We spent a long weekend in January camping at Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas enjoying the 70 degree weather and hiking in the national recreation area. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is located in the Mojave Desert just outside Las Vegas. The main feature is - surprise - the red rocks. The cliffs are Aztec Sandstone, formed about 180-190 million years ago, and the red cliffs get their color from iron oxide or hematite. One cool feature was rocks we spotted with iron concretions that create red spots in the sandstone (what I liked to call the polka dot rocks). Red Rock Canyon is a major destination for rock climbers, particularly this time of year when the weather is nice (way too hot in the summer!), but we would spend our days hiking.
We arrived Wednesday evening at Red Rock Campground, where we had a reservation for four nights. The campground is basic - vault toilets, water faucets for drinking water, and some sites had shade shelters (ours just had a picnic table and fire pit) - but nice and in a good location. We had reserved entry tickets for the first slots in the morning to enter Red Rock Canyon (no entry reservations necessary if you enter the park before 8 am) and made the short drive to the park Thursday morning for our first hike, Juniper Peak. There is one road in the park: the one way, thirteen mile scenic drive. We were heading to the North Oak Creek parking lot, which was the last stop on the drive, and enjoyed the scenery as we wound our way through the park. In retrospect, the Pine Creek Canyon parking area, the one before North Oak Creek, would have worked as well, perhaps better, for our hike to Juniper Peak.

Norah and I were told Juniper was a short, but steep hike - only a few miles. Only a few miles in the end was closer to six miles and 2500 feet elevation. Which isn’t a bad hike, but much of the route is off trail, which slowed us down. Buckhorn cholla and yucca plants were plentiful in our approach to Pine Creek Canyon, where we started the “boulder” portion of the hike. We navigated our way around and over boulders, following the herd path and cairns. Occasionally we could hear climbers and stopped to spot them on the walls. We finally reached the sandstone slabs and carefully started up, avoiding the large patches of ice. At this point Norah decided she had enough, so Steve and I found a good spot to stash her while we continued on. I wasn’t expecting such cool sandstone at the top and enjoyed the scenery and views in this section of the hike. At the final ascent, I cut Steve loose to summit and then we retraced our steps back down to collect Norah and return to the car. The advantage of being the last parking spot, it didn’t take long for us to exit and hit the main road to head into Summerlin to grab dinner at Casa Don Juan.

Steve decided to change plans for our Friday hike to accommodate Norah, who wasn’t a fan of the off trail Juniper Peak the day before. So instead of another off trail peak, we opted for the easier, trailed Turtlehead Peak, leaving from the Sandstone Quarry parking lot. This hike is short at only 4.6 miles round trip, but is steep with 2000 feet elevation gain (some areas with loose rock that were a pain coming down - I was glad to have my poles and there was ice on the backside of the final climb - but we could mostly avoid the ice). We were early to the trailhead and only encountered a few people on the hike and had ample time on the top to ourselves. For a short hike, you get some great 360 degree views at the top - snowy Mt. Charleston, Calico Hills, the strip in Las Vegas, and the other surrounding mountains, both near and far. After the hike we continued along the drive, stopping for Steve to cache some water for his hike the next day, and returned to our campsite for a lazy afternoon. About an hour before sunset we drove to the Red Rock Canyon Overlook, which had a nice stand of Joshua Trees and yucca plants along a short, paved walkway to the viewpoint. Nice spot! We enjoyed dinner around the campfire at our campsite in the evening and had a quiet night.

Saturday was Norah’s day off and Steve’s day to do a big run. He left from our campsite to summit Bridge Mountain - a total of 34 miles and 6500 feet elevation. Meanwhile, Norah slept in and I made the easy hike to Firehouse Hill, which was no more than a mile from our campsite. It was convenient to walk from the campsite and it had some nice views for a short and easy hike. When I got back to camp Norah was up and ready to go into Summerlin. We had breakfast at Babystacks, did an Escape Room, stopped at a thrift store, and got bubble tea. By the time we returned to the campground Steve was finished with his big run and ready for some tacos. We found a fantastic taco place called Tacos El Compita and I was thrilled to see they had birria tacos on the weekend (they were delicious). This is a definite must stop on our next trip in the area! There was a bakery next door and we finished off the day with dessert pastries before heading back for our last night at camp. We were up early for dim sum the next morning and then drove back home. It was a nice little getaway!