Horsethief Canyon & Little Spooky Canyon - 3/19/14

 Horsethief Canyon

View Out Horsethief Canyon

The Four Mile High Clearance Approach Road

 Horsethief Canyon Road is found at the White Rock Canyon Trailhead parking lot four miles south of the O'Callaghan-Tillman Bridge bypass of Hoover Dam. The road is narrow and has several large rocks sticking up in the middle of the road. With a high clearance vehicle, the road is passable in good weather conditions.

Getting Into Horsethief Canyon

One of Several Water Slides

Eight hikers arrived at the trailhead and stared at the large dry fall that blocks Horsethief Canyon. The rocks are somewhat slippery so a climb up the fall is unsafe. There is a dirt trail that leads up the left side of the canyon wall and drops the hiker down into the canyon just above the obstacle. That's what we did.

Upon entering the short canyon (1.25 miles one way), we immediately noticed its character. It was a wide canyon with many granite water slides. Today, there was very little water flow in the canyon so it wasn't an issue.

Small Amount of Water Flow

 We climbed up canyon quickly on the easy terrain. There were several incomplete sets of bighorn bones lying about from beginning to end.

Hiking Through Horsethief Canyon

Hiking Past Cottonwoods

 Some of the most beautiful places in the canyon were where huge cottonwood trees stood. They had just put out their bright green leaves for spring. We passed a canyon on the right where the trail junction is for Mt. Wilson. The peak was relatively not far from where we stood, however, it was around 2000 feet higher in elevation. Just past this, our canyon trail took a dogleg to the left where we had to climb up the only difficult scramble of the morning.

Approaching Hanging Tree & Large Dry Falls

 We saw the horse thiefs' hanging tree standing tall as we approached our high point of the hike.

First Large Dry Fall at Top of Canyon

Horse Thief Hanging Tree

 The hanging tree stood in front of a large dry fall covered in white minerals. Beyond this fall, there is another one that you can see if you climb up the side of the canyon in this area. We sat for a break then started back. The hike back to the trailhead went quickly and easily. Then, the up and around at the end was made easy by the more gentle slope that we chose.

This canyon is 2.5 miles out and back with around 1200 feet of elevation gain.

Down Canyon from High Point

 After returning to our cars, we drove the four miles back down the high clearance road and parked at the White Rock Canyon Trailhead parking lot.

Passing the Cottonwoods

Returning to Trailhead

 Little Spooky Canyon  

Little Spooky Canyon

Hiking Along Hwy 93

Going Under the Wildlife Fence

The finale of today's adventure, was a short hike down to a locally famous slot canyon we call Little Spooky. To get there, we hiked down the highway from the parking lot around a third of a mile, squirmed under the wildlife fence and started hiking up through a beautiful conglomerate walled slot. The slot had two separate side slots that we explored and we noticed that there might be an owl who lives here. After this short foray of almost a mile below the desert terrain, we returned to the cars. This portion of today's hike was a total of 2.5 miles with minimal elevation gain.

Exploring a Side Slot

Little Spooky Canyon

Today's Hike in its Entirety (5 miles of hiking)

La Madre Double Arch - 3/16/14

La Madre Double Arch

Escarpment View from La Madre Double Arch

Hiking the La Madre Trail

 The La Madre Double Arch hike is another new hike for the club. Three club members scouted it out a couple of months ago and today, seven hikers performed a smooth and formidable five mile hike up into the foothills of the La Madre Mountain Range of Red Rock Canyon NCA. We parked at the White Rock Trailhead parking off of the scenic loop at the end of the White Rock Springs Road and began our hike up the White Rock Hills Trail. Very quickly, we turned right onto the Keystone Thrust Trail and climbed a few steps.

Daylight Can be Seen Through Arch Window from a Distance

 As we steadily climbed up past the Keystone Thrust Trail junction, we realized we could see our target in the distance. With good eyes, you can see daylight passing through the arch that lies diagonally from the line of the trail we were on.

Surrounding Views from Ascent

Starting Up Gravel Wash Section

 We continued hiking up past the junction for the Sandstone Quarry/White Rock Hills Loop hike. There was a small herd of bighorns that we followed up the hill but we never got really close enough for photos. The trail led along the edge of a deep wash to the right. An overlook showed us that the wash was filled with pinnacle type limestone or sandstone rocks. After the overlook, the trail gently turned to the left and brought us to a wide gravel wash. Here, we were obliged to continue our climb up through the deep gravel. Small bits of scrambling began as well.

First Good View of the Arches

 The wash narrowed and turned a curve to the right. It was here that we got our first good view of the double arches. To be clear, the arch is mainly one large opening with a small window in the rock above it. The arch was named by a well-established hiking group here in Las Vegas and the name stuck!

