All mileages and coordinates given on this web site are approximate.  Use common sense and caution when following any directions.

Devils Throat is approximately 7.25 miles beyond where the pavement ends in Whitney Pockets, and the old town site of Gold Butte is another 13 miles beyond Devils Throat.

Devils Throat is a large modern sinkhole possibly formed by underground water from Lake Mead.  Depending on who you talk to, the sinkhole is approximately 90' wide and 80' deep.  It is surrounded by a safety fence and the hole is still growing in diameter as evidenced by the additional fencing on the one side of the sinkhole.

The town of Gold Butte was established after the discovery of gold nearby in 1905.  By 1908 it had a post office and a tent city mining camp of about 1500 to 2000 people.  By 1910 everything had pretty much ended except for two very hardy men, Arthur Coleman and William Garrett.  These two continued to work the area until their deaths in 1958 and 1961, respectively.  Currently there are a few remnants of the old town still visible and now the area is mostly being used by campers, and as a jumping off place for hikers and people heading to Lake Mead.

The day I visited Gold Butte to gather information for this page, it was getting ready to storm so I did not have a lot of time to hike and look around the area.  Surrounding the town site are many large degraded granite boulders and I have a hunch that somewhere amongst them there may be a few petroglyphs.  My reason for mentioning this is if any of you happen to come across rock art in this area and want to share the information with me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Safety Reminder: The total miles from I-15 to the Town Site of Gold Butte, with no side trips is approximately 42 miles one way.  The first 21 miles are on pavement, the second 21 miles are on graded dirt.

Photo below: You are at the end of the pavement (W/pt #003) which is visible in the foreground, and the arrow points to the road straight ahead which leads to Devils Throat and to the Town Site of Gold Butte.  From the "end of pavement" (W/pt #003) to the Devils Throat turn it is approximately 7.25 miles and it's another 13 miles beyond Devils Throat to the Gold Butte town site.  Also visible in the photo is the left fork which is the turn for Whitney Pockets Petroglyph Site #1.

At mile 7.25 (W/pt #015) is the sign for the turn for Devils Throat.  If you visit the sinkhole, add approximately .6 mile more to your total trip.

Devils Throat (See map below)

A short distance after turning on to the road to Devils Throat you will see a fork in the road.  Stay to the left and you will see the safety fence enclosing the sinkhole about a 100 yards ahead (W/pt #016).  Left Photo: Looking over the fence at the hole.  Right Photo:  Looking down into the sinkhole. 

If you just visited Devils Throat, go back to the main road and turn right (south) to continue on to Gold Butte.  Left Photo: About 2 miles south of Devils Throat or approximately mile 9 from the "end of pavement" waypoint #3, you will see the sign below.  Unless you want to go to Arizona, stay to the right.

Left Photo: At approximately mile 16.6 (W/pt #017) you will see another fork in the road with no sign; keep to the right (arrow).  Right Photo: At mile 20.3 is the sign (waypoint #018) for the town site of Gold Butte.  Turn left a couple of hundred yards and park; you are there.  If you visited Devils Throat add about .6 of a mile to your over all mileage.

Top Photo: Road into the town site.  The other six photos are in and around the town site area.  The day that I visited the area it was threatening to storm so I did not have a lot of time to explore.