Finding the Lost Creek and the Petroglyph Wall at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

 

Date: December 31, 2020
Place: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Las Vegas, Nevada
Coordinates: 36.161113, -115.498838
Length: 2.2 miles
Level: easy

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is a big enough place to merit more than a single day's visit. On our winter of 2020 family vacation to the larger Las Vegas area we visited Red Rock Canyon NCA twice. On the first visit we hiked the Calico Hills Trail and the Calico Tanks Trail, and in the morning of our second visit we hiked the Keystone Thrust Trail, a nice hike that ended with a bit of a weather damper. 
The weather cleared up fairly fast after our morning hike. We ate a picnic lunch at the Petroglyph Wall trailhead where there was a picnic area. Then the elder chika spotted a little bush bird in the nearby Juniper and got all excited. She thought it was a Juniper titmouse - a lifer for her, and wanted to get the bird's photo. She an Pappa Quail were busy for many long minutes trying to spot that bird again. Eventually they gave up, hoping that they'll see it, or more of its species on the trail we were about to hike. 

I was content with the place's geology - the beautiful rock formations and the colorful boulders that flanked the picnic area. 

The Lost Creek trailhead was about half a mile down the road but there was a trail going there and back on both sides of the road so we didn't need to move the car or walk on the asphalt. We started hiking the trail that run northeast of the pavement, going southeast. 

The trail that paralleled the road on the northeast was a nice gravel path with open views down to the valley. It was easy to walk on and we made good, quick progress.

As usual, my family walked ahead and I fell behind, pausing here and there to check out the local vegetation. It didn't matter that I've already seen these plants many times on other hikes in this park. 

Pine, Pinus sp.

Especially I enjoyed the cacti that grew there between the other shrubs. More than any other plant perhaps, the cactus symbolizes the desert to me. The plant that stores so much moisture inside its stems and protects it with those nasty thorns. Yet when it blooms, the cactus has the most gorgeous and accessible flowers. We weren't hiking there during the bloom season, so I enjoyed seeing the cacti without their flowers. 

Cholla Cactus, Cylindropuntia sp.

It didn't take long before we made it to the parking lot south of where we parked, where the Lost Creek trailhead was. There was very little traffic on the road. We crossed it and immediately went on the trail to the Lost Creek. 

The Lost Creek Trail was leading us directly to the Rainbow Mountains. I couldn't tell which creek opening was the one we were going too - there were several of them coming down the mountain ahead of us. 

Lost Creek Trail

Like the cacti, yucca plants are also very much a symbol of the desert. They too are  succulent but their thorns are not covering the entire leaf surface. Still, not many animals eat the yucca leaves for their moisture. 

Mohave Yucca, Yucca schidigera

Unlike the Keystone Thrust Trail, the Lost Creek Trail had plenty of information signs along the path. It was nice to read about the nature and the history of the area as we moved along the trail. 

Lost Creek Trail

We crossed a large wash before delving into the mountains. The wash was flanked by large bushes and shrubs. The wash bed was littered with large stones, indicative of its flow power when it floods. Thick clouds hung by the La Madre Mountains on the north, where we had hiked earlier that morning, though it didn't look like any precipitation there would result in a flow down where we were. At least, not at that time. 

We saw the information sign posted by the spring of Lost Creek before we saw the water. The sign said that this spring was flowing year-round. The flow was well hidden beneath the vegetation, accessible to animals only. The sign also said that the area had been replanted with native species after much damage cause there by humans trampling around the water. The information sign told us about an endemic and endangered species of snail that lives in the spring water of Red Roc Canyon NCA, including at Lost Creek. We didn't get to see the snails.

Lost Creek Spring

It looked like we were getting to a dead end of the trail. We had to do some scrambling through thick riparian vegetation but right ahead of us were sheer rock cliffs and no way up for regular hikers who don't practice rock climbing. 

When we emerged from the vegetation we found ourselves at the bottom of a dry waterfall. The only way up that would be with climbing gear. That meant, not us. The rocks above us carried the marks of many years' seasonal water flow. 

Rock climbing is practiced regularly at Red Rock Canyon NCA. Another sign posted by the Lost Creek Trail informed us that this locale is one of the popular climbing sites in the park, but we haven't seen any rock climbers there that day. 

We looked around for a while, but eventually we turned around and started back down the trail, plunging again into the thick bushes that thrived on the underground moisture of the creek. 

Once outside of the vegetation and the mountain part of the Lost Creek we started northeast on the trail that paralleled the road on the south. This trail stretched below the foothills of the Rainbow Mountains and the rock formations along the path were very pretty. More information signs were posted along that trail, some of them telling about the native people of this area and their traditional, pre-contact practices. 

From this part of the trail we had a very nice view of the Turtlehead Mountain on the east side of the park. The peak of the mountain was brightly illuminated. 

Turtlehead Mountain

We walked past an area that was marked as prehistoric kitchen, where the native people dug large pits where they roasted agave cores. I would love to try roasted agave if I only knew where to have it. 

