Mike Breiding's Epic Road Trips: 18 February ~2018~

Monday - 18 February 2018:
Calico Tanks Trail in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

After months of sunny weather and temps in the 60s, the day after I arrived the weather took a sudden turn. The predicted high today was to be 47 with cloudy skies and wind gusts up to 27 mph. And that prediction came true.

I got up at my usual 5am and after several cups of coffee hit the keyboard and started the write up for my trog. By the time I had selected and processed photos, researched for added info and links, conjured up and typed my write up, proofed it, added more, proofed it again, made corrections and made a final proof (still leaving typos I am sure) it was about 10:00.
By then the temp was in the low 40s but the wind had picked up and the clouds were pretty thick - not ideal to be sure but you take what you get.

Like the previous day, all the fee stations to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area Scenic Loop had a line of cars waiting to get in. I found out as I flashed my Senior pass today was a fee free day in honor of Presidents Day. I am sure that encouraged even more people to come on out to the Red Rocks. It sure looked that way.
Today I could see the full lot and line of cars waiting to get into the Visitors Center so I did not even bother to stop.
The first two pullouts on the loop were also full as they were the day before. The question now is would all the lots be full?

Calico Basin parking area - full and overflowing.

Eureka!! I found a parking spot!

I had no idea what to expect from this hike and did not care. I was glad to be out of the car on the trail.

As I started up the trail to the entrance of the canyon I took a few shots looking back towards the parking area.

Here is the most blue sky I saw on this day.

This unassuming entrance the canyon belied the beauty beyond.

The canyon trail tightened and this was to be the order of the day - yielding or being yielded to so that everyone could pass safely.

The canyon opened up for a bit and I snapped this pic of another hiker exiting the canyon.

Here is where the fun starts!

I really loved this place - in spite of all the people.

Does the line start here? Waiting to scramble to a lower section of the trail.

There were several sections of the trail which had these nicely laid steps.

A look back down the canyon. Where is the trail.

The well worn trail is to the right. A trough carved out by many 100s of thousands of feet.

The color and texture combinations of the rocks was mind blowing.

The canyon was littered with large pieces of breakdown like the one in the foreground.

Here is one of the tanks for which the trail is named.

This is the last section before the saddle.The three women decided to take the ledge route and one of them was having trouble. They tried to coax her on but she ended up turning back. I took another route up which was a boulder and breakdown scramble.

"C'mon - you can make it!" She did not. Note the guy in the lower right. He decided to do a butt slide down to the tank.

Here is the pay off - a view of the Las Vegas valley from the saddle.

The wind was really whippin' through the saddle and there were just occasional peeks of sunshine

This was my last shot before I headed back down the canyon. I had two false starts. One resulted in taking the wrong route to the tank, the other when I had to back track down my wrong route to retrieve my fleece pullover I had dropped. Finally I decided to just retrace my steps back down my original route.

When I departed I stopped a couple of times on the Scenic Loop for two last snaps.

Tomorrow's hike will be...?
See you then,
-Mike

 

 

 

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