Cave Rock on Lake Tahoe is sacred to the Washoe Indians and revered by rock climbers. Recently the U.S. Forest Service has found itself in the middle. Photo © Eric Perlman.

By Colleen Kaleda
Forest Magazine, Summer 2003

Cave Rock stands so close to the eastern edge of Lake Tahoe that on windy days lake chop laps near its base. On calm days, reflected in the water, the rock appears to undulate, resembling the gray underside of a bald eagle’s wing. This odd-looking hunk is the 360-foot-tall leftover from a volcanic eruption 3 million years ago. Craggy and creviced, Cave Rock holds two caves: one sits midway up and the other is nestled at its lakeside foot. Inside the lower cave, 9,000-year-old petroglyphs reveal humans found this place special long ago.

They still do. For the Washoe Indians, the rock is sacred, a place for religious ceremonies performed by tribal shamans. Touching the rock for any extended period is forbidden in their culture, and going to Cave Rock is a privilege and honor.

Cave Rock is revered by others, too, though not for spiritual reasons. Hikers and picnickers make stops here. Kayakers paddle to linger under its shadow. Others don’t stop; two tunnels blasted through the underbelly of the rock allow traffic along Nevada’s Highway 50 to slip through.

Perhaps more than any other group of recreationists, rock climbers revere Cave Rock the most. To them, Cave Rock is the stuff of legend: the routes, especially in the caves, are some of the most difficult in the United States.

This sacred site-turned-climbing mecca sits squarely within the boundaries of the U.S. Forest Service’s Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Since the early 1990s, the Forest Service has been trying to figure out how to balance respect for Washoe beliefs about Cave Rock—and the Washoes’ desire to end rock climbing there—with the rock’s significance to the rest of the public. This while trying to preserve the environmental and historical integrity of the site. To complicate matters for the Forest Service, Cave Rock is eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a traditional cultural property, archaeological site and historic transportation district. Geologists are just beginning to investigate the rock’s paleoenvironmental data, and historians marvel at remnants of a Comstock-era train trestle that clings to one side of the rock.

Rex Norman, public information officer for the Lake Tahoe unit, says Cave Rock’s historical significance, tribal and nontribal, should be part of the Forest Service’s decision about whether to end climbing there. He cautions the public not to make the debate into a religion versus recreation issue.

“Washoe are free to go and practice there today and will be free to go and practice there under any alternative,” says Norman. “Cave Rock has a huge amount of religious significance to the Washoe, but that’s not what we can base a decision on.”

Because climbers touch the rock for long periods of time, the Washoe believe they, more than other recreationists, desecrate the sacred site. Still other influences seem to, if not desecrate, at least diminish the aesthetic: a new housing subdivision sits less than a quarter-mile away and a public boat launch nearby gives speedboats close access. Nevertheless, late last year the Forest Service honored the Washoe’s wish and, in the agency’s newly released environmental impact statement on Cave Rock, decided to remove climbing bolts in the rock and ban climbing. Other recreation, however, continues near the rock under the plan.

Climbers who had worked since the mid-1990s to negotiate a compromise with the Washoe and the Forest Service felt blindsided and singled out. They asked to delay the decision pending further public comment. In December, the Forest Service extended the public comment period, which brought a flurry of letters from members of the Access Fund, a climbing advocacy group, the Washoe and citizens.

“It is public land, after all,” says Shawn Tierney, access and acquisitions director for the Access Fund. “But unfortunately how it’s perceived is climbers battling Native Americans.”

Tierney says climbers want to compromise and support periodic closures of Cave Rock to enable the Washoe to perform ceremonies. He said a similar compromise worked at Devils Tower in Wyoming. There, most climbers respect a voluntary closure to climbing activities for the month of June, when American Indians perform most of their ceremonies at the tower.

But this time, says Jason Keith, Access Fund policy director, climbers couldn’t come to a similar agreement with the Washoe.

“It’s tough when you try to negotiate with a side that doesn’t want to talk to you,” says Tierney. Keith says, “We’re not trying to challenge any legitimacy of sacredness.”

What is being challenged is the U.S. Constitution. With urging from the Access Fund, Nevada lawmakers have posed this question: Does preventing recreation activity on public lands in response to a religious request violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment? The advisory council on historic preservation brought it up while reviewing Cave Rock’s listing eligibility. With the Access Fund, Senator John Ensign and Representative Jim Gibbons, Nevada Republicans, wrote to the Forest Service asking the agency to answer that question.

Perhaps not coincidentally, in January both Nevada legislators reintroduced a bill proposing that the Forest Service give the Washoe twenty-four acres of ancestral land within the Lake Tahoe unit for ceremony. Yet another ripple in the debate.

The Forest Service expects to release its final decision on Cave Rock by June 1. The Access Fund is preparing its appeal in expectation of a climbing ban.

Perhaps embedded in the reflection of Cave Rock are our diverse values, shifting like the water blown by the wind on Lake Tahoe.

Forest Magazine | FSEEE