Subject: My Xmas Exploration Of Blue Diamond
Date: 12/21/2009 1:00:25 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
From:LordOfThyNight@aol.com
To: ParanormalBuffalo@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalGhostSociety@googlegroups.com, paranormalghostsociety@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalGhostSocietyConnections@yahoogroups.com, TheParanormalGhostSociety@yahoogroups.com, SupernaturalFlorida@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalCalifornia@yahoogroups.com, paranormalsincity@yahoogroups.com, Paranormalflorida@yahoogroups.com

Each and every year our group tries to do a special exploration around the Xmas season. Sometimes the locations we do fit the holiday theme other times they are locations that are rather unique. I had originally planned this as a family outing a way for me to bond with my sons. I felt that hiking here was way better then having them play video games or spend a Sunday or fighting like cats and dogs.
 
I  had always been curious about Blue Diamond Hill and its mines never did I realize that the entire mountain as your entering red rock would be one day the place I stood on top of. Honestly I had no plans on being on top of any peak but what I learned when hiking in the mountains each step closer leads to a place you haven't been before.
 
This was planned as an all day trip so I packed a few back packs of food and drinks. The skies were fairly dark and gloomy all day so we were not even sure if it would rain. I did not tell Tammy and the boys to much just that we would go hiking and check out a few caves.  We headed out early in the morning temperatures were in the 40's it was crisp and cool out.
 
I felt it was a good area to take the kids since fossils were predominate and their was many things to explore. The Red Rock Canyon region is visited by many rock climbers, hikers, tourist and nature enthusiast world wide. It is also an area that has strange UFO activity.....large mountain lions......and even a touch of history.
 
Everybody was still sleepy as we searched for a dirt road that was fairly close to Red Rock Canyon's pull off. We pulled on up seen some cowboys and walked on past I at first felt out of place here perhaps not really since I was wearing my hat and tipping it down at everybody lol. I had my eyes set on finding some good caves to explore and so my adventure began's.
 
Blue Diamond
 
As we passed by the horse stables we seen to our right and left two very high ridges with cliffs built into them. It was apparent that their were multiple trails within the canyon. You had your trail which ran on the bottom of the canyon then you had other trails which hugged the canyons wall higher on up.
 
When we first entered the canyon the boys and I found higher up along the cliffs of it a dwelling or rather cave with a small room in it.  Along our exploration we would find a few of these mainly caves with dead ends or just little rooms built into the cliffs which graced the canyon itself.
 
My main goal would be to find a well known place called Desert Cave. I did not realize how high I climbed as Tammy was at the bottom of the canyon I stood on an out cropping looking down at her. The canyon however would eventually narrow to a single trail.
 
We followed the trail as we climbed boulders...rocks.....working our way up the tiers which lined the canyon every few hundred feet. Behind us the Wilson Cliffs of red rock gradually faded away as we went around bends within the canyon. I figured if we followed the canyon up we would eventually read an area where we could climb up and enjoy a beautiful view of Red Rock it was a hunch at the time.
 
Along the way I heard some voices and way up above me on the ridge of the canyon was a couple cowboys hiking. They yelled down to me hello and I gave them the same courtesy. I knew that if they were hiking up on the ridge their had to be another trail we missed earlier in the exploration.
 
My son who didn't expect it seen a snake slither past him while not sticking to the trail lol. I wish I had my camera on not sure I ever seen a look so scared on him in my life. He practically danced the entire way back onto the trail lol. Lucky for us it wasn't rattler season and the snake seemed rather harmless.
 
The canyon had cliffs on both sides of us and when it narrowed we climbed up a wall and inched our way along a wall climbing into a hole. This cave would be the desert cave and would go downward into a room with a sandy bottom. Their were some pretty large rocks within the chamber but what I noticed more then anything is peoples garbage and allot of graffiti on the rocks and walls within.
 
I never thought in my life I would get Tammy to climb down into a hole and into a cave but she went in with us. The room wasn't very large maybe a hundred or two circumference and every single passage we explored dead ended or was blocked off with stalactites. The kids had fun exploring it was a very safe location so I let them go off and do their own thing. My son thought this was so cool he climbed on various rocks giving me the peace sign lol.
 
I thought myself it was pretty cool because for one its not an easy cave to get to. We had to climb rocks....small walls....and the entrance isn't very large. What surprised me is the incline in the cave how it slanted fairly steep then leveled on off inside. The temperature inside the cave was warmer then that outside it felt good and we spent some reasonable amount of time here.
 
Beyond this part of the canyon was unknown territory however earlier in the exploration the trail did split off to an area known as fossil canyon. I had to make a decision would we stay in canyons or dare explore the vastness of Blue Diamond. Of course being the explorer I am I wanted more caves.....scenic views.....etc. Have you ever gone somewhere that you didn't want to end?
 
For a change my sons were actually getting along of course I did not want this to end so we climbed this wall higher up into the canyon. The wall was almost a vertical climb although tricky my kids went up it like cutting through butter no problems. As we went into the canyon more their was much more foliage.....the canyon narrowed....and the walls were black rocks. I managed to find another cave to small for me to crawl around in but the kids were able to go down some of the tunnels on their hands and knees.
 
