Nevada Traveler: The best source for Las Vegas-area geology and natural history

While it’s been out since 2008, the best book for anyone interested in the geology and natural history of the Las Vegas region remains, “Geologic Tours of the Las Vegas Area,” published by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology at the University of Nevada, Reno, with assistance from the Bureau of Land Management.

The book is written by the same folks who produced “Traveling America’s Loneliest Road: A Geologic and Natural History Tour through Nevada along U.S. Highway 50.”

Authors Joseph V. Tingley (who also co-wrote the Highway 50 book), Becky W. Purkey, Ernest M. Duebendorfer, Eugene I. Smith, Jonathan G. Price and Stephen B. Castor have compiled a comprehensive guide to the unique geologic and historic sites found throughout Clark County in Southern Nevada.

The 136-page spiral-bound book, which is an expanded and updated version of a 1994 edition that was published in a different format, begins with a brief overview of Southern Nevada’s geology and history. It also includes GPS coordinates for various sites.

Following a nice color photo gallery depicting some of the natural history and geology of the region, the book moves into a series of five trips with detailed mileage road logs, which provide mileage counts beside the descriptions of the various places you’ll see along the way.

Trip 1 takes you from Blue Diamond to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, directly west of Las Vegas. Along the way, you’ll learn about Sandstone Bluffs, also called the Red Rock Canyon Sandstone Escarpment or Wilson Cliffs (the authors explain why it has three names).

In this section, you’ll also learn about old gypsum mines and a historic sandstone quarry in the area as well as Joshua trees, coyotes and what’s so special about Red Rock Canyon.

The second trip in the book is devoted to the Spring Mountains, northwest of Las Vegas. This 100-mile journey the Mount Charleston region and something known as the Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone, where mountain ranges that were once contiguous were pulled apart millions of years ago and are now separated by miles of valley floor.

Trip 3 essentially follows Lake Mead Boulevard from Frenchman Mountain to the Valley of Fire State Park, an area that is northeast of Las Vegas. This section includes the curiously named “Great Unconformity,” a place where, apparently, there is a mysterious billion-year gap in the geologic record.

The chapter also describes the amazing journey of Frenchman Mountain. Apparently, the mountain consists of rocks different from any other mountains around Las Vegas but similar to those found near the Grand Canyon, more than 60 miles east.

Many geologists believe the mountain actually moved over a period of millions of years along faults to its present location.

The books fourth trip includes the area around Lake Mead, Hoover Dam and Eldorado Canyon, all south and east of Las Vegas. Here you learn about Manganese mining in the region as well as volcanoes that were once active in the area (they last erupted more than 15 million years ago).

There is also a good explanation of the Las Vegas Wash, where water from the Las Vegas Valley drains (a lot of water in some years) and a brief history of Hoover Dam and Boulder City. Additionally, the authors reveal what a “hoodoo” is—it’s a column or pillar of precariously balanced rocks.

The fifth and final section of the book describes the wetlands and water sources in the Las Vegas Valley. The authors note that the original water sources in the region were natural springs. Over the years, withdrawal of underground water has dried up the springs and created problems like large fissures or cracks in the ground and a sinking of the land in the valley (known as subsidence).

Unlike the other segments of the book, this tour jumps from site to site throughout the valley, including Tule Springs and the site of the original Las Vegas Springs, now a desert demonstration garden with plans for a park.

“Geologic Tours in the Las Vegas Area” is available from the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, https://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Geol-tours-Las-Vegas-area-GPS-p/sp016.htm.