Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

National Conservation Area (Bureau Of Land Management), Designated 1990 · Las Vegas, Nevada

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is a protected stretch of Mojave Desert on the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley, roughly 25 to 40 minutes by car from the Strip, managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Its front range is the Calico Hills, domes and fins of red, orange and cream Aztec sandstone formed from ancient dunes, and behind them rises a long escarpment where grey limestone was pushed over the younger sandstone along the Keystone Thrust fault, one of the most easily seen thrust faults in the American West. A 13-mile one-way Scenic Drive loops past the main pullouts and trailheads, and in the cooler months a timed-entry reservation is needed to drive it in the daytime. People come to hike short canyon walks and hard peak scrambles, to climb on sandstone that climbers know worldwide, to see petroglyphs and agave roasting pits left by Southern Paiute people and earlier cultures, and to glimpse wild burros, bighorn and desert tortoise. It is a real desert, not a city park: summer heat kills hikers here, and flash floods and cliffs are real.

1000 Scenic Loop Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89161, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the Scenic Drive opens around 6 am year-round and closes in the early evening, roughly 5 pm in winter, around 7 pm in spring and autumn and around 8 pm in summer; the visitor centre keeps shorter daytime hours, roughly 8 or 9 am to 4 or 5 pm, and closes on some holidays. In the cooler months, roughly October to May, a timed-entry reservation is needed for daytime entry to the Scenic Drive. The traps that ruin a day are arriving without a reservation in season, finding the Calico lots full at mid-morning on a weekend, starting a long hike late and being locked inside the loop after closing, and hiking in summer heat after early morning. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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