earth science

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area rather than just read about it. In short: The Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Clark County, Nevada, United States, is an area managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of its National Landscape Conservation System, and protected as a National Conservation Area. It is about 15 miles (24 km) west of Las Vegas.

Key takeaways

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Clark County, Nevada, United States, is an area managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of its National Landscape Conservation System, and protected as a National Conservation Area. It is about 15 miles (24 km) west of Las Vegas. More than three million people visit the area each year. The conservation area showcases a set of large red rock formations: a set of sandstone peaks and walls that were formed by thrust faults including the Keystone Thrust. The walls are up to 3,000 feet (910 m) high, making them a popular hiking and rock climbing destination. The highest point is La Madre Mountain, at 8,154 feet (2,485 m). A one-way, loop road, 13 miles (21 km) long, provides vehicle access to many of the features in the area. Several side roads and parking areas allow access to many of the area trails. A visitor center is at the start of the loop road. The loop road is also popular for bicycle touring; it begins with a moderate climb, then is mostly downhill or flat. The Rocky Gap Road in Red Rock Canyon NCA is a side canyon accessible only by an unmaintained primitive road from the scenic loop which mostly only off-road or high-clearance vehicles can access. State Route 159 cuts through the Cottonwood Valley, also a side trail of the Old Spanish Trail. The Wilson Cliffs, a massive escarpment, can be seen to the west from SR 159. Toward the southern end of the National Conservation Area are Spring Mountain Ranch State Park; the town of Blue Diamond; and Bonnie Springs Ranch, which includes a replica of a western ghost town, but which in 2019 was sold and closed to the public.

History

Native Americans

The first humans were attracted to the Red Rock area due to its resources of water, plant, and animal life that could not be easily found in the surrounding desert. Hunters and gatherers such as the historical Southern Paiute and the much older Archaic, or Desert Culture Native Americans, have successively occupied this area. As many as six different Native American cultures may have been present at Red Rock over the millennia. The following chronology is an approximation, from the present to ancient pre-history:

Southern Paiute: 900 to modern times Patayan Culture: 900 to early historic times in the 1800s Ancestral Puebloan: 1 AD to 1150 Pinto/Gypsum: (Archaic) 3500 BC to 1 AD San Dieguito: 7000 to 5500 BC Paleo-Indians (Tule Springs): 11,000 to 8000 BC Numerous petroglyphs, as well as pottery fragments, remain today throughout the area. In addition, several roasting pits used by the early Native Americans at Red Rock provide further evidence of human activity in the past.

Modern history In the early 20th century, around the time the first European Americans settled in nearby Las Vegas, the Excelsior Company operated a small sandstone quarry near the northern area of the scenic loop. It proved to be uneconomical and was shut down. Evidence of the quarry's existence includes some of the huge sandstone blocks that have been left behind. The Red Rocks have been a film location for such movies as Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger in Bells of San Angelo (1947) and was a location for The Stalking Moon with Gregory Peck in 1968. In 1967, the Bureau of Land Management designated 10,000 acres (16 sq mi; 40 km2) as the Red Rock Recreation Lands. In 1973, the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Federal Conservation Areas held a special hearing in the Foley Federal Office Building in downtown Las Vegas to review a legislative resolution sponsored by Nevada's lone Congressman, David Towell (R-NV) to establish the Red Rock Conservation Area by transferring Federal land to the State of Nevada. Testimony in favor of the bill was given by the Sierra Club and a high school student and environmental activist, Dennis Causey. The subcommittee unanimously approved the resolution, sending it to the full Committee on the Interior and subsequently to the full House, followed by favorable action by the U S. Senate and approval by President George H. W. Bush. Further legislation in 1990 changed the status of the Red Rock Recreation Lands to a National Conservation Area, a status that also provides funds to maintain and protect it. The Federal area was adjacent to the Red Rock State Park. The Howard Hughes Corporation, developer of Summerlin, has transferred land adjacent to the protected area, to provide a buffer between the development and the conservation area. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is adjacent to the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area on the west side.

Biology

The conservation area is one of the easternmost parts of the Mojave Desert; the lowest elevation of the area, from 3,600 to 4,500 feet (1,100 to 1,400 m), is in the Lower Sonoran Zone, while the area from 4,500 feet (1,400 m) up is in the Upper Sonoran Zone. The character of the sandstone layers is such that several year-round springs may be found in the recesses of the side canyons. Some 600 species of plants are known in the area. Common types in the valley floor include the Joshua tree, Mojave yucca, banana yucca, creosote, and blackbrush. Higher up the Utah juniper and Sonoran scrub oak (also called scrub live oak) come to dominate. Agave is easy to spot in red rock niches, with its thick, low leaves and flowering stem reaching twice a man's height. The Calico Tanks trail has a plaque about prehistoric agave roasting pits. Ponderosa pines may be found at the top of the valley, where it connects to the Spring Mountains. Wild burros are a familiar sight, as are rabbits and ground squirrels. Desert bighorn sheep are occasionally seen at higher elevations. During rare spring and summer rainstorms, tiny red-spotted toads can emerge from water pools. The Conservation Area is a protected habitat for the desert tortoise. A habitat at the Visitor Center houses eight females and two males.

Climate

Geology

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area: Pictographs in Red Rock Canyon — Pictographs in Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area: Mojave Max, a desert tortoise[7] — Mojave Max, a desert tortoise[7]

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

In research: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Badlands of the United States, Bike paths in Nevada, Bureau of Land Management areas in Nevada, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in simple terms?

Why does Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.