Red Rock Canyon

Tuesday
Another great day’s hiking, this time at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area, just about 30 minutes drive from the centre of Las Vegas. Our route out there took us through some of the luxury housing developments of LV. We stopped first at the Visitor Centre and their exhibits, which were largely outside. We stopped at the viewpoint close to the Calico Hills, where we watched some of the climbers making their way up the rocks - Red Rock Canyon being one of the popular rock climbing destinations in the country. Then we continued on to do the Calico Tanks trail, which leads up through a wash, up to a natural water storage feature (dry at this time of year), and beyond it a fantastic view over Las Vegas and the valley. The trail was listed as moderate, and it started off quite easy, but the upper section was more difficult, involving some scrambling over boulders - but with the help of my hiking poles and the occasional helping hand from Roger, I made it! We sat and admired the view for a while, enjoying a snack - we had forgotten to pick up a sandwich on the way! We then continued along the scenic drive, stopping occasionally for the odd photograph, and a couple more short walks, one to a few petroglyphs and a final one, the fire ecology trail, which takes you through an area of a prescribed burn in 1997, performed to clear brush and reduce the chances of a catastrophic wildfire that might kill the tall ponderosa pines in the wash. Thus, the trail shows you the stages of recovery after a fire. In the evening, after dinner at the apartment we went to the Neon museum, which is dedicated to collecting and preserving some of the classic signs from Vegas’ past.