Red Rock Hiking

August turned out to be a fun filled and work packed month.  Setting up my classroom in one week and starting back to school was so exciting but made going to bed at seven o'clock a necessity.  After my first week working at my brand new school I had made many new friends!  There are some people that you meet and you instantly click with.  Melissa was this person for me.  She was a fresh and friendly face in Nevada that made this strange new place feel a little more like home.  She took me hiking at Red Rock National Park the first weekend we met.  Now I am not what you would call the avid hiker.  I sometimes tend to be a little clumsy.  Melissa was so patient with me and she was a wealth of knowledge about our surroundings. 

Kim (also a fellow teacher) and her three daughters came along.  They kept me safe the whole time because if they saw a living "thing" they would chase after it to catch it.  This would usually make it go away from me, I was very happy!

This is the water bed. When it rains in Las Vegas the ground is so hard that the water doesn't get absorbed.  This area turns into a little river when the rains come.  They also have channels throughout the city that do the same thing.  This however doesn't stop all the flooding that can occur. 

  Just turn around....don't drown.

The Indians who originally went through this area used the rocks as shelter.

You can see some of their drawings on this wall.  A few years ago some teenagers came through the park and vandalized some of the petroglyphs.  They ended up doing jail time.

A huge bug spider thing.  This was on ultra zoom because I wouldn't get close to it!

A few days before we went hiking there was a huge rainstorm on our side of town. The rain lasted almost the whole day which from what I observed was very rare.  Our hike took us up to a waterfall area.  Normally the area would only have a little trickle coming down but the rain made a small pool of water and a nice waterfall.  It felt so good going into the water!

We played in the pool of water for a good half an hour.  There were tadpoles and frogs in the water. 

Kim and I

We went behind the waterfall.

Self pic at waterfall.

So the area we went hiking in is actually a place that teachers can take field trips.  I am not sure I would be brave enough...Here are a few neat things Melissa taught me about the area.

This tiny creek houses an itty bitty little snail.  It only lives in a few places in the world and Red Rock National Park is one. 

This tree smells like butterscotch.  No joke!  I smelled it!

Our fearless leader at the butterscotch tree.

This rock is sick....that's what the dots are.  The ironization that is occurring in the rocks (that is why they are red) makes these marble like bubbles.  The Indian children would use them like marbles when they were going through here. 

There are two types of stone in the park, sandstone and limestone.  A thrust occurred long long ago causing the mixing of the two different types.

This was our view at the end!  It was an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go on more journeys with Melissa!!