A Late Goodbye Hike: Ice Box Canyon at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

 

Date: December 31, 2020

Place: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Las Vegas, Nevada

Coordinates: 36.150162, -115.484015

Length: 3.1 miles

Level: moderate to strenuous (reaching the end involves rock scrambling). 

 

The Icebox Canyon Hike was the last hike we planned on our second day visiting the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. This beautiful park was the main destination of our 2020 winter family vacation, when we got to explore nature around Las Vegas.

The trailhead of the Icebox Canyon Trail is only a short distance south of the Lost Creek Trailhead. We got there in a couple of minutes drive, parked, and started up the trail, heading westward into the Rainbow Mountains.

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 This time it was easy to see where we were going - the Icebox Canyon mouth was straight ahead of us and there was no meandering of the trail.

Icebox Canyon Trail

On our way from the road to the mountains we crossed again the big dry wash that collected all the creek tributaries coming down the La Madre and the Rainbow Mountains and spilling southeast towards Las Vegas.

Between the big wash and the Rainbow Mountain were the mild slopes of the alluvial fans - the soil and stones carried down the mountain by the creeks, when they flowed. This alluvial fan was certainly stable enough to support a nice array of plant life, of mostly low shrubs and cholla cacti.

The trail cut straight ahead through the alluvial fan into the canyon mouth. We walked fast as usual with myself at the rear. 

Every now and then I paused to take a closer look at a plant or at an interesting rock, and then I would have to hasten to catch up with the rest of my family. 

Mohave Yucca, Yucca schidigera

I do not have much knowledge in geology but I do know enough to tell that the lines on this huge boulder that we saw just outside the canyon are a telltale of short (in geological time) periods of shallow flooding that formed thin sedimentation layers where this rock was formed. 

I looked north at the gathering clouds. Was it raining on the La Madre Mountains? The clouds were very low but also very local. 

The Icebox Canyon walls funneled outward before us. There were many more large boulders here, and also thicker, taller vegetation. The trail started zigzagging between the rocks and the bushes and although I was trailing behind, it frequently looked like I was hiking on my own. 

Icebox Canyon Trail

Some of the tall bushes in the Icebox Canyon were in fact the same species of small trees that I've seen before in the earlier hikes in Red Rock Canyon NCA - they were junipers and pinyon pines. The junipers were laden with berries - they had a good year.

Juniper

Some of the pinyon pine trees were actually a real tree-size trees, not merely tall bushes. Other tall plants lined up the canyon, looking healthy and well watered. I wondered if the prolonged drought did not affect this area at all. Seeing how local the weather could be there in the high desert, that might have been the case. 

I turned around and looked behind me, to the northeast. A thin strip of sunlight was illuminating the foothills of La Madre Mountains and the peak of Turtlehead Mountain that peeked from behind another, cloud-shaded hill in the foreground. 

Turning my attention again to the cliffs of the Rainbow Mountains. For most of this cloudy day the rocks looked gray and dreary but up close I could see the red sandstone layers below, caved in by water erosion.

Although I took many photos on the way, it actually didn't take long al all for us to get level with the Icebox Canyon mouth. From that point, we would walk right between these tall rock walls, all the way to where we couldn't continue anymore without a rope.

Icebox Canyon

From that point however, the hike became much more challenging. The trail was all but gone. Instead, we were walking in the wash bed, having to go over and around rocks and boulders that grew bigger and bigger the deeper we went inside the canyon. 

This part of the hike necessitated careful attention of each step. Some of the rocks on the way were worthy of close attention for reasons other than simply being in the way.

Layered Rock

The rocks were getting larger and larger as we penetrated deeper into the Icebox Canyon. More and more we needed to use our hands to scramble over massive boulders that looked as if they fell off the canyon wall only recently. Sadly, some of the boulders were defaced with ugly graffiti.

The canyon narrowed and the rock walls closed in on us. The clouds settled right over head, darkening the sky and diminishing the light inside the canyon. Other than a few other hikers, the place was very quiet - there was no wind inside the canyon, and we saw no animals, and heard no birds. 

I enjoyed the beauty of the rock layers, exposed by the carving of the water when it flower in the wash. The rest of my family however, seemed oblivious to the sleek rocks and moved along without giving them a second glance. 

