Calico Hills Loop

Date: 2/19/2007

Distance: 5.3

Elevation: 2045

Location: Red Rock Canyon

Who Tagged Along: Solo
Geocaches:

Red Rum P-mac Cache

Over the Hills and Through the Woods

Halfway Between

This is a hike I have been wanting to do for a while. It is more technical and difficult than the hikes we have done in the past, so I knew I couldn't take the kids. Amy was nice enough to let me do it on my own while she watched the kids. I got up early and was on the trail before 7:00.

The hike starts on the east side of the Calico Hills. These are massive sandstone hills with wonderful red colors and wonderful stone slabs. It turns out that it is one of the top climbing places in the country.

After walking along the base, I quickly began to make my way up to the saddle. It was fairly steep and I ascended 700 ft in no time. There was a fair amount of scrambling on the way up.

Saddle in the distance

View of the saddle up close - you can see all the boulders and rocks you have scramble over

Very cool boulder on the way to the top. The cavern carved into the boulder is tall enough for me to kneel in.

The view from the top of the saddle were wonderful. To the west was a great view of Red Rock Canyon. To the east, a great view of the hills that surround Vegas and the city itself. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't do it justice. Fortunately, I still have a camera (more on that in a minute).

View West into Red Rock Canyon (down the backside)

View down the way a came. You can't see it, but Las Vegas is in the background beyond the hills.

After taking a break to catch my breath, I started down the other side. Again there was some fun scrambling on the way down. At the bottom there were several rock out croppings and a natural water basin. One of them didn't have much water, but the other was full. It is a key watering hole for wildlife in the area.

Natural tank - the one in the top left corner was full of water

From there, I followed a wash which involved more scrambling. This took me towards the Calico II parking lot were I started to see a few more people. The trail followed the wash and base of the hills for good distance. Interestingly, the rocks changed color on this side of the hill. There was even a large section were the rock all looked like they had the measles. I am not sure what caused the red spots.

Rocks were more white on the west side of the hills

Some of the red spots on the rocks. Very cool.

After passing near the parking lot, the trail dropped back into the wash and then merged into another trail that ran along some large sandstone slabs. Shortly after that, I turned and followed a steep water chute up, climbed some sandstone steps and climbed a steep sandstone ramp. Once on top I could see the Calico I parking lot.

Eventually, I came to the Calico I parking and followed the trail down and through a small tunnel formed by two boulders. The trail descended again and followed the wash for a ways were there was some great scrambling.

Tunnel you have to crawl through

After a ways, everything opened up and I was out in a small little "valley". While hiking through here, I discovered that there were three caches along the route so I decided to go and find them.

The first one took me off the path and through a sandy "forest" - at least it was a forest considering where I was. I found the cache camouflaged in a tree.

The second cache was down the trail. I had to scramble up a 50 degree slope to the base of the hill where I found the cache in a hollow.

The third cache was on the hike back over the hill. It was well hidden in a little "cave" under a boulder.

This is the first geocaching we have done in Las Vegas and it was interesting to see the difference between hiding items in dead trees and under leaves in Michigan versus rocks.

From the final cache, I crested the hill and could see the parking lot. I walked down the hill and saw the Red Rock springs - a natural spring area - and decided that I wanted a picture. This was when, to my horror, when I discovered I no longer had my camera. I must have lost it somewhere on the last part of the trail.

At this point, I had a decision to make. Do I go back and look for it? It could be anywhere - under some brush, down a crevice or smashed into pieces. I had also made three separate side trips to the caches and it could be anywhere off of the trail. I would also have to hike back up and down the hill to the other side and then do it again to get back to the car. Besides I have been wanting a new camera for some time.

Finally, I decided I might as well and besides there were probably some pictures of the girls on there Amy would really want, so I turned around and headed back.

I used the GPS to back track my exact trail past the third cache and two the turn off for the second cache. At this point, I wasn't too excited about scrambling up the steep slope again and I felt like I should stay on the main trail, so I decided to keep heading back towards the wash.

I got back to the wash and the rock field and started scrambling back through. At this point, I really didn't think I would find it and I was beginning to get tired. I decided that I would say a short prayer and put my faith to the test.

I want to testify that Heavenly Father hears are prayers and answers them, not matter how small or inconsequential we may think they are in the grand scheme of heaven. Not more than two minutes later and about 30 seconds from giving up and heading back to check the side caches, I turned the corner and was very happy to see my camera sitting safely in the middle of the path in a pile of sand.

I thought for sure it would have fallen out of my pocket during one of the scrambles over hard rock and dropped into a crevice between boulders making it impossible to find. I know that the Lord answered my prayer.

I was very thankful as I hiked back to the car (now about an hour later than I had planned) that I had found the camera and didn' t have to look further. I was also thankful that I while I didn't discover the camera missing right away, at least I discovered it before I had left the park for home. Once back at the parking lot, I got that final picture of the Red Rock springs I had wanted.