Leaving Kraft Mountain, Red Rocks, Nevada

After climbing at Sunny and Steep and checking out a few of the other walls the sun was starting to go down and we figured it was time to head back. It was a nice walk back and one of my favorite climbing/hiking areas during the little over a week we were at Red Rocks. The rocks are so pretty. We saw few people there since it is a hike in unlike some of the pull-offs on the scenic drive loop where you can see the walls from teh parking lot.

Hiking in the Calico Basin, Nevada

The Calico Basin can be accessed by hiking from the Scenic Loop Drive, but there is another road that leads you more directly to it. In this area the rocks show some of the best mixtures of colours. It's quite fascinating. The rock is supposed to be over 600 million years old and was once on the bottom of a deep ocean basin. Over time the land and water levels changed and deposited different types of ocean and continental sediments resulting in the limestone that you can see today. About 180 years ago, a bunch of sand came along and a giant sand dune was formed. The weight of the many layers compressed and formed the sandstone that you see today. Basically, some of that sand has eroded to make different shapes the iron-bearing minerals in the sandstone was exposed to the elements causing oxidation. This is why you can see the grey limestone as well as many layers of red, orange and tan colored rocks today. Fascinating stuff!

The Grand Canyon, Arizona

I took a little day trip from Las Vegas to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon which is in Arizona. They say about 90% of the visitors to the Grand Canyon see it from here. It is a touristy place, but I did not have time to do any of the hikes or visit from the many other places in the National Park. The area.s average height is around 7000 feet or 2134 metres above sea level. It can be very windy - and it was the day I went there . Even thought it was a beautiful bright sunny day, the temperatures were much much colder than Las Vegas. There was even some snow on some of the sides of the cliffs! It is a spectacular place though, and somewhere everyone should visit if they can. It really puts how insignificant and small we are into perspective!

Hiking to First Creek Canyon, Red Rocks, Nevada

This was taken on the way to First Creek Canyon where we did the trad multi-pitch climb Lotta Balls, 5.8. The approach is an easy hike from the parking lot for around 1 hour and then a bit of an uphill scramble to reach the start of the climb. I found the scrambling to be harder than the climbing for my ankle! The climb was fun with some flake and crack sections that were a bit hard to jam my feet into because I still cannot turn my ankle sideways, but I survived. There is also one section where you are hanging onto small little balls about the size of quarters that protrude out from the rock face. They are one of the strangest rock features I have ever seen! It was a mixed back of climbing styles, nothing strenuous - just a Lotta Balls and a lot of fun!

Kraft Boulders, near Las Vegas, Nevada

The Kraft Boulders are just in front of Kraft Mountian. They might not look like much to other people, but to a climber... it certainly is an amazing place! We walked around for a while and found a few boulder problems that were in climbing videos which we had to try. I still can't boulder much because of my ankle, but it was a good day!