Ice Box Canyon - Red Rock, NV

Being one of the most popular and well-known hikes in Red Rock, we finally decided to try it out after living in Las Vegas for so long.  I think we put it off for awhile because it's a shorter hike, but now we consider it one of our favorites and can't wait to take visitors or just do it again ourselves.  It's popularity is evidenced by a very full parking lot in the middle of the day.  Good sign for us since we are such late starters and we didn't have to worry so much about the desert heat since so many others thought it was a fine time of day to hike.

The route starts off flat, somewhat boring, and without shade, but then you get to some more scrambling parts and that's when the fun started.  The scrambling was fun and we took our own route somewhat to get to the base of the waterfall.  Since it was June, the water wasn't flowing anymore.  It'd be nice to go back earlier in the season and see the actual waterfall.  We climbed up the last part to get to the base of where the water pools before falling down into the canyon.  A few people were climbing the walls of Ice Box Canyon, but we opted to sit next to the little puddle and enjoy a snack in the shade and cooler weather.

Getting down from our positions took much more maneuvering so that we didn't fall into the murky puddle.  That was fun.  Karen got into a bit of a pickle, but she made it out without falling into the dirty water.  We definitely took a picture of the route Phil took down, as it was somewhat dangerous and kind of crazy.  He decided to slide down the smooth rock that the water flows down in the earlier months of the year.  It looked like a good idea at the top, but he picked up a lot of speed and luckily landed on his feet with a running start.  Other onlookers thought he was nuts and looked about as worried as Karen as he flew down the smooth rock.  See the picture below.

Somehow, we got off track on our way back and ended up in thick desert brush trying to find our route.  We could obviously see the parking lot and weren't too worried about finding our way back, but Karen went on and on about rattle snakes in the brush.  We made it back to the parking lot with no such encounters and were happy with the hike.  It wasn't especially hard or long, but the cooler weather once in the canyon was a pleasant surprise and the making your own route, of course, always appeals to Phil.  We will definitely be doing this hike again, especially some time during the spring so we can catch the actual waterfall.

Precarious Climb Down

Yep, Phil slid down the middle of this.  It's steeper than it looks.

The GPX is not the best because we were in a canyon, but we will include it anyway.  

GPX Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6udsk9u3i4gwm5/Icebox%20GPX.gpx