Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon is just a few miles outside of the Vegas suburbs. At first sight, it's a breathtaking contrast to The Strip!

The natural beauty was so unexpected. I thought Nevada was Vegas, Reno and flat desert everywhere else. If I learned anything different in geography class, that was so long ago, I'd forgotten.

 When my family moved there, they started texting me pictures of their mountain view and fantastic sunsets. I was so looking forward to seeing the sunsets, but we were there in winter. And yes - there is a winter season!

It's not really cold & snow, but it's chilly and can be windy. The sun goes down early and is not as spectacular.

You might be thinking, "There's a rock. There's another rock. Boring post!" so I'll throw in an artsy shot here & there.

This is a hiker's kind of place, but I'm not venturing more than a few feet away from the road. Because. Desert creatures.

There's all kinds of geological information about how these formations came about and why they're different colors, but you can look that up on your own if interested.

Below you can see people walking all over. Look closely in other pictures and you'll notice people climbing all over the place. I mean, All. Over.

I was actually standing at the pull-out observation spot & looking down on the group above. Don't want to mislead you into thinking I climbed high for this shot :) Along with desert creatures, I avoid uphill hikes as much as possible. I learned that lesson in TN photographing waterfalls!

There was a very nice education center with some interesting sculpture.

Not rock formations. Just something at the education center I thought made an interesting composition.

And that concludes my little tour of Red Rock Canyon, NV.

Next up, Valley of Fire.