Redstone Dunes Hike

We drove out in the desert the same direction we took when we hiked the Anniversary Narrows a few days ago. This time we drove farther. I never get tired of the layers of geologic formations here in the southern Nevada desert. It is very beautiful out here.

We were headed for the Redstone Dunes. It was a short loop hike, and the parking area was signed this time around.

The red rocks are sandstone and range in age from 50 to 200 million years old. They are similar to what one might see on a visit to Valley of Fire State Park to the east of us. The white rocks are limestone.

We passed by some of the same formations we saw when we visited Cathedral Gorge last year.

After arriving at the parking lot, this is what we saw.

Here's a little information about the trail.

The black rocks are volcanic, and are approximately 500 million years old. It was an easy trail, but there were so many washes, it was hard to tell trail from wash. It seemed as if other hikers had walked all over without regard to any particular trail. 

The rocks were so pretty with their pock marks and small arches.

Here's a pano of the area where we stood.

We looked high and low for petroglyphs, but didn't see any.

We looped around, just enjoying this incredible scenery.

The temperature was nice...warm, but not too hot.

In the image below, you can see a small arch, about 1/3 of the way from the left edge of the photo.

The formations are interesting, some slick and smooth, while others were more rugged.

Of course, our shadow selves had to get in on the act. They liked the idea of turning themselves red with the rock.

You can see another small arch in the image below, near the top.

Here was a larger one. It appeared to be a cave as I stood under it, but as I stepped to the right, I could see the sky through the open left side.

On the drive back, we were able to see a better example of the older volcanic rock eroding to expose the red sandstone below. Sandstone is just what it sounds like, and this was a dune field at one time. Time and pressure turned it into rock.

And that was our hike for the day. We picked up a couple of things we forgot to get at the grocery store and headed for home.

This morning, we'll be packing up to head south toward Laughlin. Our hiking book covers all of southern Nevada, and there are hikes near Laughlin too. We want to spend some time in nearby Oatman, Arizona, too. It's a ghost town with wild burros. I have an idea we'll find something like Tombstone, Arizona, there. A fellow traveler recommended a visit, and so we'll bite. 

This morning's inchy is a little more involved than the ones I've done so far, and so I'll probably put off starting it until we're set up down the road. There's word of ice and snow back home. We're really hoping we won't lose any of our trees or other plants in the garden. Ice storms are never welcome events.