Cool New Hike - Sort Of!

Yesterday (5-6-) Peter, Doyle, Mike and I started out hiking to Rocky Gap Boulder in Red Rock Canyon. This is fun, easy and fairly short hike. There's a sign in book at the boulder. We then hiked over to an awesome overlook down into Lost Creek Canyon. This is only a 15 minute hike from the boulder.

It was still early (I don't think it was even 10 am.) so we decided to follow the Lost Creek Ridge, one of the wildest ridge routes in Red Rock, to Graffiti Traverse, an impossible looking traverse high above Graffiti Canyon. (See photo.) Once beyond the traverse, we descended Graffiti Canyon. This was a great hike and we were in the shade a good portion of the hike.

By first hiking to Rocky Gap Boulder you avoid the very serious climbing (class 5 with a rope) that the traditional route follows. You can also bag Lost Creek Peak and then descend Graffiti Canyon.
Notes: Plenty of room left in the book at Rocky Gap Boulder. The route to the boulder is in great shape. I set some additional cairns on the ridge route. This route would be impossible to follow without cairns or the write up.

The Perfect Friday

It was like old times only better! Another Friday and Davis and I are out in Red Rock eying an impossible looking high point. This time it's a wild looking boulder above Willow Springs Area in Red Rock Canyon.

We decided to hike through Graffiti Canyon. Wow! The last time I saw that much water was years ago when Peter and I descended the canyon after climbing to North Peak. Along the way there's an awesome view of Boot Boulder. The waterfall at the start of the southern fork of Graffiti Canyon was flowing. It only flows every once in awhile.

We headed up this fork of the canyon about 300 yards and headed east in search of the boulder. It was easy going with little climbing and elevation. We found the boulder without a lot of searching. As you can see in this photo it's very easy to climb.

This route is very well cairned and will be on my web site in March for members to download. We named it Rocky Gap Boulder, because it overlooks the start of the Rocky Gap road.