Vegas Trip - Day Two - Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Upon researching things to do while in Vegas, I came across a website, and many amazing reviews which suggested you can't go to Vegas without doing a guided private hike in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, with the Hike This! hiking company. Red Rock Canyon is about 30 minutes from the strip, but we were picked up and dropped off at our hotel by Hike This!, so there was no need to rent a car.

Here we are at the beginning of our "rock scrambling" hike. We were full of energy and ready to go! It was incredibly challenging at times, but we had such a great time. We'd definitely do it again, and highly recommend it to everyone.

Our guide Neil was an amazing source of information on everything Vegas. A Georgia native, he has been hiking at Red Rock for close to 20 years. Neil was definitely the friendliest person we met during our trip - very pleasant, with a great sense of humour. He was well prepared, punctual, and full of interesting facts.

One of the views from near the parking lot, where we began. The Las Vegas strip is 2100 feet above sea level. Our starting point was about 4200 feet above sea level, and our climb took us approximately 600 feet up from here.

Looking up towards our destination.

Tomasz working his way across the sandstone. The rubber soles on our shoes gripped the surface incredibly well - there were no loose rocks or sand to slide on.

This was probably one of the scariest points of the climb for me - I always thought my hands or feet would slip out of the little ledges I was hanging on to!

Phew! I was glad to get past that.

Here I am "helping" Tomasz make his way up the sandstone. Thanks Neil for the picture, and for making me look as though I knew what I was doing!!

It's amazing how the vegetation just springs up in all sorts of unexpected places. Everything is very barren and raw.

We found this rock formation very interesting. It almost looks like someone's face.

An "Old Man Cactus" in the foreground. The spiky plant in the background is an agave plant, similar to the blue agave plants found in Mexico which are used to make tequila.

A water "pothole" (called a Tinaja by Native Americans) which is like a catch basin for rainwater. This is a good source of water for area wildlife. The Vegas strip is just visible in the background of this photo.

An amazing view of the strip from one of our great vantage points.


If you click on this picture, you'll be able to see a small black box in the lower left corner of the photo. I've drawn the box around another hiker, who is down at the bottom of the peak we're on. It gives a bit of a better perspective on just how high up we were!

What goes up, must come down. We begin our descent. Climbing down was, for the most part, much easier. There were a couple of times when it seemed very steep, though.

Tomasz showing me how it's done.

It didn't matter - I still did it my way - cautiously ...

Our guide Neil just walked down this as though it was a set of stairs. Again, I was very cautious...

Almost at the bottom!

A gorgeous view of the sandstone formation we climbed. In the very center of this picture, there's a long, skinny shadow, which marks a bit of our route. That's the "set of stairs" that we walked down.

We had been aiming for Red Cap Peak, which is the highest peak in the picture above, but stopped just short of it. Our legs were very tired - I couldn't stand up or sit down easily for a few days afterwards! Now we have something to aim for next time ... and I'll be sure to add some squats to my workout routine, beforehand. :)