Today marked our last day in Red Rock Canyon, and I really wanted to check out the Visitor Center at some point on this trip so today was the day.
Below is the epic view from the Visitor Center. You can spot the multicolored Aztec sandstone formation in the foreground called Calico Hills. Behind Calico Hills looms a dark limestone cliff that might be called Turtle rock, but I mistakenly called it Lake Mead Buttress for the whole trip. A thick blanket of clouds partially occludes the mountains covered in snowy powdered sugar, making for a dramatic contrast with the reds and pinks of the sandstone lower in elevation.
I knew we were at an international destination when I went to the bathroom and observed the sign below. Half of the forbidden actions pictured were comical, borderline crazy. Who is dunking babies in the toilet?! I only see this kinds of signs at national parks that receive heavy traffic from visitors all around the world, so I knew we were at a 5-star destination.
The visitor center was small, but chock-full of information. The dark brown inclusions that form tiny lumps on the rock that make for excellent footholds (until they break off) are apparently called “iron marbles”, not “rock pimples” like we had been calling them.
It’s hard to believe that the next couple pictures are from the same day, but eventually we did leave the Red Rock Canyon Visitor Center. We spent ~2 hrs in a 100 square foot Visitor Center (I am minimizing for dramatic effect, but only slightly) because we picked the brain of every single employee there. We learned about desert tortoises, identified the giant lizard I found on one of our routes (a chuckwalla!) and engaged in a lively geological debate on whether the colorful sandstone gained its color when it was sand, vs rock. Apparently this is a huge controversy in geology.
We zipped over to a cool women-owned cafe called Mothership, and sat in the very neat ambiance while I spent 1.5 hrs researching hotels in Vegas. We wanted to spend <$100 per person per night, have laundry access, and be walking distance from the Fremont St Experience. We settled on El Cortez, which met the cost criteria and walking distance criteria but lacked laundry.
We arrived at the hotel, and after a much needed shower (10 days without showering miiiiight be a new record for me, but when I biked across the country I bet I went even longer) we strode to Fremont St. It definitely feels like we are in Vegas, baby!
