Overview

Crystal Wash Main Road provides access to the Crystal Wash Main Archeological Site and Shepherds Camp. The road is a fairly good, 2WD, two-track road that should be suitable for a carefully driven sedan during dry conditions. Rocks in the road are small, but some probably should be moved by people driving sedans.

The BLM and Lincoln County opened this area to the public, and Lincoln County printed a brochure with information about the site (including GPS coordinates) as part of their Get Primitive tourism campaign. Download the brochure from Lincoln County or snatch a copy here.

Link to map.

Location

Crystal Wash Main Road is located along Highway 93 beyond the Pahranagat Valley, about 110 miles north of Las Vegas.

From town, drive north on Interstate 15 to US Highway 93 (Table 1, Site 0674). Exit onto Highway 93 and drive north past Alamo and Ash Springs to the intersection of Highways 93 and 318 (Site 0677). Continue on Highway 93 for 4.06 miles to a large gravel parking area (Site 1099) on the left (north) side of the road. Look for a white trash barrel.

Crystal Wash Main Road

From the left side of the gravel parking area (Site 1099), the narrow dirt access road runs due north a few tens to yards to the highway fence line and a cattle guard (Site 1100).

Passing over the cattle guard, the road forks. Crystal Wash Main Road stays left and heads northwest and away from the fence.

In about 100 yards, the road arrives at a T-intersection (Site 1101). Crystal Wash Main Road stays right and runs as a two-track road for about 0.6 miles to a parking area (Site 1102), which is just before reaching the broad, sandy wash in the bottom of the valley. The sign-in register is adjacent to the parking area. Park here; this is the Crystal Wash Main Archeological Site trailhead. A spur road to the right runs a few yards into a sandy wash. It is likely that driving down the wash is illegal.

Shepherds Road

At the T-intersection (Site 1101) 100 yards past the cattle guard, continue straight onto Shepherds Road, a fairly good road, to an old shepherd's long-term campsite that may have been in use from the 1040s to the 1960s. The road continues past the historic camp area to a large, bladed area that is big enough to park 25 RVs.