Today we took another trip through Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. We found a highway system that runs all the way around the Vegas metro area and took it instead of driving straight through the city. The roundabout way may be quite a bit longer in terms of mileage but in terms of time, it is much shorter. Stay out of downtown around here.
In almost record time, we arrived at the entrance station for Red Rock Canyon and showed them our ancient human federal park pass and were passed free of charge. We then stopped in at the park visitor center where there are interpretive displays, maps, restrooms, water and a gift shop.
After finding the circuitous way out of the visitor center, we started on the amazing 13 mile loop road through this gorgeous area. In addition to magnificent rock formations, we were fortunate enough to spot some reptiles, birds and a very brave kit fox who was invading a picnic area where some assholes had left their trash at their picnic table. It was maybe 10 feet from the picnic table to the secure trash container but, apparently, the folks who left their trash at the table were too terrific to get their garbage into the trash can. It made for superb fox viewing but the bagged garbage didn’t look like regular fox fare so one of the folks standing with us headed into the table, cleaned up the torn-apart bags and packaging and disposed of it properly. The fox found some stuff still sticking to the table and spent quite a bit of time licking up the residue. Good picture opportunities although I’m pretty sure it ain’t good for the fox.
There are other great views available around Red Rock Canyon like Red Spring which is just down the road. This area was all created by a massive upthrust fault 600 million years ago and, although I wouldn’t care to be there when the fault was being created, it certainly left a magnificent landscape that we can enjoy now.
Wew took a few pictures in Red Rock Canyon and you can see some of them if you click here
The first 3 pictures are actually from yesterday but I’m too stupid to figure out how to properly file them.