After spending most of 2020 climbing in my DIY home gym or in the area around SLC, I was itching to head to some new crags. Unfortunately, February is still pretty cold and snowy to be able to do any climbing around SLC or even most of Utah. So I decided to head down to Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas where the weather is warm and the rock is dry.

Since I’m flying solo, I changed up the layout of the Tahoe a bit to better accommodate my needs. My plan is to leave SLC on Wednesday night and camp in St. George. Then head to my campsite in Red Rock on Thursday night and stay until Sunday morning. That’s four nights in the Tahoe and I’m planning to work remotely on Thursday and Friday as well.

You can see in this picture, I slid in the smaller side of the bed which gives me a good amount of space on the passenger side of the car. It looks messy but I’ve got my water jugs, crash pad, and propane heater over there. It’s supposed to get pretty cold at night so I brought my heater just in case.

Having the back set up this way is actually really nice because I can easily access underneath the bed from within the car. This is something that is much harder when the bed is fully extended out.

Wednesday night I stayed in Quail Creek Campground. It’s a beautiful little campground just outside of St. George along I-15. It was surprisingly beautiful and quiet for being so close to a major highway. It’s location also ensured I had adequate signal to work on my laptop all day Thursday.

Of course, I had to do some climbing in Moe’s Valley before heading to my next campsite. I only had a few hours of daylight but I was able to hop on a few of the classics in Super Mario Land before dark.

Friday morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise in Red Rock Canyon Campground. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any cell signal at all for my last day of work so I had to head back towards the Las Vegas area in order to get my work done.

But once I was done working for the day, it was time to hit the boulders! I want to give anyone who is thinking about heading to Red Rock Canyon a heads up, you must have a reservation in order to enter the park. This applies to everyone even if you have a National Parks pass (but your reservation is discounted with the pass).

It seems this is a newer thing due to COVID-19 but it was unexpected so just be sure to check up on the park website for the latest ongoings.

I was so focused on climbing Friday night that I barely took any pictures. But here we are on Saturday morning back in the campground making some delicious Kodiak protein pancakes! Saturday is going to be a big day of climbing at some of the well known spots.

I’m feeling good after 3 nights of living in my Chevy Tahoe. There has only been one night where it got cold enough that I had to fire up my propane heater but that thing really warmed up my little camper quick! Always keep the windows vented of course.

The theme of the weekend seemed to be that I forgot to take any pictures almost the whole time. Not a big deal, it was a fantastic weekend and I sent hard. I climbed a ton of the classics around the area and some newer, lesser known stuff. I sent Potato Chips on my third try which was a big win for me.

Sunday morning I made my way back to SLC. I’ve got some more trips planned so stay tuned for that! Also, I tend to post a lot of my climbing media on my Instagram and my Tiktok so go check those out and give me a follow if you like what you see.

Thanks for reading!