One of our destinations while we toured the Las Vegas area was the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Having toured several national parks at this point, we thought it would be an experience similar to what we’ve seen before. And in ways it was, and in others … not so much.
Complaints and Concerns
From the get-go, this looks like a “national park” experience. However, as soon as you walk in the door to the visitors center, you start to experience the differences. The Red Rock Canyon visitor center has no handouts! Usually, when you visit a national park, the rangers will happily give you a map, informational pamphlet, and other useful information. However, the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area had none of this. If one wanted trail maps they had large printouts that one could take a picture of. There were also QR codes to an app where maps could be downloaded. The only paper maps they had were in their gift shop – for a price.
Even the Junior Ranger books were digital, and they weren’t even printer-friendly! Consequently, we didn’t have our kids do much of them. (And they weren’t as in-depth or challenging as most Junior Ranger books.) More surprising is we took a tour around the nature trail with a volunteer docent. The docent handed around laminated information sheets that were collected again at the end. I don’t know if their goal was reducing waste or cutting costs, but either way, it felt wrong.
We’re all about saving resources and will often visit a park multiple times, declining additional maps. However, most natural spaces don’t have great cell coverage, and what if your cellphone battery dies? Having the paper map can literally be a lifesaver, especially in the desert.
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, a BLM Property
When we visited the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, we learned that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation originally managed it. However, they were not prepared for the difficulties and logistics of managing people, just water projects, and the area suffered. The National Parks Service stepped in and took over managing the recreation area and created the National Recreation Area designation under the National Parks Service umbrella. The NPS was able to rapidly turn the area around and make it the gem it is today. The Bureau of Land Management is primarily interested in defending and administering usage rights, grazing rights, and mineral rights of land owned by the public. Unfortunately, the BLM is not experienced in managing access by the general public. If NPS could take over Red Rock Canyon (like they did Lake Mead), this area would be benefited. Its lack of ability to effectively manage this area is telling of its shared shortcomings with the Bureau of Reclamation.
Red Rock Canyon staff expect the worst from visitors.
The worst experience we had in the visitors center was when we learned about dinosaur tracks found within the conservation area. We asked one of the volunteers about what hikes we would be able to see the tracks from and the volunteer immediately acted like we were up to no good and tried to evade the question. We asked a second and got a similar treatment until they eventually admitted that they kept the location a secret because other tourists had tried to make concrete casts of the tracks and damaged them. If the first volunteer had opened with “I’m sorry, but we don’t divulge their location due to risk of damage to the area,” it would have been a non-issue. Instead, we were made to feel like criminals just because our kids like looking (no touching! We know better!) at fossils.
Hiking at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
Outside the visitor center, the Red Rock Canyon area is like many other national parks, with a long scenic drive, peppered with trailheads, overlooks, and picnic areas. Along the drive, we took one short hike along the “Lost Creek” trail. It wound around a wash and ended at a seasonal waterfall. An even shorter trail led to a wall of petroglyphs and paintings left by Indigenous people long ago.
One of the recurring themes in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area was the delicacy of the microclimates in the canyons. One particular sign illustrated four clear fire tracks from fires that occurred many years ago, but the desert hadn’t fully recovered from.
The Visitor’s Center at Red Rock Canyon
Other than the above-mentioned complaints, the visitor center was a bit of a mixed bag. Most national park visitor centers will have lots of information about the park itself, about the geology, flora, and fauna. Typically, it will be indoors and pretty succinct. The visitor’s center at Red Rock was mostly outside, and its exhibits were a mix of a STEM Museum, a nature preserve, and a zoo. It felt like the planners didn’t know how they wanted to lean, so just incorporated everything. I imagine for someone who’s never left a city, and decided to leave Vegas for a day to “touch grass,” it would be an amazing experience. However, for seasoned national park visitors, it was just a little weird.
