Hiking in Red Rock Canyon (in the Mojave Desert, not far from Las Vegas) around the Calico Hills where you can see beautiful yellow, beige and red Aztec coloured sandstone cliffs hundreds of feet high. These cliffs were formed from fossilized cores of giant sand dunes that covered the area in the Jurassic period, about 180 million years ago. Over time, water moving through the sand cemented the grains into sandstone which was then uplifted and exposed to millennia of weathering and erosion that shaped and sculpted the final rock formations that you see today.
This gives rise to some of the best sights and vistas that the Mojave Desert has to offer, and a real boon for landscape photographers.
Predawn light in Red Rock Canyon
Red Aztec sandstone in the early morning sun
Slot trail in the red sandstone
Canyon vegetation in the Calico Hills
Calico Hills in the morning light
Canyon wash in the Calico Hills