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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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