There was no more trail. Not even a hint of trail. Going up the wash became more and more challenging. Pappa Quail wondered aloud how far should we go. There was a dry waterfall at the end of the trail and I wanted to go all the way there, but people whom we saw coming down the canyon told us the ascent was becoming more difficult. 

We came to a canyon block made of two huge boulders. Behind them I thought I could see the end of the trail and the dry waterfall. It took us a few minutes to find a way to get up and over the boulders but by the time we started climbing them the elder chika said she was done going up. She was still sour about missing that juniper titmouse bird at the Lost Creek trailhead, something which took much of her excitement from this hike. She said she was tired and that she didn't want to go on. The rest of us did want to continue to the end so we asked that she'd stay by the large boulders and wait for us there until we returned. She plopped herself below the boulder, sitting with her back to the rock, facing the canyon mouth. I left a bottle of water with her and we commenced climbing up the canyon. 

A short distance past the large boulders we came upon a dry waterfall. It seemed a bit small to be what the hike's description said. the riddle was solved when we saw a couple of hikers coming down from above - this wasn't THE waterfall, just a small one on the way. 

The rock of the dry waterfall was very sleek and smooth. It took us some feeling around to find the proper hand and foot holds and climb to the ledge above it. 

At the top of small waterfall I turned around and looked at the way we walked from where we left the elder chika. The vegetation looked much thicker from above than it was when we walked through it. 

Past the first, smaller waterfall I took the lead. The next bit of climbing looked even more treacherous - it involved going on a thin, sloped line up the side of a very sleek rock, smoothed by water and many other visitors' feet. I suggested to my younger chika who always was hesitant when it came to rock climbing to remain below this one, but to my surprise she came up that path without hesitation. I thought it a good lesson to not second guess what affects people who are not me. Pappa Quail came up the rock behind our chika.

We made it to the end of the trail. before us was a large, dry waterfall, narrow, smooth and beautiful. I don't know how large is the watershed of the Icebox Canyon, but at a large enough precipitation event, a powerful flush flood would push a big volume of water through this very narrow passage, generating an immense erosion force. 

I contemplated climbing further up but Pappa Quail dissuaded me. I might have been able to go up but coming back down would have been problematic. I have no doubt that other people have climbed all the way up, but I was not a rock climber. That was where we turned around and started back down the canyon.

From the higher rock ledge I had a good view of the Icebox Canyon below me. From this point of view it was clear how the 'box' part of the canyon's name came was inspired. I could only guess that the "ice" part of the name came from times when the depth of this canyon was the coolest place in the area to hide from the desert heat.

I regretted that my elder chika didn't come all the way up to the dry waterfalls. She usually enjoys very much that kind of multifaceted hikes with variable terrain. She however, was completely fine with not having gone there. When we returned to the large boulder where she was waiting, we found here in a much better mood, all relaxed and chatty. She had the opportunity to make friends with a number of hikers and discuss birding with them. When she saw us she was definitely ready to head back out of the canyon.

Now familiar with the path obstacles, we made it back to the canyon mouth fairly quickly. There was no more stopping on the way - now we were racing the sunset.

The Calico Hills were straight ahead, east of the Icebox Canyon. Pausing at the canyon mouth, I took a moment to admire the late rays of the sunlight shining on the distant, colorful rocks.

Calico Hills

There was still more colors right below our feet - in this case I believe the orange and yellow lines are not of different sedimentation but of mineral leaching during flooded times. Another possibility is that these colors have a biological source - bacteria or lichen, but I had not the knowledge to tell.

By the time we were out in the open the sun was already setting, illuminating only the higher cloud mass on the east. Turtlehead Mou8ntain and the pyramidal hill obscuring most of it were already in the dusk.

I had enough light to take a good photo of the very healthy looking cholla cactus near the end of the trail. It wasn't even 5 pm yet, but winter days are short and it was getting dark and very cold. It was time to call it a day and head out of the park.

Cholla Cactus, Cylindropuntia sp.

The Icebox Canyon hike was the last of three hikes we did that day in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and the fifth altogether in this park. I can say that we covered most of this park's interesting trails, but there are more to hike next time we'll be visiting this place. This was also the last full day of our 2020 winter family vacation. On the morrow, on New Year's Day of 2021, we would visit the Clack County Birding Center for the second and last time, then take off on the long drive back home, to shutdown California, hoping for a better year to roll in on us.