Monday April 17th 2017

The weather today was Blah! The temperature was OK in the high 70s. The wind was strong, but not dangerous. The sky was cloud covered looking like it should rain. So it was Blah. Nothing is really wrong with the weather, but nothing is really right either.

Panorama of Red Rock Canyon from the overlook.

Today I went to Red Rock Canyon. This area is a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conservation area to the west of the Las Vegas Valley. The community of Summerlin has built up on the Valley side of the BLM land. The houses and shops now go right up to the start of the BLM land on Charleston Blvd. The first time I went to Red Rock Canyon there was a mile or two of open desert between civilization and the conservation area.

Rock layers visible in the cliff across the desert behind the cactus.

Every time I have been to Red Rock I hope to see the wild Burros and Horses the road side signs warns visitors about. The signs say there is a five hundred dollar fine for feeding the wild animals. It must be working because I still have not seen any of them. My guess is they stay back near the mountains where there is more cover than out in the open near the road.

I didn’t take the thirteen mile loop drive this time. The Red Rock Canyon web site and signs on the access road warn that the loop drive is under construction. They are stripping the pavement and putting down a new surface coat. If the sun had been out creating better lighting for pictures, I might have put up with the aggravation of the construction. It was also too late in the day to do a lot of hiking. Instead I stopped at the overlook on the main road.

Red Rock visible in the outcropping.

From the overlook all of the main canyon is visible across a large area of desert. The red rock layers are visible on an out cropping of ground on the north side of the canyon. The southern view is more vertical cliffs and rock structure similar to others in the Las Vegas area.

I returned to Las Vegas from the south on Blue Diamond road. This area has also been heavily built up since I first started visiting Las Vegas. The ten miles back to Interstate 15 used to be very sparsely populated. It is now housing developments and strip malls all the way. The amount of development in the Las Vegas valley over the last 20 years is amazing.

Flower blossom outside the M casino.

Today’s other major accomplishment was replenishing my refrigerator and pantry. I was out of just about everything. It has been almost three weeks since I stocked up in Arizona and over a week since I have been in a grocery store. I’m attempting to change my habit of grocery shopping every few days.