Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
Two years ago today we spent a couple of morning hours at Red Rock Canyon
National Conservation Area on the west side of Las Vegas.
You’re seeing a few pictures from there.
You’re not seeing the busloads of tourists that also swarmed there.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Beautiful.
Pairodox Farm
October 25, 2018 at 5:14 AM
Having visited the Valley of Fire the day before, we weren’t as impressed by this site. In retrospect, though, I’m warming up to it.
Steve Schwartzman
October 25, 2018 at 7:17 AM
The interplay of the mountains and shadows in the first image makes it especially lively: the forms seem to be moving across the land in waves.
I’m thinking that the second photo is of a ‘remnant layer.’ It resembles the lightest band in the third photo, and I wonder if it didn’t get dislodged and isolated somehow. The red striations in it are attractive, but the relatively short distance between the bands makes me wonder about the process that formed them.
shoreacres
October 25, 2018 at 6:27 AM
Geology is a big lacuna in my education. (The 1950s could’ve made a 3-D movie of me as the Creature from the Rock Lacuna.) I look at the second photograph, with its many layers, and know that a geologist could tell many a story about those formations, while you and I on our own can only speculate. I suspect geology students from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas get taken out to sites like this one for field work.
Steve Schwartzman
October 25, 2018 at 7:28 AM
Perhaps not as spectacular as the Valley of Fire, but the banded, eroded mountains are pretty striking. I’ve never been to Vegas, and only think of it as a pinnacle of artificiality, (I was going to use “meretricious” but it’s pretty early in the morning for big words) so seeing these beautiful mountains nearby, really alters my image of the place.
Robert Parker
October 25, 2018 at 7:51 AM
It’s never too early for fancy words, especially one like meretricious that has a colorful (you might say painted) etymology:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/meretricious
Las Vegas per se doesn’t hold much appeal for me, either, but it’s a convenient base for exploring natural areas like the two I’ve shown in these two posts. Another plus is that bargain airfares to Las Vegas often pop up.
Steve Schwartzman
October 25, 2018 at 8:28 AM
Beautiful photos!
montucky
October 25, 2018 at 8:19 AM
Thanks. It’s not hard to get appealing photos in such scenic places.
Steve Schwartzman
October 25, 2018 at 8:29 AM
I love how the clouds really created a softness around the mountains. I guess in many of the more touristy places you visit you must deal with throngs of people. I always feel fortunate to visit grand places and find myself completely alone.
Littlesundog
October 25, 2018 at 8:43 AM
It was pretty cloudy when we first arrived but by the time we left the morning clouds were dissipating. Even though they obscured the mountains, that very obscuring made for some dramatic pictures.
Yes, we had to deal with throngs of tourists in a lot of the nature places we visited on that trip: the Grand Canyon, Zion, Red Rock Canyon, Muir Woods. As China has come up in the world, it’s become common to see buses filled with Chinese tourists at those sites. We found the same thing in Auckland on our trip to New Zealand in 2015.
You’re fortunate if you’ve managed to be alone at some grand places.
Steve Schwartzman
October 25, 2018 at 9:00 AM
My most favorite place to climb, so far. LOVE Red Rock.
Rope & Summit
October 25, 2018 at 5:41 PM
Thanks for your testimonial. I may have underestimated the place during our brief visit.
Steve Schwartzman
October 25, 2018 at 5:48 PM
Colorado Springs has its own Red Rocks, Steve (https://redrockcanyonopenspace.org/). Since you are familiar with Garden of the Gods, the formations of this open space are basically a continuation of GOGs, across highway 24. We were fortunate to have this space preserved, instead of having it turned into a residential area, or worse.
tanjabrittonwriter
October 29, 2018 at 9:26 PM
We visited your Red Rocks twice last year during our three-night stay in Denver, once in the evening just to get our bearings, and again the next morning to explore the place. I had so many pictures from so many places on that trip that I never did show any photographs from Red Rocks. Maybe next year.
Steve Schwartzman
October 29, 2018 at 10:01 PM
I am not talking about the Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver, but Red Rocks Open Space in Colorado Springs, just a few miles from Garden of the Gods. Sorry to confuse you, Steve, I didn’t even think of that famous venue!
tanjabrittonwriter
October 29, 2018 at 10:14 PM
Thanks for the clarification. I actually knew about the other Red Rocks but had forgotten. In fact I did do one post about it last year:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/red-rock-canyon-open-space/
Speaking of which, we also visited Red Rock Canyon in Waterton Lakes National Park a few months later:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/red-rock-canyon/
As I’ve been know to say: red rocks rock.
Steve Schwartzman
October 30, 2018 at 6:01 AM
I wholeheartedly agree with your final assessment!
tanjabrittonwriter
October 30, 2018 at 10:33 AM
It’s good you do, given that your part of the world has so many red and reddish formations. I wish you could send some of them to central Texas.
Steve Schwartzman
October 30, 2018 at 11:24 AM
I am sure central Texas has its own merits!
tanjabrittonwriter
October 30, 2018 at 11:41 AM
The majority of posts here these past seven years have shown Texas. The thing that stands out most is wildflowers, especially broad and dense displays of them. That said, we don’t have grand geological landscapes the way you do in the Rocky Mountains.
Steve Schwartzman
October 30, 2018 at 1:19 PM
We can’t all have everything!
tanjabrittonwriter
October 30, 2018 at 1:42 PM
Maybe not, but that doesn’t stop us from wanting to.
Steve Schwartzman
October 30, 2018 at 2:22 PM
That last pic is a wow! I can only imagine the scores of people ..
Julie@frogpondfarm
October 30, 2018 at 1:00 PM
Yes, that last one is a ruggedly grand sight. Fortunately I left all the people to your imagination.
Steve Schwartzman
October 30, 2018 at 1:20 PM