The Valley of Fire is an amazing location in southern Nevada (about an hour drive north of Las Vegas), full of stunning red Aztec sandstone landscapes, wind-carved through the millennia.  Besides prehistoric rock art, there are also pottery shards and lithic scatter throughout this area.  The estimated age of many of these petroglyphs are up to 4,000 years-old.  Atlatl Rock is a single rock that you can drive to, with stairs going up 80′ to the main panel.  Most people will go and take a look at this single (and impressive) panel and leave.  Don’t make this mistake.  Get out and hike around…explore.  There are many other petroglyphs in the immediate area, along with a lot of fun areas to scramble in/out of.  So, what is an atlatl?  It’s a hunting tool that pre-dates bow & arrow…per the info panel at the site:

“An atlatl is a throwing stick or a dart thrower used by ancient tribes to give more force to their darts or spears. It was usually a wooden stick about two feet long with a handhold on one end and a hook on the other end. A slot cut in the tail end of the dart was set against the hook, allowing the dart to lie along the atlatl so that both could be grasped midway of the dart by the user.”

Archaeological studies have shown the Pueblo Indians extensively used this area, as did the Paiute Indians (after the Pueblo).  Per La Rae Bringhurst, archaeologists found that the artifacts were so inter-mixed that they couldn’t determine where the Pueblo ended and the Paiute started.

Please click the images below: