Overview

This short (0.12-mile) trail runs down an old road to a spring with a small cement catch basin. The spring is a good place to find birds and other wildlife, and the short walk provides grand sweeping views of the White Rock Hills and the Red Rock (Wilson) Cliffs. This area is too short for a birding destination, but it is a good place to take visitors for a short walk in the desert and to watch birds. The access road is, however, a bit rough.

When quiet, this is one of my favorite places at Red Rock Canyon, and it proves that a nice hike doesn't have to be long and hard.

Link to map.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this is a safe hike, but you probably shouldn't drink the water. Please don't contaminate the water, as it supports a fragile little ecosystem, and don't add goldfish, as they eat Red-spotted Toad eggs and damage the ecosystem.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and please try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, even though this hike is short, be sure to bring what you need of the 10 Essentials.

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located along the Scenic Loop Road in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, about 45 minutes west of Las Vegas. From town, drive out to Red Rocks, pay the entrance fee, and drive 6.1 miles around the Scenic Loop Road to White Rock Road. Drive up White Rock Road to the White Rock Trailhead. Park here; this is the trailhead.

The Hike

A sign on the west side of the parking area marks the White Rock Spring trailhead (another trail leads out from the northeast side of the parking area). From the trailhead, birders can look west (left driving up the road) and down the hillside to see a large singleleaf pinyon pine near the rocky cliffs. This is your target.

From the trailhead (Table 2, Waypoint 01), this short trail follows an old road for about 0.07 miles down the hillside to a trail junction (Wpt. 02).

Here, the left fork leads to the Willow Springs Picnic Area, and the right fork leads to White Rock Spring. After walking for about one more minute (0.05 miles), the trail arrives at the cement catch basin (Wpt. 03).

A bench (missing March 2014) in the shade of a shrub oak tree provides a quiet place to sit, enjoy the grand solitude, and watch the wildlife come to the water. Don't overlook the colorful dragonflies and damselflies as they dart about catching tiny flying insects.

The spring itself is up the hill from the catchment, but it is buried and can't be seen (follow the pipe for about 40 feet until it disappears underground).

The catchment provides year-round water for wildlife. Historically, native pacific treefrogs bred in the pond. Unfortunately however, people released goldfish into the pond, and the goldfish ate all of the frog eggs and tadpoles. With so many fish and so little space, the tads didn't have a chance. Goldfish also eat the native spring snails, making it hard for them to survive. Goldfish are pretty, but please don't release them into ponds in the desert; these ecosystems are delicate and easily damaged.

The BLM figured out a good way to maintain the spring and the wildlife it supports without the hazard of goldfish and other exotic tropical aquarium fish -- they poured sand into the catch basin to make the water fairly shallow. The shallow water allows birds and other predators to catch the fish, and being shallow, water likely gets too hot in the summer for non-native species to survive.

While at the pond, sit quietly on the bench under the shrub live oak tree and watch for birds and bighorn sheep; and sometimes if you are lucky, bats will swoop in to drink late in the day. During the summer, don't linger too late as the presence of humans might discourage birds and wildlife from coming down to drink -- and life is hard enough for them without our interference.