July 19, 2011

Red Rock Canyon in Pictures

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

This past weekend I attended The Amaz!ng Meeting 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada. On Sunday some friends and I drove out to Red Rock Canyon just outside Las Vegas. Red Rock Canyon has some amazing geology– I’ll write up a post about the geology in the next week or two. For now, here are some pretty pictures of rocks… plus a bonus picture of magician Penn Jillette and I.

View from the Visitor's Center.

Looking back towards Las Vegas.

Enormous cross-bedding in the Aztec Sandstone.

Standing in front of some sandstone cross-bedding.

Iron oxide concreations in sandstone, with foot for scale.

Another view looking back towards Las Vegas.

Another picture of me with beautiful sandstone cross-bedding in the background.

More sandstone cross-bedding!

Gorgeous red and white sandstone.

More red and white sandstone.

A closer look at the red/white boundary.

Enormous fossilized sand dunes, with person for scale (lower right corner).

500 million year old limestone on top of 200 million year old sandstone-- what a fault!

Another stunning view of the Aztec Sandstone.

Another look back towards Las Vegas.

Looking closely, you can see the casino where I stayed (South Point).

I took a closer look through the binoculars...

Sure enough! That's the South Point Casino-- the big yellow building.

Bonus picture! Penn Jillette and I.