Red Rock Canyon West of Vegas Baby

The beginning of our hike. This was Calico Tanks. You do not see in the pic, the many other hikers that were in front back and everywhere.  Truthfully speaking, you love other hikers, the common good of staying fit, enjoying God's good earth, the exhilaration of completing the hike, the feel good of being tired afterward, all that.  The part that I don't like about other hikers is something that I found out of THIS hike.  I don't want other hikers hiking in big groups talking loudly holding you back or rushing you ahead until you let them pass.  Okay, that's done.  Now about this hike.  Red Rock Canyon is built up as great hiking and beautiful.  I was so excited to add this hike and experience it for myself.  Myself, my hubby and two of our daughters planned the day light part of our day at Red Rock Canyon.  It's a fee of $11 to get in and then you drive a 13 mile one way road around a loop with 20 stopping points-limited parking. Map at visitor's center describes 19 trails.
One of my favorite parts of hiking is to see the variety of terrain, so these pics show some canyon, sand walking, rock step walking and gravel trail hiking. We went up elevations of approx 400 feet.

So here's my thoughts, I loved the day, weather great. Difficult to walk on sandy rocks, slipping is not fun. 

These rock formations were beautiful, the trail was supposed to lead to a spring that ran "year round", we, nor other confused passing hikers could find it.  We sat under some cedar trees to rest while my hubby hiked on another 1/2 hour to look around and never found it, however, we found a home foundation, with floor tile still intact.  It was so far out of the way, I imagined a rancher riding his horse back to the ranch house. 

This was the nice wide path, yet large gravel was a bear to walk on.
All in all, I'm super grateful for our Malibu-Santa Monica Mountain hiking in SoCal,
We have it made here.