Written Confession: Strange Howls Near Logan Ghost Town in Nevada

The following written confession was submitted via email:

“There's not much to my story, but I still thought I'd pass it along to you.  I spend a LOT of time in the mountains and deserts of the southwest.  I live in Las Vegas, so you can go an hour in any direction and you're in unbelievably remote and beautiful country.  Nevada is the most least populated and most mountainous state in the Lower 48.  When people think of NV, they usually think of Las Vegas and The Strip.  But, just 40 minutes from The Strip are mountains up to 12,000'.  There are areas that I go exploring where I can go weeks at a time without seeing signs of another person...I love it!

I'm very interested in the ancient people that used to live in these areas.  The oldest known rock art (petroglyphs) in North America are 16,500 years-old and found in NV.  Once you know what to look for, you can find signs of these ancients all over the place: petroglyphs, cave drawings, prayer sticks, metates & manos (grinding stones), pictogrpahs (painted drawings), and  lithic scatter (stone chippings from tool making).  I've documented tens-of-thousands of petroglyphs & pictographs, many previously unknown.  

 I was exploring an old mining ghost town north of Area 51 in an area known as Paranaghat Valley (this means Beautiful Valley in the native Southern Paiute language).  It's in the Great Basin Desert, which is very mountainous and forested...lots of high desert pine trees, creeks, etc.  This is literally out in the middle of nowhere.  And, while exploring the ruins & ancient native petroglyphs I froze in my tracks based on a sound a heard.  I heard two long, very loud howls.  I know these deserts and mountains extremely well, including all the wildlife and this is something I've never heard before.  There are thousands of caves in these mountains & I got the "feeling" that it was coming near Mt Irish (this is a peak near where I was).  After the 2nd howl I started to get uncomfortable and had the feeling of being watched...the hairs on the back of my neck were going up.  I hiked back to my truck and decided to go to a different location to explore, several miles away.  

There are lots of big animals in these mountains...mountain lions, wild horses, donkeys, big horn sheep, antelope, etc.  None of them make the sound I heard, nor at the sheer volume it seemed to make.”

Check out some of the photos below that were taken during this excursion to Logan Ghost Town. More photos of Logan Ghost Town and gorgeous images from this listener’s other adventures can be found at www.talesfromthedesert.com!