Las Vegas’ Dirty Little Secret

Las Vegas hosted almost 40,000,000 people last year but less than a 1,000,000 people take advantage of this little gem. Located a short 24 kilometres from the strip, the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area at 4,000 hectares, is too small to be called a national park, but with a beauty and diversity that make it a perfect choice to be part of the National Landscape Conservation System (also known as the National Conservation Lands).



“The System is a 27-million-acre (110,000 km²) collection of lands in 887 federally recognized areas considered to be the crown jewels of the American West.” (Wikipedia)

The Canyon has been in our travel bucket for 40 years and we finally got to check it off. Definitely not the Grand Canyon, a smaller more intimate place, the Red Rock Canyon area was an ocean floor, 600,000,000 million years ago, then a swamp for 400,000,000 years, and then at about 180, 000,000 million years ago, desertification started. Over the last 250,000,000 years, tectonic shifts and thrusts have exposed many different rock formations providing the area with a wonderful myriad of earth tone colours and stunning rock formations. 

 

The Canyon provides numerous trails for hiking, a 13 mile (21 kilometres) scenic drive with numerous viewing points along the way. It is a perfect place for a bike ride or a nice training run for your next half marathon. We chose to spend our time hiking.


 

We woke up to a wind and sand storm warning for the day with wind gusts forecast to reach 40 miles per hour (72 kilometres per hour).  Looking outside our hotel window we could see the palm trees already bent half over in the wind. With only one day left in Vegas it was now or never to see the Canyon.

Thanks to Naggedy Ann, our GPS, we were safely and efficiently directed to the Visitors Information Centre. A newly constructed facility that was well thought out, beautifully tucked into the landscape and with large outdoor displays explaining all that we were about to see in our visit.  

Sadly the wind was howling which drove us to rush through the informative displays. Hope we didn’t miss anything important, like are there any poisonous snakes or lizards. The Canyon is home to wild burros, Desert bighorn sheep and a protected habitat for the Desert tortoise.

 

The western horizon was showing some seriously black and rain filled clouds, quickly making their way to the Canyon, so we opted for one of the shorter hikes to begin the day.  We were dressed warmly but hiking in torrential downpours with 40 mile an hour winds would in all likelihood suck so we did not want to wander far from the car.  

 

The hike took us up close and personal with walls of the escarpment.  From far away, the walls look red but close up they took on a more ochre (brown-yellow) colour.  







About 65,000,000 years ago, a shift/fault called the Keystone Thrust occurred.  “The Keystone thrust was part of a series of thrust faults that ran through much of western North America and through the Red Rock Conservation Area. The movement of this fault forced the older gray sedimentary rock over the younger red rocks, forming the varicolored landscape that can be seen in the mountain today. The thrust is exposed over a distance of 13 miles along the Red Rock escarpment.” (Wikipedia)

As we worked our way closer to the face of the escarpment, the clouds got blacker, sputters of rain started and the wind gusts got more fierce. Dressed for it, we pressed on. As we moved inward, rock climbers were making their way out. The walls of the escarpment are perfect for rock climbing, although not in wind storms so their day was over while ours was just starting.

Luck was with us and the worst of the rain skirted our location and by the time we made our way back to the car, the clouds had moved on to Vegas and the day was looking up. However the wind gusts showed little signs of slowing down. With the sunnier weather, we decided that a slightly longer hike was manageable. We chose the “Calico Tanks”, at about 10 kilometres round trip, the trail promised a little surprise at the end.

As we entered the trail, we discover large perfectly carved sandstone blocks littering the trail entrance.  Before being a conservation area, a sandstone quarry was developed on the site in the early 20^th Century. Shipping costs killed the business though it was reopened for a short period during the early days of Los Vegas’ development, providing building materials to the expanding city.

The trail took us mostly up. Despite the almost 1,000,000 visitors, it seemed like we had the trail to our selves passing only a handful of groups along the way. Sadly most visitors were of the drive by variety.

Every time we climbed over a ridge we exposed ourselves to the wind gusts but for the most part, the trail was protected from the wind and it was a warm and pleasant scramble up the rocky trail.

We were rewarded with a beautiful little pocket of water all be it with white caps due to the wind gusts. As we made our way back down, the wind had given up trying to blow us off the mountain and quieted down, a perfect end to the day. As I showered that night, I found I had taken a bit of the Canyon with me, as dust had found its way into my many nooks and crannies.

 

We are leaving Vegas tomorrow and to be truthful are not too sad about it. This is one story that happened in Vegas and won't stay in Vegas