Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

This guide to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area outside Las Vegas traces an early-1900s scheme to quarry its red and gold sandstone for buildings in Los Angeles and San Francisco, hauled out by a seventeen-ton steam tractor nicknamed the Big Devil Wagon. You'll hear how a San Francisco company cut ten-ton blocks from the Calico Hills and hauled them toward the rail line, and how two more outfits tried their luck after the first one failed. Look for the ledges of sandstone banded rust and cream, laid down by an ancient buried desert of sand dunes.