Page 10 - summer 2015 magazine flip

By Larry Dunn

Red Rock Sunrise ~ Komkrit Thusanapanont

Friends of Red Rock Canyon (FORRC), the Red Homestead site, had become strewn with
Rock Canyon Interpretive Association (RRCIA) and baseball-sized cobbles, punctuated by football-sized
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cooperate rocks embedded in the tread, and was badly washed
throughout the year to produce a series of events and out in its upper segments. This made hiking some-
opportunities for community vol- what tricky and uncomforta-
unteers at Red Rock Canyon Na- The obstacle course also known as Pine Creek Trail ble due to poor footing and
tional Conservation Area. The tripping hazards.
scope of these volunteer activities A common side effect of
encompasses everything from Vis- this trail degradation is the
itor Center docent work, programs inadvertent creation of so-
for school kids, trail stewardship, called “social” trails that par-
graffiti removal and feeding the allel the main trail or just
torts! However, most Friends branch off into the desert,
would agree that the biggest annu- never to return! These social
al volunteer event is trails often cause erosion and
Red Rock Day – an early spring, generally spoil the natural
open-to-the-public workday at which volunteers from beauty of the desert. Both the main trail and the so-
throughout the community join our regular volunteers cial trails needed to be addressed! The Friends Natu-
to undertake a major, especially needed project. This ral Resources Committee,
year, our focus was improving Pine Creek Trail. Our chaired by Wyatt Mulvey, Camouflaged social trail
outreach drew more than sixty volunteers who contrib- had been working on Pine
uted over four hundred hours helping to improve this Creek Trail for the past
very popular hiking trail. several months but, with
Because Pine Creek is one of the most used trails in limited time and a rela-
the Conservation Area, it is also one of the most heavi- tively small number of
ly user-impacted. Over time, the trail, which comprises
much of the original ranch road to the Wilson

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