TR Snippet - Red Rock Canyon

( for full effect, click to enlarge photo)

I figured if I waited until noon to rent a car for the day, I could use it to see Red Rock in the afternoon and then move my luggage easily the next morning from the Rio to the Four Queens and so save the hassle of three buses with heavy and overpacked suitcases.

So I thought that playing poker into the early morning and then sleeping until around ten would make good sense.

And it would.

Only sleeping in to ten is just a fantasy.

So with four hours of sleep, after a night of drinking I worried that I'd be too tired for any hiking.

I knew I wanted to hike in Calico Canyon. I always skipped that one because it was first and it seems odd to hike at the first turn off.

However, Calico Canyon is the quintessential Red Rock because.....well.....that is where the rocks are actually "red."

It proved a great choice because the hike recommended by the fellow at the visitor's center 

was an easy one and a short one and it fit my little sleep and overtired attitude.

Unlike my hike last time into Ice Box Canyon, the only rock scrambling I did here was when I lost track of the gravel trail and was poking along the dry creek bed. 

Even that was easy. Already overpacked I just could not see taking my hiking boots, so I was also comforted that if I did have any difficulty, I could attract attention and get help. Turning an ankle would be easy if I has not careful.

The only serious uphill walking was at the end when I climbed back up to the road.

The rest was just a pleasant stroll along the base of these beautiful cliffs with wonderfully rich changing perspectives and angles. The entire way from Calico Two to Calico One was less than a mile, and I did not really do all of it, but just wandered until the views of the red rocks faded and the red rocks sloped down into desert.

I know the camera did not catch the true intensity of this walk. 
I also had the trail to myself. True hikers, the slim folks with backpacks, the fellows with two walking sticks, took the longer trails and left this small one to me and a few small lizards.

I enjoyed the contrast between the bare, wind eroded hard red rock upcrop and the tiny winding of living green below where water came on occasion and today was actually pooled in two places.

In one of these I found out that my sunglasses were broken when lens dropped into the pool of water. Don't worry. I fished it out again. I'd feel very guilty to have left a sunglass lens at the bottom of a natural pool of water.

There were, of course, no fish here, but insects did skim the surface.

Flowers were blooming and the vivid colors of this delicate, struggling living growth reflected the intensity with which they strove to live against adversity. They might not catch my attention in another setting, but here I was in awe of these plants struggling in a hard environment, living, and putting out bright color to attrackt insects that perpetuated their kind.

I did remember to bring along a flower book that has been helpful in other places, especially around the Laughlin area, to identify cactus. Here, however, I found that I could not name these flowers. I'll have to poke around and do some research on what I saw growing.

I was very tired at the end of the journey and It was hot. I had been glad to remember to buy a case of water at Target on my way to the canyon. The case cost $4 and I used it on this hike, and again while walking downtown for my next four nights. At Red Rock a bottle from the vending machine was $2. I drank one before hiking, two during the hike and another few along the rest of the tour.

The hiking had taken the last of me. I pulled into a spot overlooking a valley and off to a large jutting outcrop, put the seat down, opened the window for some breeze, and slept.

I did not sleep well.

I kept thinking the car was slipping ahead and would drop off the cliff in front of me.

I was refreshed enough to poke around Willow Springs for a bit, see the ancient hand prints on the side of the rock, watch a little chipmonk with a tail that flashed white like white tail deer at home. Here there are picnic tables, but I think they moved the one that was set back a bit along the trail.

I found a fine spot, in shade under a tree, drank water and had some trail mix. I spilled some of the trail mix as I ate. The little chipmonk probably liked that later.

Then just before leaving the park, I pulled into a flat area without any cliff and took a second nap free of irrational fears.

It was a fine trip. I was there four hours and that was plenty of time. My trip last November was a bit rushed because it took me two hours to hike most of the Ice Box Canyon trail which was more difficult with views that were less dramatic.

The new visitor center is worth seeing. Basic information is embedded in exhibits that take the fundamentals of the Canyon and respond to them with sculpture, both simple little metal depictions of wild life and more dramatic abstract attempts to catch the shapes of the place. Even wind is represented in swirls of colored pipe and other wild and abstract making material.

Inside the section I would hike is visible in a long window of glass that focuses attention on the entire canyon. 


Here is a photo of that


Outside along with the exhibits is a viewing area.

I was not studying the history and science of the formation this trip. I was too tired and would remember nothing anyway. I am motivated to read more about it at home.

Still the the fellow I talked to about an easy trail had quite a spiel he threw in, a string of sentences delivered like a fundamental preacher that all started,

"178 million years ago," and then said things like, "this was the West Coast and that rocky section right there was Malibou."

Now let's see. 178 million years ago.....just where was I back then?