There are thousands of different types of plants and animals here in Red Rock Canyon! In fact, there are so many we can name them alongside our ABC’s and still have plenty more to talk about. Our Red Rock Canyon A to Z will show you plants, animals, and other natural phenomena that occur throughout Red Rock!
Ammospermophilus leucrus
Life Span: 2-4 years
Habitat: Prefers rocky deserts with cactus and shrubs, often live in underground burrows they dig under shrubs like creosote or mesquite
Range: Southwest US and Northwest Mexico
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? Anywhere! But you’ll see them around at the VC and running across the road, so be extra careful while driving and make sure to never feed the wildlife!
Fun Fact: Antelope Squirrels practice “heat dumping” when their body temperature reaches its limits they get into a shady spot and lay down spread-eagle with their belly pressed against the cool ground.
The next time you find yourself hiking in Red Rock Canyon, take a moment to closely inspect the ground. You might notice brown to blackish biological soil crusts, also referred to as cryptobiotic soil crusts, covering open portions of the desert floor. These crusts are composed of cyanobacteria, lichens, fungi, algae, and other microorganisms that attach to barren soils throughout the desert. Biological soil crusts stabilize soil to prevent wind & water erosion, retain moisture & fix atmospheric nitrogen for plants to use, capture & store carbon, and much more. The desert would not be able to support plant and animal life without these crucial ecosystem services!
Unfortunately, these long-living biological soil crusts are fragile and can be easily destroyed by visitors walking, biking, camping, or driving on top them. It can take several years to several decades for disturbed biological crusts to recover, so we encourage visitors to travel on developed trails & roadways. Don’t bust the crust!
Cylindropuntia fulgida
Types: There are many types of Cholla that can be found in Red Rock Canyon as well as within the entire Mojave Desert. The most common you will find is Buckhorn Cholla!
Identification: Some look like shrubs while others can look like large trees growing up to 13ft tall! They have long skinny arms that branch off of their stem.
Habitat: Prefer sandy or gravelly soils of hillsides, ledges, mesas, flats and washes.
Range: Southern tip of Nevada, Southwestern Utah, Southern California, and Western Arizona. They can be found in both the Mojave Desert and the Sonoran Desert.
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? You can find them at the visitor center and on most trails! They tend not to grow much higher than 4000 ft in elevation. If you really want to see a forest of them, there are lots to see on trails like Pine Creek, North Oak Creek, and South Oak Creek.
Fun Fact: These cacti have the nickname “jumping cholla” because pieces will break off and hitch a ride on fur, shoes, or your pants to find a new home; wherever they land can produce a whole new plant!
Desert willow
Chilopsis linearis
Identification: Can look like a small shrub or a large tree, they have white/purple flowers and long skinny seed pods.
Habitat: Commonly found in dry washes and below 5000ft in elevation. Its presence usually indicates that there is more water accessible to them deep underground.
Range: Southwest US and Northern Mexico
Where can I find them at Red Rock Canyon? There are a few around the VC and it’s parking areas, but you can also find them on trails with washes, like Lost Creek!
Fun Fact: Large black carpenter bees are their main pollinators. You may even find a ladderback woodpecker nest in its branches!
Identification: They often grow bunched together and look like green straws with black lines and when it’s spring you will see them covered in yellow flowers.
Habitat: Commonly found on gravelly plains, rocky slopes, and even stable dunes
Range: Western US
Where can I find it in Red Rock Canyon? You can find Ephedra on most trails if you know where to look. They are incredibly abundant on Lost Creek and Pine Creek!
Fun Fact: Charcoal made from ephedra was once used as ink for tattoos by indigenous groups living around Red Rock Canyon.
Order Anostaca
Life Span: Up to 2 weeks
Habitat: Small pools of water formed after heavy rain fall in rocks and crevices
Range: Different types of Fairy Shrimp occur throughout North America, primarily in Canada and the Western US
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? You can find them after heavy rains in the small pools of water that fill up in the divots of the sandstone, especially near Calico 1.
Fun Fact: Fairy Shrimp lay their eggs at the bottom of the pools of water they live in. These eggs can remain dormant even after the water has dried out, waiting for the perfect conditions to start the next generation.
Coleonyx variegatus
Western Banded Gecko
Life Span: 5-8 years
Habitat: Prefer creosote bushes, sagebrush, sandy barren and rocky areas.
