Introduction:
Where?
: Little Finland is located at the heart of Gold Butte National Monument area. Vast
Mojave Desert near the north end of Lake Mead in Nevada. The main road that
lead to this large desert (Gold Butte Rd) start near the crossing of hwy 170 of
the virgin river, few miles south of Mesquite city.
Google Map Link (location of Little Finland)
What? :
Little Finland are unique red rock formations that after many years of erosion transform
into “fins” and created interesting landscape. Nearby you can hike the nice
short Seven Keyholes slot canyon with some nice hieroglyph.
When? :
Hot summer is not the recommended time to visit this place.
Due
note 1: Although some of the trails can be access by AWD I highly recommend getting
into this area with 4x4, high-clearance off-road car.
Due
note 2: I did not have a good printed map of this area, but rather use google
map, trails are usually well marked and with destination names.
You can
use the website link below to find a lot more information including driving
directions and map.
Below I
also added my map that can give additional direction and navigation help.
Related National Park Blogs:
Camping
in BLM land: Dispersed camping allow you to camp just about anywhere, no need
for official camping site, as long as you do not “hurt” the environment.
No reservations
or permits are needed, up to 14 days.
If
possible, please use existing sites to avoid creating new disturbances.
My
thoughts: This is nice off-road adventure, exploring the vast desert, short
hikes with unique rock formation to explore. In half a day you can have fun
driving in the riverbed sand trails, short hikes and interesting places to
visit.
The
visit:
Gold
Butte NM is large open BLM land that is mainly used by off-road vehicles, but
it has few attractions to visit. Most road are in good conditions for AWD but
for some it is highly recommended 4x4 high clearance car.
My visit
recommendations are: Little Finland, Seven Keyholes slot canyon and Devils
Throat sinkhole.
Most of
the people that come for few days camp their trailers near the end of the paved,
but not maintained, road section of Gold Butte Rd, mainly near the nice Whitney
Pocket section.
After passing
this point you keep going south on the main and well-maintained Gold Bute dirt Rd.
(Blue marker in the map below). After 7.2 dusty miles you will turn right into small
road, additional 0.3 mile will take you to our first stop at Devils Throat.
Devils
Throat is a large sinkhole, nothing much to do here except seeing it from above.
Do not cross the fence because ground can be unstable.
After a
short stop at this point keep going on the trail west for another 3.8 miles (Red
marker in the map below), on the road fork keep going right on the main riverbed
(do not take the road to the left, we will come back from this road).
After additional
2.7 miles in the riverbed you will see a trail to your right. 2 miles on this
trail will take you the large camping/parking spot on the foot of the small cliff,
you arrived at Little Finland.
Little Finland:
Park and take the hiking trail from the left and go up the cliff and see the unique
rock formation. You can explore this location for 1 hr, most of the interesting
section is on the section above the cliff but you can find the way up the small
red-rock hilltops.
When
you are done here drive back to the trail entrance (Yellow marker in the map
below). When getting back to the entrance turn right and after 1-mile turn left
with a road that will take you out of the river. Keep going on this road for another
2.7 miles, you will arrive to a trail junction. At this trail junction do not
keep on the main road south but rather take the left fork and go up the hill,
and of the road and to the small parking lot (1.25 miles).
Here we
will visit the nice and interesting Seven Keyholes slot canyon.
A short
half a mile hike down on well-marked hiking trail will take you to the entrance
of the canyon on your right. A short but nice canyon with few places of hieroglyph.
Overall a visit of less than an hr.
From the
parking lot drive back to the trail junction and turn right, the 1.7 road will
lead you back to the road you went into little Finland. Take right and head out
to the main road.
www:
https://www.americansouthwest.net/nevada/little-finland/index.html
https://www.americansouthwest.net/nevada/gold-butte/national-monument.html
Map:
https://ohv.nv.gov/assets/etc/pdfs/Gold_Butte_V2.pdf
Pictures:
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