Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

Saturday morning in Vegas. Having arrived in town the night before with no luggage, Tom and I attempted to execute our Saturday plans as we had originally hoped. We picked up a rental car just before noon, and headed to the Las Vegas Convention Center to pick up our race packages. It was a ZOO inside, so we worked our way through the crowd as fast as possible, and got the hell out of there! Our next stop was the Fashion Show Mall, so we could pick up some fresh clothes for our day trip. But it was not meant to be... We drove around and around in the packed parkade, and finally gave up. Instead, I navigated us out to Red Rock National Park, just a short 30 minute drive out of the city.

Once in Red Rock, we took a 13 mile scenic drive in a loop around the park. If we had been dressed appropriately (i.e. had our luggage), we probably would have done a short hike, but that was not going to happen in our grungy, day-old plane clothes.

One of the first things we noticed was how busy air traffic was in the area. There were at least 6 contrails visible in the air overhead, with more planes coming and going. Our first stop was at Calico Springs, a beautiful outcrop of sandstone that was covered in rock climbers and tourists like ourselves.

Calico Springs, Red Rock Canyon.

We walked down to the base of the rock formation to take a look, and took a walk through a relatively narrow canyon.

The name definitely delivered-- we saw a LOT of red rocks.

Our next stop was at Sandstone Quarry, which gave us good views of an interface where the lower red rocks were exposed to an iron solution that caused them to turn red when the iron oxidized. The rocks directly above were not exposed, and remained a dull white.

Of course, a stock selfie of ourselves in Red Rock Canyon.

i

On our way out of the scenic drive loop, we got a great view of some of the limestone mountains to the west. Tom managed to capture this great shot, with the sun streaming over the mountain.

Afterwards, we headed back into the city and stopped at an outlet mall on the way, where stocked up on some clothing essentials. Our luggage arrived in the wee hours of the morning that. And up next, a recap of race day!