Tag: natural history

My first exposure to Red Rock Canyon was in the game Fallout: New Vegas, so when I visited the real Las Vegas, I jumped at the chance to see it firsthand. It’s right outside the city, only a 10-15 minute drive west of the metro area. Thankfully, I didn’t run into any Great Khans or Cazadors. It was the middle of summer though, so it was ridiculously hot.

Red Rock Canyon, Calico Hill, and Keystone Thrust are simply breathtaking. 600 million years ago, the area was under an ocean and sediments gradually hardened into limestone. By 180 million years ago, the area became a desert and was covered by shifting sand dunes. These hardened into sandstone with calcium carbonate and iron oxides, giving the rocks, called Aztec Sandstone, a unique reddish color. They are only found in the Mojave Desert.

Like Custer State Park in South Dakota, wild donkeys, called burros (donkey in Spanish), roam the park, although I never saw one. The Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association adopted a burro and named him “Jackson.” He sometimes hangs out at the Visitors Center or south of Highway 159 where the Loop Train begins, but you’re not supposed to feed him.

In spring 2014, a friend and I traveled to South Dakota and parts of Wyoming, stopping at Sturgis, Deadwood, Custer State Park, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and many other cool places. Devil’s Tower was our last stop. That region defines “wide open spaces.” In eastern Montana, the vast prairie rolls into the Black Hills. Jutting from the undulating landscape, a volcano tens-of-millions of years old left this cone of solidified magma when the surrounding sedimentary rock eroded away. You can see it for miles around.

According to Kiowa and Lakota legend, two girls were being chased by giant bears and sought shelter on a rock. They prayed to the Great Spirit to save them, and he/she made the rock raise toward the heavens. The bears dug deep grooves in the sides trying to climb to the top, but the girls escaped. There are several other versions of the tale, but giant bears are common to all. That’s why American Indians called it “Home of the Bear” or “Bear’s Lair”. Colonel Richard I. Dodge coined the name “Devils Tower” sometime in the 1870s.

In 1906, Devils Tower became the nation’s first National Monument. It rises 867 ft. Apparently hundreds of insane people climb to the top every year. I’m afraid to climb to the top of a ladder, so I enjoyed it from the ground. William Rogers and Willard Ripley were first to make it to the top, on July 4, 1893.