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| Rainbow Canyon |
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| Saddle Overlook |
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| Interesting Formation |
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| Dropping down Dry Fall in First Wash |
Brrr! It was a chilly morning with a slight north breeze. But ... nineteen hikers showed up for the popular hike called Rainbow Canyon Loop. Everyone was dressed with several layers and we were ready! This loop hike begins at mile marker 15 of Northshore Road in the Lake Mead NRA. It is in a very colorful area of the park. The trailhead is situated between Rainbow Ridge to the north and Ejection Seat Ridge to the south on their east ends. It should also be noted that there is only room for six cars, at the most, in this turnout. We had five cars this morning after consolidating as much as we could. Good team work! We dropped down into the wash on the east end of the trailhead.
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| Climbing out of Wash |
After hiking up the wash for only about 1/3 mile, we climbed out and crossed the road to drop into the wash on the other side and turn right. (Today, we had to do some creative avoidance of some red mud in the bottom of the wash!)
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| Lovell Wash |
During one of our detours, we saw the skull, hipbone (?) of a bighorn. Most likely, it was the only thing that remained of a very large old male bighorn carcass that we saw last year in the wash. We also found a 6" segment of its vertebrae.
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| Rainbow Canyon |
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| Hiking Rainbow Canyon |
Just before we hiked into a wall and culvert, we turned left into a sloped escape wash. This put us up onto a flat mesa between deep washes. There are three fairly good places to drop into the deep wash in the 2:00 direction. Then this wash gently dropped us into the wide Lovell Wash. We turned left and hiked up the wash for another 1/3 mile and came to the entrance of Rainbow Canyon. The colorful junction will clue you in! We turned left into the canyon and enjoyed a walk up through the gentle canyon full of oranges, reds and yellows. About .15 mile into the canyon, we could have visited the old mine site up to the right of the wash but, we were so enthralled in conversation, we missed it! 😁
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| Rainbow Canyon |
There is always next time! Anyway, the hike up the wash parallels Rainbow Ridge to the left. On this ridge, we saw the large flat arch at the top (see last photo) and many mine holes in the sides. At one point, we also saw where there are some old roads that zigzag up that way.
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| Charlie in Rainbow Canyon |
In December of 2013, Chuck H. took a brave group of hikers up to traverse Rainbow Ridge from east end to west end. Besides the arch, there is a short razor-edge on the ridge. Our descent took us down a great canyon wash behind one of those triangle formations seen on the south side. The only really tough part was the steep slippery descent from the peak to the wash.
(See the blog.)
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| Connecting with the Old Mine Road |
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| Mine Claim |
When we came to the junction of an old mine road that met the wash at a point on the right, we started up. The road was easy to follow until we came to deep eroded cuts that we had to bypass on the right. I fear that, someday, these cuts will separate and the road will fall into the now deep wash to the left. From here, we continued up to the high point on the road where there is a mining claim built nearby. We started our descent down the road on the other side and it became obvious that the road had been even more washed out than last year. We passed the old mine camp covered with rusted cans and saw rocks everywhere! This continued until we junctioned with a still-used mine road and turned left.
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| Dropping down on another Mine Road |
About .20 mile from this junction, we turned left down another road that only very high clearance vehicles still attempt to drive. This small canyon has color of its own and after another 1/4 mile we found our escape wash to the left. A misshapen cairn hides in the bushes here!
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| Bottleneck in the Escape Wash |
We knew we were in the correct wash when we came to the high yellow step-up! This becomes somewhat of a bottleneck in large groups! The wash then leads gently up where we further escape to the right.
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| Escape Wash from Top |
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| Snack Break after Scramble - Low "V" in Distance |
From this point, we hiked across the plateau in two groups. Those hikers that wished a little harder scramble headed toward a black crack seen across the desert and the others head to the low saddle near it. By the time the saddle hikers reached the other side, the scramblers were beginning to deal with a fun dry fall drop. We all watched them as each one enjoyed their scramble and tried to avoid the velcro plant at the bottom! Finding a place out of the worst wind, we had our break. Then, we headed toward the low "V" in the distance. Reaching the "V," we found a trail that leads to the left of the wash. Follow the trail around, then it is advised to drop down into the main wash just after the slab crossing.
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| The Scramble |
Circle around the little hill to the left and start up the first wash on the left. This is a small wash surrounded by cryptobiotic soil. Please avoid this living soil and all the cryptobiotic soil in the walls of the descent wash coming up next!
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| Wash to Saddle |
Follow the small wash all the way up to a small knoll where there is a fantastic view! See the second photo of this entry. The soil here is okay to walk on!
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| Climbing up Wash to Saddle |
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| Narrow Descent Wash |
Next, go back to the small wash you came up and start dropping over the crest on a very small wash. Here, there is a baby bear paw poppy in the middle of the wash. Please avoid disturbing this beautiful plant. Staying in the middle of the wash, start your descent between narrow living walls. There are no surprises (i.e. dry falls) and the views are around every corner. Don't forget to look back up at Rainbow Ridge when you get a chance. The wash curves here and there and eventually veers left into the main wash that runs parallel to Northshore Road ahead. This is another interesting wash with a lot of photo opportunities. Finally, we came to the culvert that runs under the road and hiked through.
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| Narrow Descent Wash |
Be careful of the disintegrating metal at the end of the tunnel! Now, we were in a familiar bright red wash. Another 1/4 mile down this wash, we turned left into a large wash junction.
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| Descent and Main Wash to Culvert |
With approximately one mile left to enjoy, we started up the main wash that roughly parallels the road ... this time on the south side.
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| Descending Main Wash |
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| Main Wash |
There are three trailhead turnouts along this mile and the exit points up to the road are numerous. We passed the MM 14.5 trailhead then exited up to the road too soon ... again. We ended up hiking the road for around 1/4 mile before we reached our cars. But, everyone was happy and enjoyed the hike very much. Nevermind a little pavement, huh? This was a very nice hike and a very nice group of hikers. We all stayed warm and fended off the breezes gallantly!
6.2 miles; 900 feet elevation gain; 3.5 hours; average moving speed 1.7 mph
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| Disintegrating Culvert under Northshore Road |
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| Colorful Wash Junction to Trailhead |
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| Nineteen Hikers Last at Wash Junction |
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| Close-Up of Arch on Rainbow Ridge (2013) |
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