The kids never been in such a canyon and at times they felt as if they were lost or enclosed in. I was adamant about continuing our journey on till we reached canyons end. I figured it would be really nice to take a different way back perhaps the same way where the Cowboys shouting down to me.
 
Sure enough when we reached the canyons end their was a small valley with wide open desert. Strangely when we kept going I ran into a mountain bike and walking trail with actual markers. The trail split off in three ways one way went off into the basin....another followed the ridge which ran along the entire canyon....and another way went off into the hills.
 
I took the trail leading off into the hills and desert I at least heard a rumor that a fairly secluded ravine is on the other side of that canyon so I actually wanted to find it. As we headed off into the desert we went up and down small hills. We had a beautiful view along the way of the Wilson Cliffs.  
 
We seen a mountain biker with his dog. The dog was having allot of issues the trail was rugged and so steep at points you had to carry your bike up or down them. Eventually he faded away and I thought dang wish I had a bike because I knew we were a couple miles from our car and wherever our journey decided to take us.
 
At times the hills were fairly steep so I could not see what was on top of them. Strangely I got off of the trail following my steps up this giant hill since I seen these odd shaped white rocks. When we reached the top of the hill low and behold in front of me was Blue Diamond Hill. In my opinion since it has a peak and sits at 5000 feet up I felt this was more of a mountain. From a distance the hill actually looks like a pile of gravel full of reds.....grays....and sandy colors. Little did I know that it was deceptive as this hill is built like a wedding cake so you cannot see its top...all you could see is its first tier and dirt roads which go in various directions.
 
We stopped at the white rocks to eat lunch on the hill. Below us in the basin was a series of dirt roads also a road built on the side of a grade with the same stone from the hill built along this road. Tammy told me that this road was the old gypsum mining road. The road below looked like it went on forever. Within our site of the spring mountains was also one covered in snow I believe Mount Potosi an area we have plans to actually visit. We sat on some old rocks I believe they are gypsum that crumbled into dust. Well my son decided to be a smart ass kicking the rock I was on which made it weak to a point where in the middle of eating my lunch my seat turned into a pile of dust and I was on the ground looking up. The kids could not stop laughing and that's okay I was happy to see they had a sense of humor considering we were miles away from the car.
 
After lunch we would follow the hill only to approach a dirt road going up into it which twisted and turned. This would take us to Blue Diamond Mines first tier. You see the entire mountain is the mine and well it made sense since the area looked strip mined. Strip mining is basically removing rock from the hill sides to get to the minerals. When strip mining occurred it would create high vertical walls....some with steep slopes which were sculptured into the hill itself. Some of the dirt roads went off into different directions while some were dead ends. Basically the hill was like being in a quarry as some roads went deeper down into canyons created at one time by giant machinery which sought out gypsum.
 
As we made our way to the first tier perhaps our second their was a giant tier or plateau built right into the hill. This reminded me of a giant parking lot as it was flat...smooth....covered in very small granules of rocks. I noticed when crossing this area a giant crack which ran for many feet. I tried to look down the cracks kept the boys further away since one part of it was wide enough to almost fall down into. It appeared right below are feet was a cavern of some kind perhaps the old tunnels which were said to be part of the underground mining which took place in the area.
 
I found a pretty cool rock it was almost as clear as glass.At first I thought I found diamonds imagine me running around yelling out I am rich I am rich lol. As we made our ascension the roads within Blue Diamond were not very rugged but they were steep and it took us time to make our way up to more tiers carved into the hill.  The other issue we had is that the roads went off in many directions although the way this hill is built is you don't see around the next turn or bend and some roads dead end. It was like a rock maze that went up hill. It actually looked like a volcano from the desert but its not its just a strangely shaped hill that was carved in mans image.
 
Along the way we found a patch of snow the boys were making snow balls and chasing me. I guess it was my fault since I did start it by hitting one of them then they tagged teamed me. You would think with the way we acted we hadn't ever seen snow but honestly it had been years since we had a snowball war so yeah!
 
My sons both had panic attacks one was like were lost I am going back to the car the same way....the other one was like I don't know where I am or where were going. I figured if I kept heading up the roads to the top and followed roads to our left that we would eventually reach the summit and would be able to see the canyon we hiked down into, Las Vegas and Calico basin. Boy was I right when we almost were at the summit which by the way these hills are so steep and so much rock surrounded me that quote you could not see it. As I made my way to the top much further ahead then everybody else I spotted miles away a red tiled roof of a house. I knew that was Las Vegas and at the summit as I approached the cliffs their it was a stellar view of the city to my right.....seeing the Frenchman Mountains, Sheep Mountains and Spring Mountains all around me.
 
