Continued...
After saying goodbye to our son in Azusa the morning following his track event,
my wife and I drove to Las Vegas, the first time the two of us had made the
journey together. It was a nice drive with relatively light traffic on a
Saturday morning, landing us in Las Vegas before noon. While she prepped for
her volleyball reffing gig in the afternoon, I looked for some hikes to do
that would occupy me for the remainder of the day. It was close to 80F in town,
so I was looking for some cooler temps in the higher elevations. I found them
on the back side of the Red Rock Canyon NCA, in the Spring Mountains that
include the highest summits in the area around Mt. Charleston. They would give
me a chance to use my new ride, a Jeep Wrangler. It would perform quite well,
as expected - no more nervously manuevering my low-clearance van on questionable
roads. All of the peaks were found in Purcell's Rambles & Scrambles,
which is no surprise since almost everything of note in the area is found
there.
Cactus Flower Point/Rainbow Point
Unofficially named Cactus Flower Point is a P1K, one of the higher limestone
summits found along the crest of the range, overlooking Red Rocks Canyon NCA on
its western flank. It was my main goal for the short day I had, and after
dropping my wife off at the Convention Center, I made a beeline for Lovell
Canyon. After much highway driving and then more
up Lovell Canyon, I turned off on
Red Rock Summit Rd and drove a little over a mile up this rough road, the Jeep's
first taste off the pavement. Despite the poor condition of the road, the Jeep
had no trouble and I was soon parked off to one side against a small pine tree.
My cross-counry route starting would climb about 1,600ft up
in about a mile and a half. Starting out at 3p, it would
take me just over an hour to reach the summit with a partial view looking
and across to Las Vegas through desert haze.
There was a John Vitz register with four pages of entries,
in January by Adam Walker and pals. One can also take
in views of Potosi to , the higher summits around Mt.
Charleston to and Lovell Canyon to . I
turned northeast to follow an enjoyable route down and
then up to Ladybug Peak (PB-only) and , both of nearly
equal height with a short gap between them. Ladybug had
but Rainbow Point did not, so I . I then descended
about a mile back down to Red Rock Summit
Rd and the Jeep, by 5:45p. I still had a few
more hours of daylight, so I went looking for some easy summits on the drive
back to Las Vegas.
Gap Peak
Found just off the north side of SR160, east of Mountain Springs Summit. It
would be an easy hike from the highway, but since I was equipped, I drove the
rough dirt powerline road to the saddle on . From there
it was an interesting quarter mile hike to the overlooking
the highway, with Potosi Mtn to and the Spring Mtns to
.
Hole-in-the-Top
This is a very easy summit found on the north side of SR160 within the
Red Rock Canyon NCA. The easiest access is from the Black Velvet Rd and the
Late Night TH. it was just over half a mile to
the top. As the name suggests, there is an interesting hole piercing the
summit ridgeline, visible from the highway and from the start. I used some
to reach the base of the summit from where it was an
easy hike up to the top. I checked out which was surprisingly
small - I don't think I could have squeezed my body through it if I'd tried. The
summit is another 20ft above the hole, a short class 3 scramble up limestone
(the class 3 is easily avoided, btw). It was when I started
out, but there was easily sufficient light to complete the hike by 7:30p. Now
to brave the traffic back to our hotel on the Strip in Las Vegas...
Continued...