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Mar 27, 2022 — Ice Cube Canyon (also known as The Maze) is the most famous and likely best technical canyon within Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Despite living in Las Vegas, I haven't done this one until now. Being a local canyon, I kept putting it off because I didn't think it could be all that good, but I couldn't have been more misguided. It's got the gorgeous textures typical for Red Rock, fun narrows that are more common in Utah, a bunch of rappels, short swimmers, and a straightforward approach. This is an excellent canyon with the added benefit of being close to home.
If you have two cars with high clearance you could set up a shuttle and cut a few miles off of the road walk, but we did not and had to make it a full loop. Additionally, you may want to consider getting a late exit pass from Red Rock in case things move more slowly than anticipated to avoid getting a ticket. We read about a "sneak" route from BluuGnome that skips more than half of the distance in the canyon, but apparently this is a convoluted approach route. The upper portion of The Maze is beautiful and worth the extra effort, anyway. Finally, there's apparently been some sort of bolting war within The Maze. I suppose some folks think it's okay to clip bolts when others are expecting them to be there. Hey, if you don't want to use the bolts, then ignore them! Fortunately, today we had a well-bolted canyon that sped things up considerably. That being said, in case some elitist decides to remove the bolts, it's prudent to bring a bunch of webbing and the knowledge of how to build natural anchors, though I suppose that's the case with any canyon.
Chris, Matt, and I set out from the Lost Creek Parking Area and headed along Rocky Gap Road, taking this road to a point at around the 5400' contour where a cairn marks a well-traveled trail on the left, the unofficial North Peak Trailhead. This trail leads steeply for about 1500 feet to gain the crest of the Keystone Thrust (the point on the ridge where the limestone visibly shifts to sandstone). The last few hundred feet ascends over Class 2 sandstone slabs/talus with cairns marking the way. Once at the crest we headed south, more or less following the Keystone Thrust line. A social trail leads to the head of The Maze.
We geared up and started down. The canyon's upper section has a few narrows and cool, twisting formations. The rappels in this section are short, and there are a bunch of fun downclimbing/partner-assist obstacles. The Maze then opens up for a bit under a mile and then enters the extended second half of technical canyoneering. While most rappels in this section are also short, there are a few aroud 100' and the final rap is about 190'. The lower portion also has a significant number of swimmers and wading.
I'll let the photos with captions below take it from here in more detail.
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Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!