Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada

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Las Vegas, Nevada—As I flew at night into the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, the Strip casinos rose like man-made mountains from a desert of low, dark buildings. The lights called to me, and once I reached them, I ducked into a blackjack area and watched desperate people try to beat the house—which, of course, they never would (see “Big Game Theory,” page 58). I sidled up to a table, but before even one card got tossed my way I realized that the blaring music—na na na na, hey hey-ey, good-bye—was telling me what the casino wanted me to say to my money. That moment also reminded me of my real reason for coming to Vegas. I was here not for the man-made mountains but for the much more spectacular real ones just outside of town.

I escaped the casino, rested up in an inexpensive hotel, and the next morning set off to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which includes a 13-mile scenic drive about a half hour west of the Strip. The landscapes around Las Vegas present an exceptionally stark account of plate tectonics in action, as nearly 2 billion years of pushing and shoving have scrambled the layers of the earth’s crust—aptly enough, not unlike a deck of shuffled cards. Dune-shaped mountains display 520-million-year-old gray limestone, formed from the remains of marine organisms that once filled a shallow ocean covering the western United States. The limestone sits neatly atop 180-million-year-old red sandstone, representing ancient Jurassic sand dunes. A period of violent tectonic thrusting during the Cretaceous reorganized the rocks into their current arrangement.

I arrived at 8 a.m., early enough to beat the crowds. The first few trails were populated with people dressed for the casinos, but they were easy enough to shake. (A warning to casual day-trippers: Open-toed shoes are no match for these trails.) A mile in, I found welcome solitude and spectacular views.