Towering over the horizon west of Las Vegas is a beautiful Limestone and sandstone range called the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area.

There is some world class climbing, hiking and Canyoneering within and just outside of the Red Rock area.

Within the the towering walls that rival Zion, canyoneers have found a bunch of fantastic routes that have some interesting variation and beauty within the canyons themselves. 

Mud Spring Canyon, Nevada

Two friends came for a convention and we went for Giordano's Pizza on the strip.

 We were talking about what they could do in their free time and Justin had some experience canyoneering but his brother, Asher, was keen on going canyoneering and was excited to hear about the routes.

We decided to venture to the more straightforward canyon on the west range called Mud Spring Canyon.  This canyon is rated at a 3BIII for the potholes of static water.

I got some gear setup for them and they rented a car because we needed a shuttle to complete the full route.  We had to set their car at the Late night parking spot since their car was not to dirt road friendly.

It was quite hot out but we worked our way down and made it to the head of the canyon.  We practiced a few techniques and worked our way through the gear.  Asher is familiar with vertical caving so we were all equipped to work through the canyon safely and efficiently.

The canyon itself had some nice sand stone layers at the top and a section where we had three raps that took us down to another small gorge.

The canyon reminded me a bit of Spry Canyon in Zion but a bit smaller. The size did not matter so much as it was still a nice canyon and a great route for beginner canyoneers with more experienced people to assist.  We worked down 4-5 drops and came to a confluence and figured that we were done with the canyon.  we put our gear away and kept hiking down.

To our surprise, we were not done and found that there was a bottom section to the canyon with some high walls and interesting drops.

We by-passed a couple of the drops but once we got to the slab rock, we rapped down to the final sequence and we made it to the bottom.

we had a couple 30-40 footers and a 50 footer for the final drop. 

After that we headed out of the canyon and onto the desert.

The canyon was complete but we still had to hike back to the late night parking spot which was 2-3 more miles crossing over a bounder field, arroyos, and a desert in search of a trail that could take us to the car.

After about 8 hrs from the drop point we made it back to the car. We also passed a rattlesnake along the way too.

We started to unpack and rest as Justin realized that he left his keys in my car at the top. We were able to find a father and son in a jeep that took us up to the top.

Mud Spring canyon is a nice canyon if you got two cars and at least a half day to spend. I recommend it and I feel that it is worth doing again.

I am glad Justin and Asher were able to experience this together and Asher got to experience canyoneering.