Hiking the Owl Canyon Loop - Part 1
Feb. 18th, 2025 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerNon-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #3
Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 12:15pm
What's there to do in Las Vegas if you don't like gambling, shows, or fancy restaurants? There's hiking! And while it's not in Las Vegas it's also not far out of it.
Saturday morning we drove out to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the trailhead for Owl Canyon. Although we got a later start on the day than I wanted to I knew there was plenty of time left in the day— especially if this hike was all we wanted to do. And even at the trailhead I could tell we were in for an enjoyable time.
I mean, anytime a sign warns the trail is tough... that's generally code for, "Really fun for even moderately experienced hkers." It's scare-words for "Weak-sauce city folk STAY OUT." 🤣
The trail starts with a steep descent down from the the top of the bluff where the parking area and some picnic tables are. Ugh, that's going to be not-fun as the last part of the trail when we're coming back tired. At least it's not a huge climb out. I don't think it's more than about 100' ascent back up.
Across the wash at the bottom of the canyon the trail climbs over another bluff. This one's not so vertical as the one the trail starts from. It's prettier, though, with orange-red rocks and views across to the Las Vegas Wash.
Hawk and I took a detour to explore the top of the bluff instead of following the trail that quickly descended from a saddle point. Curiously there are lots of seashells up here.
How did all the shells get here? Our first thought was that birds dropped them after fishing the waters of the lake. But quickly we saw that there are thousands of shells up here. That's too many for birds dropping them after eating. This spot must've been underwater at some point in the past. ...But the water level in Lake Mead, which you can see in the pic above, looks to be at least 100' below us. How long ago would it have been high enough to cover this ground? It can't have been too many years ago as otherwise there wouldn't be so many shells in such good condition due to weathering. Also, the Hoover Dam that created Lake Mead only finished construction in 1935.
We walked along the bluff top, exploring the views from different angles. The views up here were just so beautiful we kept going instead of doubling back, hoping there might be an exit down the far side. Plus, it was special being up here because while we saw occasional small groups of hikers on the trail below, nobody else thought to explore up here atop this butte. Hooray, solitude!
Update: I learned in visiting the Hoover Dam the following day that the last time the lake level rose to a high of 1,225' elevation above sea level in 1983. The bluff we were standing on was at about 1,200' elevation. So possibly the seashells we were seeing atop this bluff have sat there undisturbed for 40 years. Now that is some solitude!
In this panoramic photo (above) you can see the trail winding around beneath the bluffs. In the distance is the actual Owl Canyon. We'll hike a loop that has us going up another canyon and then coming down Owl Canyon, exiting it in this area. Then we'll hike over the saddle point halfway up this bluff and climb the first bluff back up to the trailhead. But that could be hours from now, and now is now....
On the far side of the bluff we found this odd mineral deposit. It looks like snow! It's actually gypsum. We scrambled over a bunch of large gypsum boulders to climb down the bluff. We had to be careful on them as gypsum is a soft mineral. If we stepped on a thin deposit, it could crumble under our feet and send us tumbling.
We got down the rough backside of the bluff okay. Then we bushwhacked through a bunch of dead bushes in the wash where the lake level had been higher recently, and climbed back up the slope on the far side to rejoin the trail.
To be continued!
Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 12:15pm
What's there to do in Las Vegas if you don't like gambling, shows, or fancy restaurants? There's hiking! And while it's not in Las Vegas it's also not far out of it.
Saturday morning we drove out to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the trailhead for Owl Canyon. Although we got a later start on the day than I wanted to I knew there was plenty of time left in the day— especially if this hike was all we wanted to do. And even at the trailhead I could tell we were in for an enjoyable time.
I mean, anytime a sign warns the trail is tough... that's generally code for, "Really fun for even moderately experienced hkers." It's scare-words for "Weak-sauce city folk STAY OUT." 🤣
The trail starts with a steep descent down from the the top of the bluff where the parking area and some picnic tables are. Ugh, that's going to be not-fun as the last part of the trail when we're coming back tired. At least it's not a huge climb out. I don't think it's more than about 100' ascent back up.
Across the wash at the bottom of the canyon the trail climbs over another bluff. This one's not so vertical as the one the trail starts from. It's prettier, though, with orange-red rocks and views across to the Las Vegas Wash.
Hawk and I took a detour to explore the top of the bluff instead of following the trail that quickly descended from a saddle point. Curiously there are lots of seashells up here.
How did all the shells get here? Our first thought was that birds dropped them after fishing the waters of the lake. But quickly we saw that there are thousands of shells up here. That's too many for birds dropping them after eating. This spot must've been underwater at some point in the past. ...But the water level in Lake Mead, which you can see in the pic above, looks to be at least 100' below us. How long ago would it have been high enough to cover this ground? It can't have been too many years ago as otherwise there wouldn't be so many shells in such good condition due to weathering. Also, the Hoover Dam that created Lake Mead only finished construction in 1935.
We walked along the bluff top, exploring the views from different angles. The views up here were just so beautiful we kept going instead of doubling back, hoping there might be an exit down the far side. Plus, it was special being up here because while we saw occasional small groups of hikers on the trail below, nobody else thought to explore up here atop this butte. Hooray, solitude!
Update: I learned in visiting the Hoover Dam the following day that the last time the lake level rose to a high of 1,225' elevation above sea level in 1983. The bluff we were standing on was at about 1,200' elevation. So possibly the seashells we were seeing atop this bluff have sat there undisturbed for 40 years. Now that is some solitude!
In this panoramic photo (above) you can see the trail winding around beneath the bluffs. In the distance is the actual Owl Canyon. We'll hike a loop that has us going up another canyon and then coming down Owl Canyon, exiting it in this area. Then we'll hike over the saddle point halfway up this bluff and climb the first bluff back up to the trailhead. But that could be hours from now, and now is now....
On the far side of the bluff we found this odd mineral deposit. It looks like snow! It's actually gypsum. We scrambled over a bunch of large gypsum boulders to climb down the bluff. We had to be careful on them as gypsum is a soft mineral. If we stepped on a thin deposit, it could crumble under our feet and send us tumbling.
We got down the rough backside of the bluff okay. Then we bushwhacked through a bunch of dead bushes in the wash where the lake level had been higher recently, and climbed back up the slope on the far side to rejoin the trail.
To be continued!
