The objective of the day was to explore a bit of Cathedral Gorge and then head south to Las Vegas to visit some friends. The photos below are what we saw.
The passing of the storm front brought clear, bright blue skies. The wind was still blowing, but now I am guessing that this is the norm, rather than the exception. The shot above shows a view of the interesting structure of Cathedral Gorge.
The sign said "Moon Caves" so we went to investigate. In reality, it was a slot canyon. A very narrow slot canyon and surely not the place to be during a heavy rain.
The cliffs at Cathedral Gorge are not very high compared to Zion or the other parks, but the structures are intricate. Plus, you can get up close and personal.
The entrance to one of the slot canyons in hidden in the shadows.
Along Hwy 93 we passed some interesting structures to the west of the road. These erosion patterns seem to suggest that there was erosion to produce the wavy pattern, then the whole thing was uplifted and tilted. Very strange.
Several of the structures had large, steep cliffs. We continued on to Las Vegas with the objective to check out Red Rocks Park before we hit the motel.
While not as large as Zion, Red Rocks was impressive nonetheless. Note the banding in the uplifted ridge.
The faulting and subsequent uplift produced some big cliffs to the west of the visitor's center.
The yucca were in bloom in the park.
The blooms were interesting in that they were different colors. I don't know if that indicates the maturity of the bloom or something else. But, independent of the reason, it was cool.
The uplifted ridges were comprised of cross bedded sandstone indicating that this are was a set of dunes sometime in the distant past. In the photo above ,the cross bedding shows the dune structure at the time the sand became rock.
Red Rocks is a popular local rock climbing area. There were many climbers out testing their skills.
These ropes are fixed to anchor points above the climbers. This prevents long falls and generally makes the process safer for beginners. In the real world, however, the lead climber takes substantial risks to put in these anchor points as they can fall double the distance of their "lead".
Far southern Las Vegas is visible from the upper reaches of Red Rocks Park.
The eastern view was expansive. Just to the right off the edge of the photo is a substantial mining area with big overburden hills.
There was a short dirt road that allowed access to the upper canyon. Since it was dirt, and had some cobbles in the roadway, most folks just stopped at the parking lot. Kathleen and I went up for perhaps a mile to get this shot of the upper cliffs.
The faults and uplifting are clearly visible here.
Interesting wind caves on the upper cliffs.
To the south, the cliffs reminded me of southern Arizona.
Another set of climbers
The trip to Las Vegas was easy and went off without a hitch. The weather was much warmer and I was delighted to see that diesel was "only" $3.99 a gallon. We met Kathleen's cousin, Cathleen, and her beau Russell for dinner at a local BBQ place. It was yummy. Tomorrow, we would head out on I-15 for San Diego. Despite the fact that we had another 6 hours of roadwork ahead of us, the trip was essentially over when we got to Las Vegas.
This trip was the best to date. The camper performed well and despite some minor mechanical failures and things shaken loose by the many hundreds of miles of washboard, the rig came through intact and ready to go another day.
| Previous Adventure | ||
| Trip Home Page |
Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2008, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.