Dark Shadows, Mescalito North 5.8

  
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Red Rocks, Nevada USA

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A map of the general Red Rocks, Nevada USA area is shown below. No GPS coordinates for this specific route are available at this time.

Approach
The Pine Creek parking lot is most of the way around the loop road. Popular with both climbers and hikers, the rush is on as soon as the gate opens and the lot can fill early. The trail is large, well-worn, and easy to follow until almost at Mescalito, where one branch dives down left into the creek bed (almost always completely dry).

While it is possible to thrash along the streambed of the right branch, it is much easier to gain the climbers’ trail on the right bench. Just as a line of 40-foot-tall red cliffs seems to force you into the stream, climb up the bench and around a prominent huge boulder. A beautiful trail leads from here straight to Dark Shadows. (Thanks Access Fund volunteers!) Dark Shadows begins on a rock above a 6-foot waterfall between two pools of water.

Descent
Rap the routes, and reverse the approach. Please do not travel in the wash, the main trail was built specifically to reduce traffic in this sensitive riparian habitat, one of the few in Red Rocks which nearly always has flowing water.

Mescalito North - Dark Shadows 5.8 - Red Rocks, Nevada USA. Click to Enlarge
Dark Shadows follows a black, polished dihedral up Mescalito.
Photo: Greg Barnes