream toward Piute Spring.

The ruins of Fort Piute itself are also worth visiting while you are here. If you would like to all this for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.