We continued along the large wash that we crossed when we started on the Lost Creek Trail. Many of the stones that littered the wash bed had some very interesting patterns that looked almost like they were drawn by a human artist. 

Going north, we now had the view ahead of the La Madre Mountains peeking through between the sandstone hills that flanked the wash we were walking on. The clouds were still hanging over on the north, but they seemed to be receding, revealing mire blue sky.  

To balance off the emerging blue sky on the north, more clouds were gathering south of us, moving slowly over the Rainbow Mountains. 

We reached the Petroglyph Wall Trail and took it right to the dark rock wall that was inscribed with numerous petroglyph images. Many of these symbols were completely abstract to me, although some of them reminded me the petroglyphs that we saw at Sloan Canyon on the first day of our trip. 

The wall was covered all the way up and down, left and right, but much of it was obscured by the vegetation, and it was clear that the park's authorities didn't wish for people to get too close to these artifacts. 

At least in one of the corners of the rocky canvas it was clear that it wasn't human hands that damaged the paleolithic art - a piece of the outer rock had eroded away. 

By the time we finished admiring the petroglyphs and got back to the outer, large wash that separated us from the parking lot, the clouds had moved away again. 

The elder chika wanted to stay longer at the parking lt, hoping to see the elusive juniper titmouse again, but we had about three hours of daylight left and we decided to move on immediately and hike as far as we could into the Icebox Canyon, which a bit further south if the Lost Creek Trail. 

The Fault Hike of the Keystone Thrust Trail at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Rainbow Mountains

Date: December 31, 2020

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

Coordinates: 36.173473, -115.477441

Length: 3.7 miles 

Level: moderate

When we put Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area on our winter of 2020 family trip itinerary we didn't plan to to be there more than one day. We went there on the second day of our trip and hiked along the bottom of the Calico Hills and then hiked up to the top of the hills on the Calico Tanks Trail. We left the park with its entire northwestern part unexplored, and three days later when the question came up of where to go next, we chose to return to Red Rock Canyon NCA and hike in that part of the park which we haven't yet seen from up close. It was December 31 already, the last full day we'd have on this trip having planned to return home on New Year's Day. Considering the timed entry policy of the park during the pandemic time and the fact that the park's road was a one-way road, we needed to plan ahead the trails we wanted to hike. We agreed on hiking two to three short hikes, and the first of them was the Keystone Thrust Trail, which was the first to come up on the road past the Calico Hills. 

The Keystone Thrust Trail extends northward from the trailhead along one of the low ridges that extend below La Madre Mountains north of the park.

I couldn't find any sign post describing what the Keystone Thrust was, or what were the features we would expect to see on this hike. I did hope we'd see some birds because I knew that'll make my family birders very happy. As for me, I was happy to simply be outdoors, hiking in the desert. While Pappa Quail and the elder chika assembled their photography gear I noted the Turtlehead Mountain on the east, above where the Calico Hills were, obscured from our sight.

Turtlehead Mountain

A thick blanket of clouds hanged low from the sky, as if today came directly after three days ago, when we visited this park last. A thin line of sunlight shone from below the clouds on the southeastern horizon.

On the north however, there were patches of blue sky and the clouds were white and thin. 

The first part of the trail was inside a dry, wide wash. We walked on the wash bed gravel, our footfall sounding loud with the pebbles' displacement. Here too it wasn't apparent that a long time drought going on - the plants that grew inside the wash looked pretty happy and healthy.

Soon the trail exited the wash bed and rose up on a low ridge. Due north, we were facing directly the southern slopes of La Madre Mountains and the beautiful rock layers they had.

Keystone Thrust Trail

I looked behind me toward the Rainbow Mountains. The partially clouded sky played a beautiful illumination effect on the steep slopes. I used my favorite photo of the range from this view point as the header of this post.

Rainbow Mountains

We continued north towards the La Madre Mountains. Still no sign of what the Keystone Thrust might be. The weather was lovely now. The sun was shining on us but the air was nice and cool. We walked uphill, but the slope was pretty mild, and we made good progress. 

We came to the junction with a trail spur that was marked on the map as the Keystone Thrust. It would have been nice to have had the information about the place before hand, but we enjoyed the view nonetheless, even without knowing its significance at the time. I read about it later. 

We took the trail spur down to the layer of red Aztec sandstone. A sole pinyon pine tree stood over the trail and I lingered behind a bit to take a closer look at this tree. 

Pappa Quail also got interested in the tree, or more like it, in the bird that was sitting in the tree. It was the first bird we saw on this hike and I hope we'd get to see some more. 

Woodhouse's Scrub Jay

The photo below shows nicely the seem between the red Aztec sandstone, and the grayish limestone layer that's on top. In a normal geological rock layering, the older rock is lies below the younger rock. In this case, the lower sandstone is about 180 million years old while the higher limestone layer is older than 500 million years. The line between the layers is a geological fault through which the older limestone was thrusted up, higher than the younger sandstone. That, is the Keystone Thrust. 

