RonnieAdventure #0006 - Keyhole Canyon, Clark County, Nevada

Keyhole Canyon is well known for the numerous petroglyphs that line both sides of the canyon and is popular with families that want a nice day trip that is not too far from Las Vegas. A vehicle with high ground clearance and four-wheel drive is recommended, but I have been to this site many times and four-wheel drive was never required to negotiate the two-track dirt trail from the highway to the trailhead.

Most people that visit the site typically marvel at the large numbers of petroglyphs at the canyon entrance and then stroll up a box canyon until the trial ends at a dry waterfall, returning by the same trail. Various people had told me that it is possible to hike up the north side of the mountain and then rappel down a series of dry waterfalls, where the last drop is the dry waterfall at the end of the box canyon. Although many people talk about this canyoneering trip, I had never visited with anyone that had actually made the decent. So, when a friend called and said that he found someone that had made the trip and was willing to take us through the canyon from top to bottom, I knew it was time for a RonnieAdventure!

The really bad thing about canyoneering is that either at the beginning or end of the trip you typically have to make a nasty hike to the top of the canyon. When rappelling through Keyhole Canyon, the hike comes at the beginning of the trip.

By the time we reached the top of the canyon we were feeling our age and we were glad that the second part of the trip was all downhill. As with all canyoneering trips that I have ever been on, the scenery down through the canyon was very beautiful and the photographs taken do not portray the real beauty of the canyon.

After finishing the rappels and arriving back at the canyon entrance, we spent some time admiring the petroglyphs before making our journey home. Fortunately, the weather was not too hot during the trip, but this definitely is not a summer outing.