Red Rock Canyon

It’s that time of year, time to fly to Vegas for the annual antique motorcycle auction at South Point Resort on the south end of The Strip. Last year I discovered the little desert town of Nelson, kind of a restored mining site. This year I discovered Red Rock Canyon. It’s really just west of The Strip, very accessible from almost anywhere in Vegas, yet still retains that remote feeling like you’re the first one to see the canyon and the views.

This is just one of the great views visible from the little parking lot on Highway 159. This is only about 10 or 12 miles from The Strip.

Highway 159 loops west and then south, and on the northern part of that route is the Road to Red Rock Canyon. This area is administered by the Bureau of Land Management, so you have to pay as you go in, but it’s definitely worth the fee. The views and the rock formations are other-worldly. All those clichés about breathtaking and awesome definitely apply here. The question of course is whether or not we can sneak a motorcycle into the foreground of a rock formation and click the shutter thirty or forty times before the ranger puts on the cuffs.

Though Red Rock Canyon gets all the press, Highway 159 has some pretty incredible views as well. The mountains are rugged as hell with very little vegetation and some interesting bands of color that run horizontally top to bottom.

All in all it promised to be an interesting week – especially if it would just warm up above the freezing point and quit snowing.