Mar. 16, 2006 - Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

After a few days at the crap and blackjack tables in Las Vegas, it will be time to take a break. Hop into a vehicle and head out to Red Rock Canyon. Red Rock Canyon is less then an hour's drive west of Las Vegas and has many significant geologic features. The area is a good place to kick back and just enjoy nature's wonders. The most significant geologic feature of Red Rock Canyon is the Keystone Thrust Fault. A thrust fault is a fracture in the earth's crust where one rock plate is thrust horizontally over another. About 65 million years ago, it is believed that two of the earth's crustal plates collided with such force that part of one plate was shoved up and over younger sandstones. This thrust contact is clearly defined by the sharp contrast between the grey limestones and the red sandstones. The Keystone Thrust Fault extends from the Cottonwoood Fault (along the Pahrump Highway) 13 miles northward to the vicinity of La Madre Mountain, where it is obscured by more complex faulting. 13-Mile Loop Drive offers sightseeing, vistas and overlooks. If your time is limited, stop at either of the Calico Vista points. Both offer good vantage points for photographs of crossed-bedded Aztec sandstone. For easy walking access to the sandstone, stop at the Sandstone Quarry parking lot. There you can see large blocks of stone and other historic evidence of the quarry activity as it occurred shortly after the turn of the century. Picnic sites are available at Red Spring and Willow Spring. Additional pullouts, offering views of wooded canyons and desert washes, are located at Icebox Canyon, Pine Creek Canyon and Red Rock Wash. Several short hikes offering a diversity of environments and scenery are accessible from the loop drive. A short trail to the bottom of the canyon at the second Calico Vista leads down to the Aztec sandstone and, after seasonal rains, to small pools of water. There is easier hiking at Sandstone Quarry where many small canyons await exploration. The Calico Hills are riddled with natural water catchments called potholes or tinajas (tee-nah-haz). After rains these natural water tanks fill up with water and may be home to small insects, insect larvae and fairy shrimp. A spring that flows year-round and a seasonally cascading waterfall await the visitor after a short, 0.3-mile hike to Lost Creek. Icebox Canyon has a maintained trail which leads in for .8 mile; the end of Icebox Canyon is reached in another half mile by "boulder hopping" in the canyon bottom. One of the most popular hiking trails is into Pine Creek Canyon. A two-mile round trip hike leads to the ruins of a historic homestead near a running creek, surrounded by large ponderosa pine trees and other water-loving vegetation.