Some friends of ours had given us some information on Red Rock Canyon. They said that it is a good place to see and there are several hiking trails there. So we decided to go see it and try one of the easy hikes to see how my leg did.
This is looking north east from the visitors center.
This is looking back towards the visitors center from close to the upper end. The east side is pretty low but the west side goes up into higher rugged hills. You will see some of them in pictures below.
Our hike was about a mile and a half over easy to moderate terrain. The only trouble I had was when I needed to go down large steps. Then B would give me his arm. My knee still doesn't want to bend as much as it use to.
On the trail, we went past an agave roasting pit. It was a large mound of dirt and rocks that had been built up over the years from use. It was deeper in the center. They would dig a hole, line it with rocks, build a fire, then when the fire was burnt down they would add the agave, etc. and cover it with more hot rocks and dirt to cook for several hours or days. Then they would dig it up for a feast.
There were also pictographs in the area on a rock face. You can see hand prints below.
The red rocks are from the iron in it. If you look at the rocks in the far right of the first picture, you will see that they are a mix of color. They call them calico rocks. The rocks with iron, the sand stone, and lime stone are all mixed together. They don't form layers but are just mixed and blotchy. Sometimes there are small areas of iron in the sand or lime stone. The iron doesn't erode as fast so you end up with red nipples sticking up from the other part of the rock.
The next is taken on the west side of the area. Most of the rocks are either sand stone or lime stone. The sand stone is very pretty with the veins of different colors. I didn't take any pictures of any as we were in the shade by then and they would not have turned out very well. Next time I will. Since both of these stones are soft, they erode easily. As a result there are all kinds of rocks lying about of many different sizes that have come down during rain storms.
This doesn't show as well as I would have liked but you can see where a column has collapsed, leaving a huge rock resting on one narrow pillar. I think it may also be resting against the back side. I would not want to be close when it decides to cut loose as it is much bigger than a truck.
This is where we parked the truck to hike. The road only went about a fourth of a mile further. You can see that it narrows and is rocky. There was a large wash to the left. We went up on the right, crossed over up at the end and then came back down on the left, going up further onto the hill side. Somewhere along the hill side on the way back we lost the trail and ended up going down into the wash. We just followed it down until we hit our trail crossing the wash to the parking lot.
This is what the west side of most of it looked like. There were several canyons going back in with hiking trails. We had stopped here to help someone whose battery needed a jump. He is from LV and said that batteries only last about two years because of the heat. He was planning on replacing it this weekend, but should have done it sooner.
In this area there are wild burros, tortoises, mountain sheep, etc. We didn't have binoculars with us as we thought they were in the trailer. (We found them in the truck when we got home.) I think we saw some sheep up on one of the hill sides. It was light colored and moving around. We didn't get to see any burros or anything else. Fortunately, no snakes, but you do have to watch for them.
It was a pretty afternoon, a little on the cool side because of the altitude, but a nice hike. We plan to do some more. We just wish it was closer.