The boys sat back for awhile admiring the view as they ate dinner. I could not sit for a minute as below us was part of the old mining road overgrown which looked like it turned into a hiking trail off to my left. In front of me was also these cliffs not small canyon ones but actually cliffs overlooking all of Calico Basin. I could see from the top Red Rock canyon and the cars on roads looked like ants. It was an entirely different world up here and Tammy pointed out how the French Mountains look like a man laying down.  I guess that the local Vegas residents call Sunrise Mountain by many other names and she was right. The mountain range looked like a man laying down. Tammy and I just a couple weeks ago were on those mountains just 20 miles across the valley.
 
The boys went down the steep road as I stayed on top of the summit. They found some snow my one son was upset because the other one was teasing him with snow trying to put it down his pants. You see we stopped so round 2 had to begin one way or another lol.
 
After a long enough break we went down this hill which then cut to our left along these cliffs overlooking the Red Rock Calico Basin region. I found a good amount of snow and started doing snow angels. Hey it was almost xmas time and I had not made one in years so the big kid came out within me perhaps. Not to far from this location in a patch of snow I found some pretty good size mountain lion tracks. We also found a strange pole with an antenna here.
 
We followed the ridge along a narrow path eventually having drop offs to our right and left side. Being near the cliffs was a stomach turner and we were on this narrow ridge for quite a ways. I actually found a cave up near the cliffs which was a rock formation that had an outcrop. It was not worth the risk but nonetheless it was pretty intense just looking at it wondering how one would get in there.
 
The desert is rather deceptive sometimes when it looks like a cliff its just a steep hill....while other times what seems easy is rather more difficult. The rolling hills atop of this ridge made me wonder if we had to follow it and be stuck on a peninsula overlooking red rock or to find a way down into the canyon.
 
We actually climbed down into a canyon we found one that ran sort of parallel with the canyon we hiked up earlier in the day. As we made our descent into the canyon we found a trail. Of course it was easy to lose considering the trail ended whenever we had to climb walls, rocks and other obstacles down. I started to realize that we were in the ravine which often avid hikers talk about. Their was allot of foliage.....and smooth rocks which looked at times like waterfalls could have flowed over them.
 
I will admit it was not an easy path down and my kids rather then tiring were by the end of this hike leaders not followers. Most of the day they followed me but they lead me off the hill and down into the ravine. Surprisingly they both were working together and helping eachother out. All I sat out to do was have the kids bond with one another as when playing a video game your at war but in the mountains everybody is a brother lending a hand to eachother to achieve the same goal.
 
The ravine had many blind spots as it twisted and turned....then as the canyon had widened we found this trail to our left which followed the mountains to our right or a switch back trail leading into a valley. We took the switchback trails which zig zagged multiple times reaching this old dirt road in the valley we spotted from above.
 
That dirt road would take us past an area full of Joshua trees and beautiful desert plans. At this time the skies were not only gloomy but it was almost dark out and we seen the stables along with our car within sight. I realized that by the time we finished this trip we covered an entire loop meaning we hiked into a canyon....up and through it....following Blue Diamond Hill to its summit....then around the edge of it down into a ravine back into the basin.
 
I couldn't have asked for a better trip we seen some caves.....played in snow....seen one of the most epic views of Las Vegas and spent some quality time with my kids. My kids have always wanted to know what I do or what it was like to go hiking around Vegas so I gave them a taste of something different. Their was no ps3....or fancy computer games....or cartoon network.
 
I had sought out to watch my sons develop along the hike and by the end of it they were very strong leaders helping me find the trail......and hell giving me directions how to climb down certain places. I sort of snickered to myself because it was such irony.
 
I didn't find anything paranormal here or odd however I did feel some energy in the cave not sure why but it was mild. The native Americans of the area over a century ago refused to go in the cave they claimed that it was the underworld a place where spirits roamed.
 
I remember when we arrived home how tired the kids were crashing to bed early....around the same time my companion sneezer went missing. Although I do not have to mention this it does tie into the exploration in the sense that here we were a few days away from Xmas and well the animal catcher nabbed him. Sad to say I had his ear tagged because I was told that if I did this they would not pick him up. Well they did then put him in the Farrell area of the Animal & Humane Society where he was sentenced to being euthanized due to his eyes were watering set for Xmas Eve. Nothing short of a miracle Tammy found Sneezer on their website as a lost pet and we went down paying pretty hefty fees to get him out of kitty jail lol. So indeed it was a very crazy week for us hence why this report was late because I was torn apart to a point where I didn't even want to do a report on my exploration. Ill never forget how happy Sneezer was to see me he must had spent a week just purring and rubbing against me for I had saved his life.
 
I had gotten the best gift of all for Christmas.....a great exploration with my sons.....my kitty was found who is the family pet....cohost of AngelOfThyNight Radio.....and Tammy loves me. Their is nothing more rewarding to exploring then having others to share these experiences with. Everybody who views our pages will truly enjoy the amazing photography we captured here just a very scenic place.  So you see some stories within our group have very happy endings minus the fact that during my ascension at some point I lost my hunting knife lol! I would like to take the time to wish everybody from PGS and AngelOfThyNight Radio a very happy, safe and prosperous holiday. I will see everybody next year in 2010!
Lord Rick
Founder, Talk Show Host & Author

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