Range: Arizona, Southern California, Southwestern New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Baja California
Where can I find them at Red Rock Canyon? Keep your eyes low to the ground if you want to spot them, they are often hiding in the brush where they try not to be disturbed.
Fun Facts: Males have spurs at the base of their tail. In addition to dropping its tail for defense, it can also curl its tail over its body to mimic a scorpion.
Pogonomyrmex
Life Span: A single colony of harvester ants can survive 15-20 years
Habitat: Nests are bare circular patches of soil that can be as large as 12ft in diameter and 3ft deep
Range: South and Southwest US, Mexico, and occasionally Southern Utah; commonly found at elevations of more than 3,000ft.
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? This little bug can often be mistake with fire ants, but they are actually much larger. Nests have been spotted somewhat off the trail on Pine Creek. You may not think it’s an ant when it has wings, but you’re probably looking at a harvester ant!
Fun Fact: Harvester ants at certain times of the year will have four clear wings that have amber colored veins
Ichnofossils are traces of past organisms that have been fossilized. These traces can be in the form of footprints and even feces. In Red Rock Canyon there have been footprint ichnofossils found in the sandstone! The one that is easiest to recognize are the grallator tracks. These tracks show evidence of three-toed bi-pedal dinosaurs. These tracks have shown a window into the past and how previous animals have behaved. Grallator tracks are not the only kind of ichnofossil in the sandstone, other smaller footprints have been found as well. We are currently keeping our eye out for any new ones that may appear, let us know if you see one so we can make sure to protect it.
These ichnofossils are extremely delicate. Walking over them, climbing on then, or trying to take them can damage them in extreme ways. At Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, we pride ourselves in protecting these ancient stories that the sandstone tell us. Please always follow the Leave No Trace principles and leave anything you find, including all types of fossils, where you found them.
Yucca brevifolio
Identification: Similar to other Yucca in their stumps, they tend to branch out more than other yucca’s and have green bunches of waxy sharp leaves. They can grow 3 to 9 ft. When the time is right, you’ll see white flowers bloom and even fruits growing from these desert trees!
Habitat: They can be found throughout the arid Mojave desert and often grow in between 3,000ft to 6,000ft in elevation
Range: The Mojave Desert
Where can I find them at Red Rock Canyon? Look for them around the Visitor Center, the roadside, and trails like South Oak and Middle Oak.
Fun Fact: It is believed that the giant ground sloth was the primary dispersers of Joshua tree seeds, and the range of Joshua Tree’s have shrunk significanlty since their extinction.
Keystone Thrust is the name for a prominent geologic fault in Red Rock Canyon. Faults are fractures in the Earth’s crust that occur from the movement of rock layers.
The Keystone Thrust is one of a series of faults that formed an estimated 65 million years ago, near the end of the Mesozoic geologic era – about the same time that the dinosaurs went extinct. At this time, the Pacific plate began moving under the North American plate. This caused compressional forces to push up older limestone rock layers over younger sandstone rock layers. At Red Rock Canyon, this is visible as grayish carbonate or limestone layers over red- and buff-colored sandstone.
This feature runs north & south for 13 miles along State Route 159, and curves at La Madre Mountain. It is one of the best examples of thrust faulting there is because you can stand along it with one foot on the younger sandstone rock layer and the other foot on the older limestone rock layer.
Identification: Lichen looks like colorful bacteria growing on rocks, the ground, and can even be found on the shells of tortoises. They come in many different colors including reds, oranges, greens, and blues.
Habitat: There are over 10,000 species of lichen and most are in the America’s and can be found in arid environments, forests, and even in higher elevations.
Range: Lichen can be found all over the world and are incredibly adaptable to extreme climates.
Where can I find it in Red Rock Canyon? Keep your eye on the rocks! You can see lichen almost anywhere including Calico Tanks and Lost Creek.
Fun Fact: Lichen cannot survive on it’s own, it lives in partnership with algae and fungus and can hold different roles in their ecosystem depending on what kind of partnership it has with other organisms.
Odocoileus hemionus
Life Span: 9-11years
Habitat: Mule deer are considered remarkably adaptable, living in woodland chaparral, desert, semi-desert shrub woodland, Great Plains, Colorado Plateau, sagebrush steppe and boreal forests
Range: North American into Northern Mexico
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? Most have been spotted near Oak Creek Canyon and First Creek.
