Red Rock Canyon - Nevada
Just 30 minutes west of Las Vegas is Red Rock Canyon, National Conservation Area, so, as we were spending Christmas in Las Vegas in 2013 it would be silly not to visit. As it turns out we actually went down there on Christmas Day which was a great choice because the usual $7 entrance fee was waived due to a lack of staff on duty to collect the money....great start.
A passing cyclist asked us to take her picture by the sign and kindly reciprocated, she did a pretty good job of it too.
A passing cyclist asked us to take her picture by the sign and kindly reciprocated, she did a pretty good job of it too.
The area has hundreds of Joshua Trees which we were wanting to see and we were not disappointed by the first one we came across beside the entrance road.
The entrance road certainly lends itself to another of those 'desert road' shots, even if it is just outside a major city
We started the day with a 3 mile round trip hike to a canyon over in the mountains, more so that we could get some more Joshua Tree shots than any other reason
The trees are fantastic and seem to be confined to small areas where they are plentiful interspersed with large areas where there are none at all.
Heading toward the mountains ahead the Joshua Trees come to an abrupt end and we are soon walking in open desert again, teeming with life, there are lizards a plenty scurrying this way and that as we tread carefully through the sand pathway.
Looking away to the distant horizon we can see the red rock from which the area gets its name, we met up with a local guide on the trail and got a free tour for about 10 minutes before he turned back
After making it to the mountains and the strange sight of a dozen or so huge pine trees tucked into the shaded areas by a small stream we returned to the truck to take the scenic drive to the red rock.
The whole place was crawling with people climbing the rocks and lines of cars waiting for a space to free up, it was not particularly enjoyable for that reason and we soon returned to the truck, finished the scenic loop and drove back to Vegas for Christmas dinner where we spoiled ourselves with an excellent Fillet Mignon at a lovely restaurant within the Mandalay Bay hotel.