I look at my photos now and understand the geological story behind them, at least to the basic level. At the time we were there, like I've mentioned above, I had no idea what I was looking at and no geological knowledge to interpret it myself. All I did was enjoy the views and the beautiful day in the desert. 

I was already familiar with the local plant community within Red Rock Canyon NCA. I enjoyed seeing them in the bright sunlight now, too. 

Mohave Agave, Agave utahensis

We also saw there our next bird of the hike - the very common dark-eyed junco. It is interesting because we usually see this bird in forested areas, and not in open desert landscapes. 

Dark-eyed Junco

The trail spur ended where the little wash it followed dropped into a deep canyon. Below us the red Aztec sandstone changed to the white sandstone. Over everything was the older limestone, and beyond the canyon the entire valley of Red Rock Canyon NCA opened up in a wide, magnificent view. It was nice to see all of that in the bright sunlight illumination.

 The view to the Rainbow Mountains was very lovely too. The desert expanse is very impressive, and looks much larger than a similar expanse that has vegetation cover.

 

We stayed there for a little bit, snacking, and looking around. I spotted a couple of recently bloomed agave that still had their high inflorescence stalk intact.

After some time we turned around and headed back up the spur trail to the main Keystone Thrust Trail. I noted again the nice contrast between the red layer of the Aztec Sandstone and the gray limestone, without knowing then what was the geological phenomenon I was looking at.

Pinyon Pine

Back on the main trail we continued northward towards the La Madre Mountains. Ahead of us loomed a round hill and the trail took us toward it. 

This hike was apparently a hike of large views and quiet desert scenes. The younger chika fell behind, lost in her own thoughts, and not looking around much. Every now and then I would wait for her and try to engage her in conversation. It would work for a little bit, but then I'd get distracted by one natural feature or another, and my chika would dive into her own internal world once more. 

One of the things that caught my attention was a glimpse of white and red sandstone hills, just like the Calico Hills, west of where we were below tyhe Rainbow Mountains. 

I took a magnified photo of those hills - they did look like they were made of the Aztec Sandstone formation, but they were not a continuation of the Calico Hills. 

Other interesting geology was right below our feet' like these mosaic rocks strewn right at the trail. These mosaic rocks are conglomerate - smaller stones of various sources that were pressed together with fine grained filler soil and formed the mosaic looking rock.

Trees were much more scarce in on the ridge, out in the open. Here and there however, were a few junipers, most of them looking fine and healthy. I had no way of telling why in this particular spot the conditions were good for the juniper to thrive, but a few yards away they were not sufficient.

Juniper

The trail ended unceremoniously not far below the steep cliffs of the La Madre Mountains. There was no sign there saying 'Tail's End', the trail simply vanished.

North End of the Keystone Thrust Trail

There seemed to be some makeshift trails leading into the vegetation and I wondered if people simply wandered off trail to explore the area some more. Another time I might have done so myself but there were other trails we wanted to hike that day so we turned around and started back on the same way we came up on.

Desert Scrub

Looking south, we had a nice view of the round hill we were going by just minutes ago. Above it the clouds on the southeast were breaking up into fragments. More and more sunlight was pouring into the valley below.

The way back was quick. We didn't stop for any break again, and took only brief hydration pauses when needed. The Rainbow Mountain Ridge was growing larger as we moved towards it.

Keystone Thrust Trail

My general impression was that most of the vegetation in Red Rock Canyon NCA didn't suffer much or at all from the prolonged drought that the southwest states were experiencing. Still, there were plants that were clearly unhappy  with their water allocation, like the cottontop cactus in the photo below. Although it might have been miserable fore different reasons, I don't know.

From the higher part of the trail, before we descended, we had a nice view of the northwest tip of the Calico Hills, where we hiked three days before. Most of the red sandstone was hidden from our view behind the white sandstone mass.

While the clouds were breaking up on the southeast, they were now gathering over our heads instead. All most as soon as we noticed the darkening sky the wind picked up and the air chilled. Within seconds, it started raining. Not a hard or very intense rain, but enough so that we had to tuck away our cameras. With the wind whipping the rain into our faces, this part of the hike became unpleasant. We huddled in our jackets and pulled our hats tight, and galloped down the trail. Needless to say, we didn't go again onto the trail spur of the Keystone Thrust.

A Very Local Rain, view north

By the time we reached the south end of the trail and the gravel wash bed, the rain had stopped. The wind calmed a bit, but remained breezy for a while after we concluded this hike.

The last geological feature I noted before going to the parking lot was the white sandstone rocks at the side of the wash that were dotted with iron-rich nuggets, just like we saw on a much larger scale up on the Calico Hills. 

Spotted Rock

In the car we discussed our next move. We were all ready for lunch but we weren't sure about the weather. Eventually we decided to go to our next planned trailhead where there was a picnic area, and eat there. After that, we would see if the weather improved enough to hike the Lost Creek Trail and the Petroglyph Wall Trail that started there.