Red Rocks

The Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon, followed by a week of climbing and hiking at Red Rock Canyon!

Saturday, November 14th, 2015

Our first time out to Red Rocks was under the guise of a company party on the Strip. Aki and I are not Vegas people, so we spent most of our time away from it.

This time around, the "excuse" was the Vegas Marathon. With friends from Calgary coming down to join us, this would be our first opportunity to introduce our old friends to our new playground.

Looking back, this was actually our first climbing trip since moving to the U.S.. In the past, we would make 2 or 3 climbing trips every year (once or twice to Skaha, maybe once to Squamish, with some other destinations sprinkled in), but for whatever reason, we hadn't done this since 2013. I think part of it was due to just needing time to settle into our new surroundings. I found it too easy to get wrapped up in work when that was the only place where I had a sense of comfort and familiarity.

We used airbnb for the first time, and were quite happy with how that worked out. We had a 3 bedroom apartment (with full kitchen) away from the Strip, with easy access to Red Rocks, and that was ideal. Driving anywhere near the Strip is insanity, and should be done as little as possible.

Sunday, November 15th, 2015

The marathon was very well organized, especially considering how many participants were in it (55,000+ for the half and full). This was my first time running a race at night, and I have to say, it's a LOT easier to deal with than getting up at 4am to make a 7am race start. Shockingly, it rained for the first hour or so of the race, but nothing too heavy and by the time I finished, everything was dry. My time wasn't great (4h10m), and I do miss the advantage of training at high elevation (Calgary is about 1000m, Vegas is about 600m, Irvine is about 0m).

Monday, November 16th, 2015

Rest day! We took the opportunity to sleep in, get some brunch, and do some groceries.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2015

We climbed at Panty Wall, at the first Calico Hills pullout.

I'm always pleased with the friendly people we meet while climbing. The same can be said about hiking. Perhaps it has to do with encountering people while they are engaging in an activity that they love. This experience certainly does not carry over into, say, the people I "meet" on the I-5. I don't think they are engaging in an activity that they love (and neither am I).

Wednesday, November 18th, 2015

We climbed at Magic Bus, at the second Calico Hills pullout. This is where we climbed on our previous trip to Red Rocks.

We also found an alternate route up to Magic Bus, although it was a bit exposed and we chose to take the less scary route on the way back down. I do feel as though I am gaining a familiarity with the trails in Red Rocks a bit.

Thursday, November 19th, 2015

Teresa was flying out in the evening, so we wanted something that would be short and low commitment. All of our fingertips were starting to get sensitive anyway, so a hike seemed like a good option.

Our choice was Turtlehead Peak, an easy scramble starting from the third pullout of Calico Hills.

At the trailhead

The trail leading up to the summit ridge passed by a bunch of interesting looking climbs. We will have to try coming here on our next trip, as it was very sparsely occupied by climbers (most of the people we encountered were people hiking with their dogs).

Just beyond the climbing area

Mountain Project lists this as a class 1 / 2 scramble, but I'm not sure we really encountered anything that would be considered scrambling. There were a couple of people who followed us on the way back down, and I was a bit worried about their progress, so maybe that's enough to call it a scramble.

Looking down the other side of the peak towards Calico Basin

We reached the summit in about 1h50m where we took in a grand view of the surrounding areas. This is not the tallest peak in Red Rocks, but it is situated in a great spot to view everything in the park, and even beyond to snow-covered Griffith Peak.

On the other side of the valley, we could see Mount Wilson, which is the tallest peak in Red Rocks. It is a class 3 scramble, and maybe we'll give that a go the next time.

The summit

The sight of peaks unadorned by man-made objects made me happy.

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Friday, November 20th, 2015

With this being our last day, we decided to brave the crowds at the Black Corridor. This area has a reputation of being as crowded as a gym, and it did not disappoint in this regard. However, the climbing here was quite good and we got to chat with a number of people, a surprising percentage of them being Canadians trying to avoid the transitional season from summer to winter.

Saturday, November 21st, 2015

We decided to end the trip by checking out the friend chicken at the Wicked Spoon buffet in the Cosmopolitan. So light and crispy!