Blue Diamond Canyons 2 & 3 - 2/17/22

Blue Diamond Canyon #2

A Difficult Scramble

Another Difficult Scramble

The Third Difficult Scramble

Five club members arrived at the utility building across from Blue Diamond for a pleasant and beautiful scramble up Canyon #2 and down Canyon #3. We dropped into Canyon #2 climbing up behind the building and down. After some rocky brushy wash stuff, the fun and beauty began. Although there are a lot of scrambles to contend with on the ascent, three of them are difficult. And, one of those has an easy go around. At the top of the canyon, we climbed up and over the hill to our left and dropped into Canyon #3. A short snack break out of the wind then we started down. There are a lot of scrambles in this canyon as well, however, there is one really big one that we all chose to go around to the west. Wading through rocks and brush in the lower part of the wash, we found the trail that leads out on a diagonal up the hill to the left. This trail, if you can follow it (!), crosses down and over to the trailhead. We had a great morning albeit a little breezy. Short in distance but a quality hike and scramble.

Stats: 3.6 miles; 950' gain; 3 hours

Over the Top to Canyon #3

A Break out of the Wind

One of Many Scrambles on the Descent

Gypsum Hill (East Blue Diamond Hill) - 2/14/22

Western View from Summit Trail

Mine Road

Bike Trail

Ridge above Canyon #1 from Ascent

The Fearsome Foursome started at Arroyo Road and SR 159 to hike the hill found to the east of Blue Diamond, Nevada. This hill is known as Gypsum Hill by some. There are several trails on and around the hill and finding a streamlined route that includes all the nooks and crannies is, imo, impossible. As you will see on the track maps below, the route necessarily retraces steps in a couple of places. We began by hiking down the road to find the trails converge at a cemented wash. After hiking up to the base of the hill, we chose the second trail leading up to the left and started a steep morning climb. This trail is difficult to follow but with effort, we stayed the course and found our way up to the edge of the hill's ridge.

Blue Diamond from Ascent

Mt. Potosi from Ascent

Summit Trail to Peak

Climbing along the Edge

We peered over the edge of the ridge and found ourselves on top of a cliff. The trail runs right at the precipice all the way up to the hill's high point where a large cairn was built. We had a wide open view of the Red Rock escarpment, Mt. Potosi, and Blue Diamond on the west side. On the east side, we could see the Las Vegas strip skyline through today's smoggy haze. There was also a complete view of the Blue Diamond Gypsum plant to the north across SR 159. While we were on the hill, there was evidence of burros along the trail. After taking our photo at the hill's peak, we retraced our steps a short way to a descent trail. (There are two.) The trail followed down a ridge for what seemed like a really long way! We ended up on a saddle below to curve left.

Colorful Fearsome Foursome at Gypsum Hill Peak

On the Descent Ridge Trail

Nearing the Bottom

Climbing the Mine Road

We took the left at a fork and followed the bike trail around to a short cut across to an old mine road that climbed Gypsum Hill on the south side. This climb is a little steeper than the first. After zigzagging around, we made it to the overlook road that leads across the hill about halfway up its elevation. We followed the road out to a good place to sit and enjoy our break. Afterwards, we retraced our steps back down the hill on the mine road. The road led us down to cross the bike trail where we turned to the left. This is the upper of two bike trails leading around the hill. The views from the desert route were wide on the east side and impressive on the west side. The hill with all its cliffs was seen to our left as we hiked around it.

Mine Road Ascent

Mine Road Overlook

Mine Road Overlook

Hazy Las Vegas

The upper bike trail merged with the lower bike trail about halfway around the hill. Then, curving around the final stretch, Wilson and Rainbow Peaks came into view between Gypsum Hill and the hills across from Blue Diamond. More burro evidence told us that the burros were not too far away. We peered up to our left and imagined the tricky route that leads down from the end of the mine road then our trail began leading through old brush that likely implied that this area is where underground springs flourish. There are several cairned pathways on the right that suggested a shortcut through to SR 159 but we stayed the course on our trail until just before the trail started uphill again. Here, we followed another cairned path to the right.

Descending the Mine Road

Starting around the Upper Bike Trail

Below the Mine Road above the Cliffs

Passing the Springs

We followed footprints through sand and across a wash. Not too far from the wash, we came to Arroyo Road and followed it up to our cars. As we finished our hike, we saw two red-tailed hawks that we had been watching while they rode the thermals during our snack break. One of them perched on an agave on the hill above Blue Diamond Canyon #1 and I grabbed a few photos! They are big! Good workout today! Happy Valentine's Day!

