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| Upper Canyon #5 |
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| Canyon #5 from Bypass Bike Trail |
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| View down from 3rd Class Dry Fall Climb |
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| Hiking up wash to Canyon Narrows |
On a Sunday morning, a Tireless Trio parked at Wheeler Camp Springs Trailhead and crossed SR 159 to begin our hike. We stepped over the mangled barbed wire fence and followed the trail down into the wash. This wash is the beginning of Blue Diamond Canyon #5, the furthest west of five deep and narrow canyons cut into the hills just north of Blue Diamond, Nevada. We followed the bike trail on the right side of the wash until the trail crossed the wash and headed up the hill. Here, we changed to following the wash until we entered a deep canyon. When the canyon appeared, so did the scrambling opportunities. This is a beautiful canyon carved out by water. Within this canyon, there are many fossils found in the rock surfaces.
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| Approaching Canyon Narrows |
These fossils are from the Precambrian Era. They are from small sea critters like scallops and sponges.
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| Scrambling Begins |
At a particularly narrow point in the canyon not far from the canyon entrance, we came to the one most difficult part of the hike.
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| 3rd Class Crack Climb |
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| Canyon Bottom |
It is a dry fall approximately 10 feet high. There is a crack of sorts on the right side of the pourover and this is where hikers must find their way up. It wasn't easy, but we all got up the crack. Right foot inside the crack, left foot on a very small protrusion to the left. Hands in small handholds. And, hopefully a spotter! At the top, we took a moment to gather our sticks and move on. Between there and the junction with the bike trail, there are a few more interesting layouts in the canyon bottom. At the trail junction, we stopped to remove clothing layers since we were then comfortable with the temperature. The junction is the first fork of several within the main canyon. We veered to the right and passed another canyon that headed off to the right with a narrow entrance.
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| Another Pourover Climb |
One of the things that catch the hiker's eye inside the deep walls is that there are many cacti growing on the sides and shelves.
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| Tenacious Trio at Castle Corner |
Most likely, this is because the canyon catches the southern sun in many places along its winding path.
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| Sunlight arrives in Canyon |
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| Square Cave Corner |
We passed another narrow canyon that turned to the right but kept going straight. The next large fork, though, you must take a right turn lest you soon cross out of the Red Rock Canyon NCA boundary and into mining property. The canyon becomes even more interesting after this turn to the right. First, you come to a bend where the walls are even taller. At the top of the wall in front of you as you approach, there is a formation reminiscent of castle towers. We took a group photo here then moved on to a bend with sun coming into the shadows. The next bend has a square cave up on the right wall. It is a shallow indentation but you can't see that until you are right up to it. We passed many very large mojave yuccas that were very healthy.
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| Ralyn checks out the Square Cave |
Finally, after a bend where the best route is still to be found, (I guess any route will do), the building of the mining road above has sent dirt and rocks over the side.
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| Four Corners of Boundary Signs |
The canyon begins leveling off and you come to the "Four Corners of Red Rock Canyon NCA!"
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| End of Canyon at Mine Tailings |
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| View back to Escarpment |
This is where the boundary comes to a point then spreads out to another small diamond shape. (See the maps below.) There are four boundary signs and a survey marker (1995) to try to clarify who owns what. After the signs, the canyon begins to become a rutted mess until it reaches the mining property's very high wall of dirt. We found a seat in the sun and took our break. A few photos later, we began our descent which retraced our steps back to the bike trail junction. Somewhere along the way, I picked up my first tick of the season. Hmm. At the junction, we connected with the bypass bike trail that led up along a shelf on the right side of the canyon.
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| Descent Scrambling |
We took note of the 3rd class climb from a bird's eye view being very very careful of our footing. It is a little loose up there.
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| Fossil, Milkvetch and Cactus Garden inside Canyon #5 |
Out of the canyon, the bike trail continues next to the canyon wash. It is a very good trail and has two little bridges, assumably built by the bikers.
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| Stair Stepping Descent |
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| Pyramid Rock |
To our right, we could see the Goatroper Trail climbing up to the ridge and there was a large group of bikers "yahooing" down the narrow path. Finally, the trail dropped into the wash where we reconnected at the same place we had left the trail earlier in the morning. This was a great hike for a busy Sunday at Red Rock. We enjoyed it very much.
Note: They fixed the ~6" road drop from the asphalt to the Wheeler Camp Springs parking lot! Yea!!
Stats: 6 miles; 770' gain; 3.5 hours
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| In and Out of Sunshine |
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| The Bypass Bike Trail |
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| Bikers' Bridges |
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