A Few Strange Kicks

6/6/2018

I woke up in Vegas at 7AM to the general uproar associated with a family-friendly 24/7 casino-fair-circus-arcade-water park (I had stayed at Circus Circus), and promptly decided it was time to vacate for a more desolate, uninhabited region of the US. Jane and I’s first task was to depart the 4^th floor of the parking garage without setting off multiple car alarms, as I had when entering the night prior. Parking garages are really just not friendly when you’ve got a big rumbly American V8 that’s built to need higher revs before moving smoothly. I try not to be obnoxious, but it is just impossible in a closed-in garage.

Anyways, we failed and set off a couple car alarms on the way out of the garage. Oh well. Soon we were back out on the open road and none of that mattered. The Mojave Desert opened up around us and we were free to roar as loudly as we pleased.

Who lets these people name roads, really

I looped down through Barstow to stop at a peculiar Route 66 destination that I had learned about from a friend: the Bottle Tree Ranch. I really cannot even explain what a Bottle Tree is, other than that it’s a metal stake in the ground with a bunch of metal stakes coming off of it like the branches of a tree and a bunch of bottles stuck on the ends of those like… well, like bottles on the end of a metal stake, I guess.

I would definitely label this as one of the strangest kicks on Route 66. Like many other things on Route 66, I think it is just strange for the purpose of being strange. I really don’t know what possessed this guy to make this forest of “trees” otherwise. I suppose probably he made one, and then he went, “Well that looks kind of cool and I have more bottles and more rebar so… I guess I’ll just make more.” And then they all looked kind of the same, so he decided to ornament them with odd and interesting pieces at the top. You know, things like stoplights. And saxophones. And car doors. And hubcaps. And typewriters. Easy peasy, right?

This guy must really drink a lot of beverages

I spent a good half hour there, wandering around while my confusion grew. Eventually I had had my fill of trying to find meaning in the trees, and Jane and I took off again, this time headed north.

A short jaunt later and we had arrived at Red Rock Canyon State Park. There are several Red Rock Canyon parks in the States, the most notable of which is just outside of Vegas. But this one is infrequently mentioned and even more infrequently visited, which makes it perfectly my speed.

The park is another example of a geological marvel with a surprisingly simple story. It reflects the history of an ancient lake that periodically flooded, dried up, and experienced riverine or even volcanic rock influx. Silty, muddy soft layers of rock deposited in the lake are interspersed with hard coarse sandstones and thick volcanic beds, which have prevented the complete erosion of the softer layers after recent exposure. Cliffs hundreds of feet tall show this relationship beautifully, with shelf-like sandstones protruding from the eroded-back muddier layers that seem to flow even when dry, reflecting water-driven erosion.

Jane and I arrived at the campground mid-afternoon and found that it was absolutely perfect. Far from the campgrounds that are typically placed in out-of-the-way spots, RRCSP’s campground clings to the base of one of the more spectacular outcrops in the park, offering sites blessedly shaded and protected from the elements by the cliffs themselves. The campground itself is massive, spreading for nearly a mile along the cliffs, so it was easy for Jane and I to find a nice secluded spot where there were no other human beings in sight.

View looking out from the campsite away from the cliff.

I wandered a good ¾ mile hike down to the visitor center, only to find that it was closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Good thing I got there on a Wednesday! Fortunately, they had left a bunch of brochures laying about, so I was able to lay eyes on the park map. Unfortunately, it was not terribly helpful in the advice department. I eventually wrangled my way into some wifi and was able to look up hiking trails in the park. A surprising amount were off-road-only trails meant more for Jeeps than for hikers. But I found a few that would be sure to provide awesome views for someone on foot.

Since I had quite a few hours of daylight left, I went ahead and tackled the loop right off of the campground. There were a lot of tracks wending their way across the top of the campground cliffs and out to overlooks across the canyons, so I took my time and visited them all.

Jane for scale

The black layer on the left is a volcanic flow that entered the lake - more muddy lacustrine layers were deposited on top of this, but have been eroded here

A cute horned lizard

The sun hung low in the sky by the time I was out of trail, so I headed back to camp and set up my normal Boy Scout meal routine. As night fell I found that absolutely no lights were visible from anywhere in my campsite – not even far off in the distance. The stark contrast from the dazzling flashing lights of Vegas was more than welcome. For me, peace is more often found in the wheeling of the stars overhead in a velvety black sky. And so the night slipped away with me laying on top of my picnic table, thoroughly enjoying the turning of the world and nothing more.

Kelly signing out.