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Feb 16, 2017 — This is a particularly fun and somewhat obscure route within Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area with the added benefit of being outside the annoying 13-mile scenic drive. The route includes scrambling and route-finding, a natural arch, and a cool ridgeline along the sandstone and limestone divide that makes up the Keystone Thrust. It summits Hidden Peak, Peak 6516, Mountain Spring Peak, and Black Velvet Peak.
Reahing the Black Velvet Canyon Trailhead is passable by Croxxover vehicles, but sedans will have lots of trouble. Shawn and I set out from the parking area along a rocky road that narrowed into a trail leading to the mouth of Black Velvet Canyon, a popular canyon for rock climbing. We entered the drainage and subsequent rock-hopping wonderland. Almost immediately at the canyon's mouth we encountered a Class 3 obstacle on the left side of a dryfall before the Class 2 boulder-hopping began in earnest within Black Velvet Canyon. Black Velvet Canyon quickly gets more narrow and has some more interesting obstacles the whole way up. There was a bunch of water on our visit, and it added to the colorful walls.
Our first destination would be Hidden Peak. Look for a poorly-laid cairn on the right (a map would be much better) that marks the gully that takes you up to the west side of Hidden Peak. A few very easy Class 3 moves lead to easier terrain, and then there's otherwise only Class 2 quad-killing hiking up to the summit by using the ample slabs and overall pleasant scrambling. Much of the ascent followed a drainage leading north below Hidden Peak, then the route wrapped around to the peak's west ridge before continuing to the summit.
From the summit of Hidden Peak, we headed along the sandstone ridge, passing over the Keystone Thrust (where the sandstone abruptly turns to limestone), and followed the limestone ridge generally southwest until we got to Peak 6516, only interesting because of a natural arch with a gorgeous sandstone backdrop. We took a bunch of shameless photos of each other here before continuing along the limestone ridge to Mountain Spring Peak, never exceeding Class 2. Mountain Spring Peak was also not particularly memorable, but the terrain became interesting again as we headed south from the limestone and back over the Keystone Thrust into sandstone on our way to Black Velvet Peak. Fortunately, cairns marked the way to the summit of this peak, keeping the route at Class 2+/3, little to no exposure. There were a bunch of fun moves, including a small talus cave to scramble through.
From Black Velvet Peak, we were determined to find a route back down without having to re-summit the limestone peaks we already did today. We noted the sheer drops on the north side of Black Velvet Peak and contoured generally west/northwest until we got back to the limestone slopes. We side-hilled beneath Mountain Spring Peak, some animal/social trails available. Eventually, we located a colorful canyon that ended up working! Lots of these canyons have big drops randomly throughout that would have shut us down, so we considered outselves lucky to only encounter a few easy down climb moves. We made it back into the main Black Velvet Canyon drainage and headed out the way we came.
I should note that I included photos up to Hidden Peak from another trip, where I documented the route a bit better, so you'll see my friend Matty scattered about in the photos below, filling in the gaps from my original trip report.
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