Overview

This is a short 0.12-mile trail that runs down an old road to a spring with a small cement catchment 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. The trail is too short to call this a hike, but it is a good place to take visitors for a short walk in the desert and to watch birds. If you are driving the Scenic Loop, this makes a nice place to stop, stretch your legs, and spend a few minutes walking in the high desert. 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 pretty safe hike, but you probably shouldn't drink the water. Please don't contaminate the water, as it supports a fragile little 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 is a short hike, be sure to bring what you need of the 10 Essentials.

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located along 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 about half-way 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, you can look to the west (left as you drove 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).

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

A bench 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 you can't see it (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 eat 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 filled the catchment most of the way to the top with sand. The shallow water allows birds and other predators to catch the fish, and being shallow, water likely gets too hot in the summer for the non-native species to survive.

While you are 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, you will see bats swooping in to drink late in the day. During the summer, don't linger too late here as you might discourage birds from coming down to drink -- and life is hard enough for them without our interference.