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| Box Rock |
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| Green Vein of Rock in Redstone |
Today's hike explored an area off of Northshore Road near mile marker 10 in the Lake Mead NRA. Ten hikers started by dropping into a wide wash called North Wind Wash. We followed vehicle tracks in the wash in a northern direction. Recent rains left the sand in the wash firm and we hiked at a fast pace for the first couple of miles.
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| North Wind Wash |
At the two mile mark, we noted a large wash that junctioned with our wash on the right side. This would be where we would return to the North Wind Wash at the end of the hike. Our route took us further northward as the wash became more narrow and picturesque. We climbed a small dry fall, hiked a short distance in the very wide source of the wash, then climbed up on the ridge to our right. Not far from us, we could see a boxy rock pinnacle. This was our target for our break.
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| Mt. Charleston & Griffith Peak from North Wind Wash |
To our right, there were two or three deep redstone washes. We made our way up to where we could easily drop down into the first one. A small amount of scrambling got us to the bottom of the redstone area. Following small, dry, water trails so that we didn't disturb the cryptobiotic soil, we hiked over toward the Box Rock and climbed up on the red rock area where we had our break. There was a lot of loosely "glued" conglomerate rock in this area as well.
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| Redstone and Box Rock |
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| Picnicking |
During our break, a small collection of tube-like fin remnants were gathered. Very interesting red rock formations as seen in the photo to the right. We also noted the many interesting colors of rock inside the conglomerate. A climb up to Box Rock revealed that this rock was made of this conglomerate and appeared to have been sheared off on each side. After the Box Rock visit, we continued over a white wash area to a large gap in conglomerate rock.
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| Box Rock |
We dropped down a jumble of rock in the gap then hiked over to a route option junction. We chose to go straight up and over a small saddle to a very small wash on the other side. This was a small shortcut over to a larger wash that we continued down. The optional route would have taken us to the left and around a point in the hills, leading us to this same larger wash a little further up.
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| Hiking Through the Gap |
We followed this larger wash all the way back to the North Wind Wash and junctioned with it where we had noted before. All that was left was an easy 2 mile hike back down the wide wash to our cars. This was a very pleasant visit to a previously AtBF unexplored area of BLM land.
9 miles; 1000 feet of elevation gain; 4.5 hours
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| Dry Fall at End of Small Wash |
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| Hiking Out North Wind Wash |
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