Starting Up Small Wash Toward Arches

It Gets Steeper and Steeper

After turning the wash corner, we began a much steeper scramble up through a small wash. This wash had two chutes that were separated by brush and mounds of gravel. We climbed until we were past the arch that was to our left. Then, we made our way over to the back side of the arch. There was somewhat of a trail but it was filled with loose rock. Be very careful while exploring the arch area. Finally, we were making our way underneath the arch and through to the other side. Photos were difficult on the back side because of brush covering the opening. After dropping through the opening, photos were a bit more accessible from the other side, however, the light was not as good.

View Through Arch from Back Side

 We were quite impressed with the size of the arch and the views toward the escarpment were beautiful. We also noted that we were around 300 feet higher than Turtlehead Peak!

View Through Arch from Front Side

Lounging in the Shadow of a Small Cave Below Arch

 Under the front "leg" of the arch, there is a small cave that provided shade for our lunch break. The weather was perfect, today, so shade was just an option. After our break, we faced a long, steep, loose drop back down to the small wash. We were a careful group today and the drop took several minutes but we all made it down in one piece. After getting off of the hill, we had to find our way back down the steep small wash. These rocks were also loose and we were pretty slow in making our progress.

Steep Drop from Arch to Small Wash

 Finally, we reached the wide gravel wash and we began relaxing a little. We found the cairn we had placed in the wash to tell us when to junction with the trail then climbed out to our left.

Last View of the Arches from Small Wash

Hiking Out the La Madre Trail

 Once we were back on the trail, it was a simple matter of hiking the trail back to the cars. It seemed that the "down" just kept coming! We passed several recreational hikers when we got closer to the Keystone Thrust Fault. And, when we reached the parking lot, we were amazed at the size of the Sunday afternoon crowd. It's hard to resist this perfect hiking weather and that's felt all around town!

5.2 miles; 1900 feet elevation gain; 4 hours.

Down, Down, Down

Overlook to Pinnacle Wash

Windy Peak - 3/15/14

Windy Peak Tree with Calico Hills Beyond

Escarpment Trail

 Windy Peak is the second peak from the southern terminus of the Red Rock Canyon NCA escarpment. The hike is a very old standard of the club. It is always fun to take newbies up and, today, out of twelve hikers, there were at least six. We parked at the Mountain Spring trailhead at the top of the Highway 160 mountain pass and began our climb up heartbreak hill. The climb up the hill was not as rushed as it was on Thursday.

Climbing the First Mile

 The newbies needed a leader to show them the way so Kay stepped up to find the sometimes elusive trail and Lettie, the coordinator, hung back to the sweep position.

Twisty Junipers

 We stopped just a few times along the escarpment trail and Windy Peak approach trail for water. There was a cool wind that gusted occasionally but the air was fairly clear. We stayed on the route with the help of many cairns that seemed to have popped up over the winter. We assumed that the bighorns have figured out how to stack rocks! Anyway, soon the sandstone came into view with Windy Peak in front of us, Hollow Rock Peak to the south and Black Velvet Peak to the north.

View North on Escarpment

 We dropped down to meet the sandstone and faced the only exposed part of the route. This refers to the climb along a crack (as seen in the photo below) in the sandstone to reach the sandstone plateau above.

A Small Section of Exposure

 We continued to be aided by cairns, however, the route is memorized by club members that have hiked Windy Peak several times. There are a few places along the sandstone that are better navigated if you know where to go. Otherwise, some backtracking may be required to get around small cliffs and large boulders. When in doubt, it is better to stay to the right as you go up. The high cliff that hangs over Muddy Springs Canyon is on the left side.

When we reached the peak, a few hikers took a side trip out to the eastern tip of the Windy Peak projection. (BTW, someone left a solar powered camp light near this tip. Perhaps, they are using the small light to mark the tip at night from the air. Yes. Must be.)

View of Peak from Eastern Tip

 We took our break and signed the register. Windy Peak is one of the most beautiful peaks of the escarpment with its wide area of reddish sandstone sloping down on the south side.

Returning Across the Sandstone

Back on the Limestone

 After the break, we made our way back across the sandstone and down the crack. Finding our hiking sticks where we left them, we climbed back up onto the limestone approach trail. From there, we hiked back to the high point and down to the escarpment trail. Kay almost missed the saddle junction but was set straight. Then we dropped down about 10 yards and turned left onto a small previously unnoticed trail. On a hunch, we took the trail and ended up on the burned ridge that is an optional descent for the hike. None of us had led down the ridge before so we made it back to the cars in a somewhat awkward fashion. It was a hoot anyway!

Coming Down off the Hike's High Point

 5.2 miles; almost 2000 feet elevation gain; 3.25 hours

Traversing Over to the Burned Ridge Descent