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HWY 318 North of Vegas question.

Original Post
Kevin Hansen · · Melba Idaho · Joined Apr 2008 · Points: 130

Living in Idaho, I've had the pleasure of driving to Las Vegas a fee times. I prefer HWY 93 for much of the trip. There is a section where I get off and run HWY 318 for a few. Right around mile marker 27-28 looks like a mile of good climbing. It looks like red sandstone to the average Joe, but I'd wager its ash fall, well sorted, and splitters that make you feel like you're in Indian Creek.
Looks untouched.
Know anything about it?

Tavis Ricksecker · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2006 · Points: 4,246


this one?
Kevin Hansen · · Melba Idaho · Joined Apr 2008 · Points: 130

Yep. What is the area Called? Who owns it?

Tim Anders · · Las Vegas · Joined Mar 2009 · Points: 10

Those are the White River Narrows. There are climbing routes on the east side of the Hwy but the west side is off limits because its an archaeological site. A few months ago Chairman Obama declared the entire area the "Basin and Range National Monument" because someone built some stupid monoliths out there. Not sure how that affects climbing access now.

Kevin Hansen · · Melba Idaho · Joined Apr 2008 · Points: 130
Kevin Hansen · · Melba Idaho · Joined Apr 2008 · Points: 130

I know where I'm headed the next time there's a Government Shut down.

What is the final state of this awesome location? All things being equal, the truth is probably nothing at all. Eventually word will get out and individuals with shovels will start digging out the base of the cliffs looking for pottery shards, arrow heads, and carved bones. (Probably already have).

What's the best thing for the location?
AFTER several million dollars from a private philanthropist (or the Government borrows more money from China), the place could have a nice visitor center. Covered displays educating the public about the Native American's way of life.
3-4 staff members act as tour guides. There'd be day hikes, camp fire talks, and parking lots. This location would be a great destination. All this would be after hundreds of anthropologists, and archaeologists dig up the place for a decade so they can preserve the site. That is the problem with archaeology, you ruin the place as you learn about it, and work to preserve it.

What is the best way to "preserve" a site? Keep public away? Don't draw attention to it? Build a educational building and generate money from tourists, gift shops, day use fee's? Or just let it go and watch spray paint, litter, and road side clutter happen. The government didn't have much heart burn dropping a high way down the middle of the location. That is what sealed its fate.
Kevin

What do you see happening?

Tim Anders · · Las Vegas · Joined Mar 2009 · Points: 10

I have been up and down the 318 Hwy dozens of times over the last 25 years. It has not change a smidgen. Never any graffiti or trashing. Now all of a sudden it is so urgent to protect this area because of the barren uninhabited expanse that represents the west. I think that's how Harry Reid put it. Some friend of a friend spent alot of time and money eating psychedelic mushrooms and building these gigantic monolithic structures out of the earth, calling it "The City". So, my guess is they made it a National Monument (against the wishes of everyone in those counties and the state of Nevada) just to attract visitors on buses to pay an admission fee to see "The City" and I'm sure Harry will get his. Probably compensation for Obama's goons taking Harry's eye out for losing the Senate.

jonathan knight · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2006 · Points: 265

Seems that part of Nevada could use the economic help, but it's hard to say how things will change at this point. Now that the ranchers have sold out to SNWA, is subsidized recreation supplanting subsidized ranching, and what do you think of Reid's Yucca Mountain reasoning?

Cultural sites right next to the highway will get a lot more visitation with the potential for vandalism, but there will be some amount of ranger presence which will help. If climbers defy a previously existing closure, it potentially affects how the other crags with in the monument (and the BLM District) will be managed Before screwing things up, maybe check out the similar climbing area on 317 first. :)

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Nevada
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