THINGS TO DOATV Trails Nearby

DEVIL'S THROAT

This roadside attraction is a great example of geology in action.

It's origins, as the story goes, began in the early 1900's during the Gold Butte mining boom. Cowboys and miners in the area suddenly saw a large cloud of dust off in the distance. When they checked it out, they found a large sinkhole where once had been open desert. The sinkhole, now known as "Devil's Throat," has grown over the years and is between 110-120 feet across and is roughly 234 feet deep.

Mark Rawlins remembers, “As children, when we’d come out here in the 1960s there was no fence around it. Some of my cousins, as kids would risk their necks by jumping across cracks next to the very edge of the cliff on the south side.” His grandpa G. Fenton Whitney remembers hauling peaches to the Gold Butte mines with his father G. Luke Whitney, and this place was along the way. They spent a lot of time on the desert. At that time, he recalls, “We just called this place ‘The Sinkhole’.” In more recent years it was named, “Devil’s Throat.”

Today, this impressive sinkhole is surrounded by fence and warning signs to the effect, the edge and area around the sinkhole are unstable and getting very close is definitely not recommended.

Directions from Aravada Springs

Devil's Throat is 13.1 miles, or 54 minutes from Aravada Springs. To get there, you head northwest on Pakoon Springs Rd toward Whitney Pass Rd for 0.4 miles. Continue onto Whitney Pass Rd for 5.1 miles. Then take a sharp lef t onto Gold
Butte Rd for 7.2 miles. Turn right onto Mud Wash Rd for another 0.4 miles.

GPS location 36°25'40.23"N 114° 8'56.56"W

We’ve GPS mapped some of the amazing sites you can visit from the ranch. We used Gaia (which is a $5/month app), but if you visit Gaia links to the right of the pictures you can download the GPS files and use them with any GPS app of your liking.