Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

It's Saturday and we are going site-seeing.  Frieda suggested Red Rock Canyon National Park located just off Highway 160 between Pahrump and Las Vegas. We were ready.Our first stop was the Spring Mountain Ranch.The history of Spring Mountain Ranch is very interesting. This is the front of the main ranch house.Don and Frieda admire the view of the mountain behind the horse stables and pens from to bedroom end of the house. Those French doors open out of the master bedroom.  The view is beautiful. The green grass was oh so wonderful to see.  This is the view out the master bedroom doors.The back of the ranch house where the pool once was, but is now filled in with dirt.So peaceful with the Wilson Mountain range in the background.We took a walk on a trail behind the ranch house and found this great tree trunk to rest on.Cousins posing.We're in an area that Frieda has never seen before.We always have to get a picture of Don on any bridge we see.Down below where Frieda and Don are standing is a creek with water flowing trickling through it.Famished from all the hiking, we drove over to the Bonnie Springs Restaurant. The Bonnie Springs Ranch and town is another fun family place.  Behind the restaurant is a petting zoo.  Few birds are more showy than the peacock.Loved how this rose caught the light.This almost doesn't look like a rose, but it was big and beautiful and growing on a rose bush, so it must be a rose. The racoon in the background isn't real.If you guessed pot bellied pig, you guessed right.One animal in the zoo was a Patagonia Cavy Mara.  We had never see one before, but it was in a wire cage and I couldn't get a good picture, so click on the name to see what they look like.  This doe was so tame.  Next stop... Red Rock Canyon. The road into national park is fifteen miles long one way and makes a loop that ends back at the main road closer to NV 160.There were many rock climbers out today. It was very fascinating watching them scale these rocks.These two made it to the top.  Can't imagine the view from this vantage point.This was taken from the highest lookout point in the park.The fifteen mile trail is paved and so beautiful.  That's Las Vegas in the valley. What a terrific day we have had and we ended with dinner at the Sonic in Pahrump... Snickers and Butterfingers Blasts!! (We had a big lunch.)Thanks, Frieda, for showing us this fascinating and beautiful national conservation area.