The very last day of 2021 winter trip: however it was January 3rd in 2022. Our flight was 11 pm from Las Vegas, so we had a full day. We found a perfect place to spend a day not to far from Las Vegas: Red Rock Canyon Conservation area.
In this park, there is a big circle of scenic drive road. If you don't have time to hike, only scenic drive is great. Many trailhead were there along the road. There are many not too long hikes there. We didn't study much in advance, but each trailhead had a great description of the hike (distance, elevation gain and nice map).
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Turtlehead Peak
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First hike we did there was Turtlehead Peak. Why it is called so? Look at the picture in the left. Well, I thought it is because how it looks. However, I don't know the fact. This is 4.6 miles out and back (2.3 mile one way) hike with around 2000 feet elevation gain. The sign said "strenuous". Usually in the West, I consider moderate when there is sign as strenuous. Because in my experience, a real strenuous place does not have sign. When there is sign warning for people I think it is less hard than the sign says. In this case it was a bit exception. It was actually strenuous. Some portion in the middle, the trail was quite faint. Also near the top the path was icy. Despite that, it was really fun hike in the crispy morning.
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amazing view from Turtlehead Peak
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The view was incredible from Turtlehead Peak. It was quite vast as you can see in the left picture. Mountains are circled around the flat area in the picture. The scenic drive is circle along the mountains and each trail goes into canyon or mountains from there. From the summit Las Vegas skyscrapers were seen. It is weird contrast: looking at the most artificial city in the world from really rugged landscape in the nature.
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trail sign
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Second hike was Calico Tanks. 2.2 miles total (out and back), with mostly flat terrain. As the name of hike indicates, there is a tank at the destination. It is a nice water source in the desert. In this red rock canyon trail is indicated like in the left picture. Because the path is in the rock, this was helpful. The rock formations and colors are really unique and interesting to observe. Also those are photogenic too.
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| Tank |
The left picture is the tank. Probably it will be water source for wild life here and native Americans who used to live in this area. Official trail ends at the tank, but we did a little off trail beyond the tank and sat on a good spot with view. We had lunch there. My favorite lunch time is always in the nature with great view! Food is more tasty in the setting.
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Petroglyph Wall
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The third hike is mini. Petroglyph wall. Just 0.4 mile out and back with flat. As the name indicates, the destination is to go to the wall with petroglyph. I don't know the meaning of drawing, but it is fun imagining what they wrote and why they did. Some look like human, some are mark or symbol to convey message or signal or warning. Maybe are territory thing.
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Interesting rocks
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The fourth hike is La Madre Spring. The destination is spring. 3.6 miles out back, mostly flat. This is not very popular hike, maybe because relatively long (for this area...still just 3.6 miles though). You will see interesting and massive rock along the way. Less people is a plus, too.
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Pine Creek Canyon
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Then, very last hike of this 2021 winter camping trip was....Pine Creek Canyon trail and Pine Creek Loop trail. This is lolipop (stick portion: Pine Creek Canyon trail, then loop portion is Pine Creek loop trail). Total is 2.4 miles. The canyon is really pretty. The cone shape rock in the middle of picture is magnificent.
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super clear water
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In the canyon there is creek and the water was super clear! You might sense how clear is it in the picture. When we were about to finish the loop portion, the sun was about to set. Every second the sky color was changing. It was really pretty, and a little sad to see the end of camping trip. I thought positively, "the end of vacation is the start of countdown of the next vacation." It was an awesome trip!
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what a color in Pine Creek Canhon
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