Stats: 5.5 miles; 1325' gain; 3.25 hours

Finishing the Loop around the Hill

Balanced Cairn

Red-Tailed Hawk

Virlis Fisher Arch / Bridge Spring Natural Bridge Loop - 2/10/22

Kay's Archive Photo of Snow-Covered Spring Mountains through Virlis Fisher Arch (2010)

Tuff of Bridge Spring formed 15.2 Million Years Ago

Overlook of the Colorado River north of Nelson, NV

Following Washes

The Bridge Spring formation is located in the Eldorado Wilderness which, in turn, is located between I-95 and the Colorado River southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. This area is filled with craggy cliffs and softer mounds and peaks of ancient volcanic ash flow tuff. Andesite and tuff is what makes the colorful bands that you can see from SR 165 as you approach the trailhead found 10 miles from 95 as you head toward Nelson, Nevada. More information on the Eldorado Wilderness can be found at https://www.nevadawilderness.org/eldorado_wilderness. 

Specific geologic description can be found at https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2454&context=thesesdissertations, a masters thesis from UNLV. The author, Ms. Morikawa, speaks in very technical terms but there are a few tidbits of information that the lay person can glean. 

Tuff of Bridge Spring

Small Break

Snowy Spring Mountains from Eldorado Wilderness

Ralph in Descent Wash

To put things in simpler terms, Wikipedia says:

Andesite is an extrusive volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and rhyolite. Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock containing 25% to 75% ash is described as tuffaceous (for example, tuffaceous sandstone). Tuff is a relatively soft rock, so it has been used for construction since ancient times. Tuff can be classified as either igneous or sedimentary rock. It is usually studied in the context of igneous petrology, although it is sometimes described using sedimentological terms.

     

Descending Scramble to Valley Wash

Seven at the Meeting Rock

Three at Virlis Fisher Arch

Kay's archive photo of Virlis Fisher Arch (2018)

My favorite reference book for geological explanations, 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, page 108) gives us: 

The small quarry cut into the side of the hill to the left exposes the tuff of Bridge Spring, a regionally extensive ash-flow sheet that erupted from a caldera in the Eldorado Mountains about 15.2 million years ago. The hills extending away from the road to the left are thought to be composed of a thick section of this tuff that was deposited against the wall of the caldera. The caldera wall, and the tuff, has been tilted 90 degrees onto its side. The tuff exposures are cut by a left-lateral strike-slip fault (such as faults of the Lake Mead fault zone) that represents an adjustment or tear fault in the upper plate of a major detachment sheet. This unit is named after Bridge Spring, located about 2 miles north of Nelson and about 1 mile east of SR 165.

Another view of the Colorado River Overlook

Leaving the Overlook

Through the Rabbit Hole

View back toward the Arch and Overlook

As we did last year, we hiked the two arch loop in a clockwise direction starting to the west of the trailhead parking. Today, there were seven of us. We weaved our way through the washes and ended up at the bare saddle up among the tuff. The wash on the other side is a fun rocky scramble. At the bottom, we turned left and continued the fun. During this next section, you can turn right at any time to make your way over and down to the main valley wash that runs north/south. In this main wash, you can see Virlis Fisher Arch protruding from the cliffs to the east. There is no trail, per se, but, suffice it to say, the best way to reach the base of the arch is to find the "Meeting Rock" directly down the hill from the arch and climb up from there.

Happy Hikers

Steep Descent down to Bridge Spring Natural Bridge (aka Nelson Arch)

On the Steep Descent

Three on Bridge Spring Natural Bridge

After explorations of the arch, find a vague game trail leading from the base of the cliffs over to the river overlook saddle to the south.There are about three game trails and Mike found another one today!! The river view was fantastically clear. Then, we continued around and down to the other side of the valley where there is a rabbit hole and trail up to the top of the hill. The trail leads down through a saddle and around a corner to the top of the canyon that holds Bridge Spring Natural Bridge (aka Nelson Arch). The trail leads steeply down into the canyon where there is a choice about midway as to whether you wish to go to the top of the bridge and down climb on the other side or continue down to the wash and climb up under the bridge.

Two under Bridge Spring Natural Bridge

Three descending from top of Bridge Spring Natural Bridge

Seven under Bridge Spring Natural Bridge

Climbing the Wash from the Natural Bridge

After we took our group photo under the bridge, we followed the wash up until we came to a junction where we could turn left toward some light colored boulders. There is a misleading trail that climbs the embankment at the 11:00 direction. We followed the wash that eventually became a trail. This trail wound around until we topped a ridge and started dropping down toward the trailhead. The entire streamlined loop was about 4.5 miles but therein lies a lot of fun scrambling with interesting landscape surrounding. There are several other arches and caves to explore in the area as well. The Fearsome Foursome enjoyed hiking with George, Charlie and Ralph today!

Stats: 4.5 miles; 900' gain; 3.5 hours

Scrambling with Style

The last climb back to the Cars

Last view of the Tuff of Bridge Spring