Buffington Pockets, Clark County Nevada

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Travel season: Year-round. Fall, winter, and spring temperatures are very pleasant, usually between 40 and 90 degrees. Summer is very hot, be prepared for daily temperatures in excess of 100 degrees and may reach 120 degrees. Carry sufficient water and survival gear, and let someone know your plans. Special attractions: Mojave desert landscape, outstanding views, abandoned borax mine, backcountry hiking, primitive camping.
Camping: Primitive camping is allowed along the byway. Good spots are Color Rock Quarry, Buffington Pockets, and Hidden Valley. Two campgrounds with 50 sites, shaded tables, water, showers, and restrooms are located at nearby Valley of Fire State Park. Services: All services are available at Overton Beach, including motels, restaurants, groceries, and gas.

Buffington Pockets is located on the Bitter Spring Trail which travels through a lonely section of the rugged Muddy Mountains, traveling across wide plains, through narrow canyons, and past old mining operations. The byway is narrow and rough. A four-wheel drive or high-clearance vehicle is necessary to follow the byway's entire length. Allow three or four hours to drive the route. Spring and fall are the best times to drive the road. Temperatures are pleasant, with clear skies the norm. April and May also bring showy
flower displays, with desert marigold, desert mallow, beavertail cactus, and prickly pear cactus spreading a colorful carpet across the drab
desert floor. Winter is cooler but mild, with occasional rain and snow showers dusting the peaks. Summer is prohibitively hot. Summer temperatures
do not vary widely from day to night, many nights don't drop below 90. Much of the region's average precipitation of four inches falls in a few
summer thunderstorms. Don't travel the byway in the face of inclement weather, the road follows canyon bottoms subject to flash flooding.
a spectacular area of Aztec sandstone crags. The sandstone, deposited some 150 million years ago, was part of a huge, shifting dune field that
covered most of Utah and parts of Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. Good sites for primitive camping are found along the road here.
Winding up through the sandstone, the byway quickly reaches Hidden Canyon, a deep, boulder-strewn canyon. A short hike up it reveals colorful
sandstone windows, spires, and buttresses. This off-the-beaten-track canyon is delightful. The Anasazi Indians, who frequented this area of
Nevada from 1 A.D. to about 1150 A.D., also found it unusual. They left traces of their passing, a gallery of rock art, on the canyon walls.
Walk up through the boulders and you'll find their petroglyphs carved into the soft sandstone, perhaps a magical plea for a good hunt. Archaic
hunters and gatherers also lived in this area for the past 5,000 years. The Paiutes are the probable descendants of these ancient Indians.
Traveling around a high spur of the Muddy Mountains, the road drops into White Basin. To the south looms Muddy Peak, high point of the range.
The byway forms much of the northern and eastern boundary of the Muddy Mountain Wilderness Study Area.
The remote basins and mountains along the road form outstanding habitats for desert wildlife. Visitors can glimpse many animals, including
coyote, kit fox, skunk, blacktailed jack rabbit, wild horses, burros, desert tortoise, turkey vulture, roadrunner, and sidewinder rattlesnake.
Wildlife biologists are also working to expand the range and population of the rare desert bighorn sheep in the area.
The trail follows dry graveled washes eastward to the remains of the American Borax Mine. Alongside mine tailings lie the mill's foundation,
building remnants, thirty-foot-deep water cisterns, mine tunnels, and adits or horizontal passages carved into the hillsides.
East of the mine the byway traverses a steep-walled canyon that slices through Bitter Ridge, an eight-mile-long tilt fault. Emerging from the
canyon, the fault scarp's vertical south face towers hundreds of feet over the road. For the last few miles, the byway drives through Echo Wash,
past tamarisk and mesquite.
There are great views east of indigo Lake Mead and the desert ranges that line its shore. The last point of interest is Bitter Spring.
Its water seeps out of the ground among thick stands of feathery tamarisk, before disappearing again in the sandy creekbed. The
byway ends on paved Nevada Highway 12, just south of the turn to Lake Mead's Echo Bay.
A good return trip to Interstate 15 is via Valley of Fire State Park in a broad valley on the north side of the Muddy Mountains.
This scenic area of brilliantly-colored sandstone formations has a fifty-site campground, picnic areas, and hiking trails.



More information: BLM, Las Vegas District Office, 4765 W. Vegas Drive, P.O. Box 26569, Las Vegas, NV 89126. (702) 646-8800. A detailed map
and brochure is available from the office.

Geocode for Buffington Pockets: Latitude: 36.3863629 - Longitude: -114.6919355

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