Grapevine Canyon is located in the southern tip of Nevada, a few miles north of Laughlin, off of Christmas Tree Pass road. The canyon runs east-west, is easily accessible, and has many petroglyphs. Most of these are on the north side of the canyon.

The petroglyph shown here is on the south face, about a hundred feet up from the canyon floor. Most visitors don’t see it, and the few who do mostly are content to view it without climbing up the steep slope for a closer look.

I was there in 2016 and took a sunset photo of this scene. I returned a few weeks ago for another try. Conditions were ideal for a star shot. The moon was in the first quarter, which gives just the right amount of light on the ground, and the constellation Orion would be overhead.

After the sun had set, I climbed up and sat on the same rock which the artist had used when chipping away the rock in front of him. As darkness approached, I took a few twilight shots.

Unfortunately, I soon realized that the moon would not be high enough in the sky, and the rocks would be in shadow. So I descended in the twilight back to the canyon floor. After a few minutes, the sky was dark enough for Orion to come out, and I made a few images.

Ultimately, I combined one of the twilight images of the rocks with the best of the star shots to make this composite image. Date 9 February 2019, 18:35 Source Shepherd and Sheep Author John Fowler from Placitas, NM, USA