Fun Fact: Mule deer antlers will fall off of their heads every year in the winter time. It is not a painful process; more often than not all it takes is a quick shake of their heads for their antler to fall off.
White Breasted Nuthatch
Sitta carolinensis
Life Span: 2 years
Habitat: Open space amongst trees
Range: North America
Where can I find them at Red Rock Canyon? These birds can pop up all year long and can be found in some of our deciduous trees; ponderosa pines, and pinyon pines especially. Look for them in the branches around Willow Springs and Pine Creek.
Fun Fact: They don’t migrate with the seasons, they migrate based on food availability from the trees the feed off of.
Most don’t think of the ocean for the Mojave Desert. But the ecosystem of Red Rock Canyon was vastly different millions of years ago. 600 million years ago our area was located below the equator and covered in a shallow ocean. This ocean was home to ancient sea life. When all of that sea life died and sunk to the ocean floor along with sediment and bacteria it compacted to create the grey-looking limestone that you can see in our distant mountains and in our washes. This is also where you find most of our fossils that look like sea-shells, spirals, and churt.
Always follow the Leave No Trace principles and leave what you find. Let’s work together to make sure all visitors can enjoy and find these wonderful little fossils that tell us a story of our geological past.
What’s the difference between a petroglyph and a pictograph?
In the Mojave Desert, the key to survival is usable water. The springs and many natural catch basins at Red Rock Canyon sustain an abundances of plants and animals, which attracted Southern Paiute Indians, Ancestral Puebloan Indians, Desert Archaic peoples, and Paleoarchaic peoples. Animals hunted and harvested included desert tortoise, rabbits, big horn sheep, mule deer, quail, and more. Pinyon pine nuts, manzanita fruits, prickly pear cactus fruits, agave hearts, yucca fruits, and many other plants were used as food or medicine sources. Native people used this area for thousands of years, living in the desert valley during the fall and winter and migrating to the hills and mountains during spring and summer.
Evidence of Native Americans and their lives in Red Rock Canyon can be seen through their structures and through their rock writings. Petroglyphs are carvings into the rock while Pictographs are paintings on the rocks. Both can be found in Red Rock Canyon and tell a unique story of the lives that once lived around the area. You can find some of these petroglyphs on the Petroglyph Wall Trail and a pictograph on the Lost Creek Trail. Always remember to follow the Leave No Trace Principles and leave what you find.
Callipepla gambelii
Life Span: ~2 years
Habitat: Shrubby, thorny areas, river valleys, creeks, washes, springs, chaparral, and oak woodlands in high deserts
Range: US Southwest into Northwest Mexico
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? Keep your eyes low to the ground as Quail’s are not the best flyers. They’ve been spotted near Cowboy Trails and even on the Knoll Trail.
Fun Fact: Before her eggs hatch, the female quail will call to the chicks who will cheep to each other from inside the eggs! So cute!
One of the most common questions we get at Red Rock Canyon is: Why are the rocks red?
The same thing that gives the red color to blood is the thing that gives the reddish color to Red Rock Canyon. It’s the mineral iron. Millions of years ago, when the area was a dried basin leftover from a once-rich ocean that flowed all the way into Colorado, it was covered with sand dunes. Windblown sand moved back and forth, leveling dunes and making new ones. The shifting sands became buried by other sediments, and eventually it was all cemented into sandstone with iron oxide and calcium carbonate. In some places the iron has concentrated and oxidized to reveal a rusty red coloring. This is what is now known as Aztec Sandstone, prominently displayed in Calico Hills and the Red Rock cliffs. In areas where the rock is tan to white in color, the iron has either been leached out by water, or it was never deposited there.
Small deposits of iron oxide can also be found as iron concretions, which appear as red spots in Aztec sandstone. Sometimes the sandstone erodes around them, leaving little balls known as Moqui marbles.
Red Rock Canyon received it’s title as a National Conservation Area in 1990! Make sure to come by for our birthday in November!
Desert Bighorn Sheep
Ovis Canadensis
Life Span: 6-8 years
Habitat: Rough and rocky terrain of Southern Nevada, alpine and tundra’s, cliffs and canyons, and desert washes
Range: Western Mountainous regions of North America, ranging from Southern Canada to Mexico
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? It can be difficult to spot these elusive sheep in our mountains. Look towards those steep cliffs and if you happen to be hiking in higher elevations, you might see them closer to pools of water in the rocks.
