Heading home from Encinitas, CA, Carla and I decided to swing by Las Vegas to visit my niece and take a peek at Las Vegas. After all, it has been more years than you can count on your fingers, toes and more since I’ve been there and it would be Carla’s first visit. Over dinner, my niece suggested we visit Red Rock Canyon, since it was very near the city and worth the visit.
The next morning we jumped in the car an headed to the canyon. Somewhat surprisingly, at the end of February, snow flakes began falling and a cloud enshrouded the hills of the canyon. I was sure we weren’t going to be able to see anything but Carla encouraged continuing. It was a good thing. As we entered the canyon area, the fog lifted enough for us to see giant hills, shaped like enormous almonds that jutted 1000’s of feet out of the ground, swimming in fog. It was other wordly and breath taking.
We had no idea that such a wonder existed just 20 minutes from Las Vegas. A stunning contrast: one a tribute to the beauty and magesty of mother nature, the other, well… There is a 13 mile loop that weaves through the canyon with stunning views of this remarkable geographic formation.
I Googled ‘Red Rock’ and came up with the following:
“The great sandstone cliffs at Red Rock, thousands of feet high, are made up of the Aztec Sandstone. This formation, about 180 – 190 million years old, is comprised of lithified sand dunes that formed in a vast desert that covered a large part of the southwestern United States during the Jurassic time.”
Here is a small gallery of photos from our visit (click images to enlarge).
