Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

From the Strip, Red Rock reads as a jagged line of color on the western horizon. Up close it splits into two very different kinds of stone. The red, cream and orange cliffs are Aztec Sandstone, laid down in the Jurassic as wind-blown sand and later cemented into rock. Above and behind much of it sits darker gray limestone that is far older. That upside-down arrangement is the work of the Keystone Thrust, a fault along which the old rock was shoved up and over the younger sandstone. You can trace the contact line from several stops on the drive, and it is the single most useful thing to know before you go: the gray caps are older than the red walls beneath them.

The Bureau of Land Management runs the area. Congress made it Nevada's first National Conservation Area in 1990, the seventh in the country. Most visitors see it from the 13-mile (21 km) Scenic Drive, a one-way paved loop that begins next to the visitor center and ends back on State Route 159. Parking happens only in the marked lots, and the agency asks drivers not to stop on the roadway, even for a photo.

The landscape changes quickly along the loop. The first miles run past the Calico Hills, where iron minerals have stained the sandstone into bands of rust and pale yellow. Further on, the road climbs toward High Point Overlook and then bends south beneath the high escarpment, where side canyons such as Ice Box and Pine Creek cut back into the cliffs. Those canyons hold shade, seasonal pools and, after wet winters, small waterfalls; they feel nothing like the open desert a mile away.

People have used this ground for a very long time. Rock art and roasting pits survive near the springs, and the area around Willow Spring has a short trail past a panel of petroglyphs. Between 1905 and 1912 a company quarried the sandstone near the Calico Hills; the stop called Sandstone Quarry still carries the name and a few cut blocks.

The visitor center is worth the stop on its own. Its outdoor exhibits are built around earth, air, fire and water, and it is the last place inside the area to fill water bottles. Staff can tell you which trails suit the day's heat and your group.

Highlights