Fun Fact: These sheep almost went extinct due to hunting practices until there was a push for conservation efforts. Now, there are places like the Desert National Wildlife Refuge that are set aside for their protection!
Gopherus agassizii
Life Span: 50-80years
Habitat: They spend most of their lives in their burrows but can be found in washes, canyons, sandy flats, rocky foothills, warm desert riparian.
Range: Mojave and Sonoran Deserts
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? They are pretty rare, especially since they are on the Threatened Species list. However, during the spring and summer months you can find our tortoise residents at the Visitor Center Exhibit Area. Whenever you are recreating in Red Rock during the warmer months, always make sure to check underneath your vehicle before you leave. Some tortoises will sit underneath your car to seek out the shade to cool off.
Fun Fact: Like many other herbivores, desert tortoises will gnaw on bones for calcium, not all of us in the desert can get a glass of milk! Some of us need bones!
Agave utahensis
Identification: The base of the plant often looks like a smaller yucca, with green-ish leaves that are sharp. It grows a large stalk that looks similar to an asparagus and blooms at the top of the stalk. This stalk can grow up to 12ft tall.
Habitat: Grows on rocky terrains and between wedged rocks along cliffsides.
Range: This plant can be found in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah
Where can I find this in Red Rock Canyon? Agave plants, dead or alive, can be spotted all throughout Red Rock Canyon. You may see more where they are able to grow in between the rocks on trails like Calico Tanks, White Rock Mountain Loop, and even on Lost Creek.
Fun Facts: Agave was cooked using roasting pits by Native American’s in Red Rock Canyon. Be very careful if you come across piles of limestone and dirt that look somewhat out of place, you could be walking up on an ancient oven.
Fraxinus velutina
Identification: Tall round-topped tree with compound green leaves and long narrow fruit pods.
Habitat: Washes and near springs
Range: These trees can be found from California to Southern Utah, Texas, and into Northern Mexico Where can I find them in RR Canyon? You can find many of these trees along the Red Springs Boardwalk.
Fun Fact: These are on of the few native trees in the desert that have the typical changing of colors during the fall seasons.
Malaxosoma californicum
Life Span: 1 generation per year
Habitat: They create silky web-like tents in shrubs and trees, preferring aspen
Range: Central and Southern Rocky Mountain area
Where can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? We’ve seen their silky tents in some of our shrubs on the Moenkopi Trail and heading up to Turtlehead peak!
Fun Fact: Sometimes populations can get out of control and impact tree health, but there’s usually enough predation to re-control populations after a couple of years.
Identification: You can see their daisy-like purple flowers during the springs time!
Habitat: Dry rocky slopes and washes
Range: Mojave, Sonoran, and Great Basin Deserts
Where can I find this in Red Rock Canyon? You may find them hiding amongst the creosote bushes or Joshua trees, they keep themselves low to the ground and prefer more acidic soil.
Fun Fact: Despite it’s pretty color, most animals don’t like to eat it, and it actually doesn’t like to grow too close to water sources, preferring the less friendly soil in other parts of the desert.
Enoclerus spinolae
Life Span: 9-17 months
Habitat: Semi-arid areas, woodlands, and open spaces near yucca studded areas.
Range: Southwestern US towards Utah and Texas and south into Mexico
Where Can I find them in Red Rock Canyon? They are easily mistaken for lady bugs, so make sure to take extra time when looking for bugs inside of yucca’s, agaves, and other flowers. You may see them alongside other insects like bees. Their favorite snack is a lady bug, so you might see them wrestling on the plants. They’ve been spotted at Pine Creek Trail where lots of flowers have bloomed.
Fun Facts: These beetles are predators and will hop on a bee’s back to get to their hive and eat their larvae. They disguise themselves as lady bugs to seem harmless, but are looking for a tasty snack.
Callisaurus draconoides
Life Span: 3-4 years
Habitat: Cliffs and canyons, desert washes
Range: Southwestern US and Baja California
Where can I see them at Red Rock Canyon? Look for these fun looking lizards in rocky areas like Fossil Ridge and Calico Hills.
Fun Fact: Before running, the zebra-tailed lizard may curl its tail upward, exposing its black and white bars, and wag it to deter predators