Rainbow Gardens Crest Loop - 12/14/24

Lava Butte and Rainbow Gardens from Above

From Rainbow Gardens to Lake Mead

Starting down Rainbow Gardens Canyon

Admiring Lava Butte at start of Hike

Rainbow Gardens is a popular destination in the Lake Mead NRA sitting just at the base of Lava Butte, a prominent dark, volcanic rocky peak.  Although Lava Butte is not a volcano, recent findings interpret it to be a volcanic plug emerging from the Horse Spring Formation. The Rainbow Gardens Member of the Horse Spring Formation was deposited at least 17 million years ago. This entire area, including Lake Mead NRA, is a wondrous place to learn about the geology of southern Nevada. Especially interesting is that "This is a good place to see the unconformity between the Aztec Sandstone (about 180 million years old) and the Miocene Rainbow Gardens Member of the Horse Spring Formation (at least 17 million years old). This is a normal depositional contact between the two rocks, but it is called an unconformity because all rocks between the Jurassic and Miocene time are missing - they were eroded away before deposition of the Rainbow Gardens Member." This text and paraphrasing was taken from the Geologic Tours in the Las Vegas Area (Expanded Edition with GPS Coordinates), (Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication 16, University of Nevada, Reno, Mackay School of Earth Sciences, 2008, Bear Printing, Sparks, NV; pages 60 & 61.)

Lava Butte

Peering across Rainbow Gardens Canyon

Dropping into Rainbow Gardens Canyon

Getting into the Colors

The book, of course, goes on a bit and it is all very interesting but one of the area's greatest attractions is the color embedded in the landscape because of all this that was mentioned. There is a small canyon within the area that shows the colors and it is included in a traditional hike. It begins at the Northshore MM 2 trailhead. We started here and walked out the large wash that leaves the trailhead to the west. Winding around, the wash will take you to an area that was once a mining camp where miners sought gold and silver. At a junction where there are a few old bedsprings lying around, (Bedsprings Junction), we turned toward Lava Butte. However, before we reached the canyon base of the large dark plug, we dropped down into the wash on the other side of a small ridge. This is the top of Rainbow Gardens Canyon. There is a lot of color in this layered wash and, at the end, there is an old mining ladder still up against the wall. Cuidado! It's broken!

Views of Rainbow Gardens Canyon (Old mining Ladder)

Climbing up to the Crest

Transition to Crest Trail

Group shot at crest Perch

Reaching the end of the small canyon, we passed another canyon heading up to our right and came to the end of a ridge that comes after that. There is a trail that used to lead all the way down to the Rainbow Gardens Canyon wash but it has since been eroded. We found our way up to the solid part of the ridge where there is the trail. This trail takes hikers to an overlook of Rainbow Gardens and on up to the top of the encircling ridge above. It is a decent climb up but the views at the top are of great reward! There is a trail that runs around the top of the crest. Right now, there are very large cairns marking the trail in several places. As you hike along the top, you can see the Rainbow Gardens member of the Horse Spring Formation in most of its glory ... except for the powerlines running through the middle of it from the Hoover Dam facility miles away. There is also an oddly placed red pinnacle in the middle of the colorful area. We hiked around the crest and, at a saddle where we could view Lava Butte close up, we stopped for a snack.

Crest View

Crest Views

Rocky section of the Crest Trail

Climb to saddle for Break

After the break, we continued around the crest until we came to a crest saddle that offered a trail down toward the base of Lava Butte. There are a couple of trails that traverse across below the plug, and climb up to a trailing ridge on the other side of the rock flow. This is the high point of the hike. Here, we dipped down to the far side of the ridge and found a choice of game trails that traverse between the deep wash below on the left and the small hill up to our right. Some years, this trail is more clear than others. Regardless, we followed as best we could around the hill, up to an intermittent ridge and down steeply on the other side. This process was repeated until we found ourselves next to an old large cairn once used by a founding hiking club in the past. Essentially, this section of the hike takes you down the trailing ridge very ruggedly. The alternate choice is taking the deep wash to the left. This wash is viable except for a particular large drop that hikers have to circumnavigate. At the large old cairn, we continued straight down to a small wash next to the white hills beyond.

Lava Butte from break Area

Lake Las Vegas from Crest Trail

View back through Rainbow Gardens from base of Lava Butte

Following the vague game Trail

Following the small wash through the white hills and down to a larger wash which we crossed, we climbed the following hill to the top. This is a great view of Lava Butte! Next, the last mile takes a trail (made by an unlawful vehicle of years ago) down along a long slanting ridge to a main wash that will take you back to the cars. We had a great, undulating and impressive morning here. A workout was had by all!

Stats: 6 miles; 1050' gain; 4 hours

Through the white Hills

Lava Butte from another Side

Nice view before Ridge Trail