Southwest Road Trip - Red Rock Canyon

The last day of our trip allowed us some time to visit Red Rock Canyon just outside Las Vegas while we waited for our late night flight.  It was quite spectacular in spite of the fact that we were saturated with vistas of red rocks over the last 12 days.  We drove around the park to see the different rock formations and the many desert plants which showed up well in the golden light of the setting sun.

Calico Hills at the beginning of the drive

You see here the white limestone sitting atop the sandstone.  Apparently the limestone is older than the jurassic sandstone but has been thrust upwards by compressional forces in the Earth's crust.  It ended up protecting the weaker sandstone underneath. 

It would have been much more interesting if there had been a tour of the canyon led by a geologist - there were so many different kinds of rocks in the park.  

A panorama of the south end with different kinds of rocky outcrops

Vast expanses of desert plants cover the areas between the rocky outcrops.

Yet another kind of rock here looking like gnarled knots.  If you blow this up, you could see rock climbers in the shadow of that big rock half way up.  This place must be a rock-climber's paradise.

The setting sun brought out the beautiful bands of colours on the hills

Golden light on the desert plants

The last sunset image from the Southwest

Las Vegas looked amazing from this distance...

This wraps up my posts from the Southwest Road Trip.  Thank you for coming along with me.