Red Rock Canyon State Park

Seemingly in the middle of nowhere but on the way to many popular locations is a little hidden away state park in California that is very worthy of a short visit. Red Rock Canyon State Park is located along the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, 118 miles north of Las Angeles and 237 miles west of Las Vegas. The closest city is Bakersfield, 78 miles to the west.

As you drive through this landscape of colorful cliffs and canyons, created through volcanic action and erosion, you will notice how it is so unique and different than anything else in the area. The unique and colorful layers of white, pink, red, and brown cliffs grace both the east and west sides of Highway 14. The landscape, reminiscent of sandcastles on a beach, are made up of volcanic ash, lava flows and sandstone.

Red Rock Canyon is an ideal place for family camping and exploration and also considered a wonderful classroom for the study of geology, paleontology, and photography. But it’s also been a famous area for the filming of commercials and movies. Its rugged beauty has been the scene in western and science fiction films such as Stagecoach with John Wayne, The Mummy with Boris Karloff, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Jurassic Park.

We had a short visit to Red Rock Canyon and stayed at the Ricardo Campground in the park with our friends and traveling companions. The campground doesn’t have any hookups so its all dry camping but you’re right in the middle of this beautiful landscape of red rocks cliffs. It was a great experience other than the extremely hot weather which limited us.

There are three areas to explore on foot, although there are hiking “trails” this is more off-trail exploring and climbing on the different rock formations and buttes. Conveniently, one of the areas to explore is right in the campground. I think the dogs enjoyed the climbing and meandering through all of the unique sandstone sculptures as much as we did. Hagen Canyon, also on the west side of Highway 14 as the campground, is one of the other areas to hike and explore, and then the Red Cliffs Nature Trail is the other, located on the east side of Highway 14. None of these areas are too large so it’s not difficult to fully explore them depending on how much climbing you want to do and of course how hot it is.

The other popular activity in Red Rock Canyon State Park is off-road driving. There are several trails on the east side of varying difficulty depending on your off-road vehicle of choice. Access to the trails is just north of the campground on Highway 14. When you enter you can either go right to Scenic Canyon or left to Black Rock Canyon. We started out at Scenic Canyon which was an easy and pleasant drive through the area. We practically had the place to ourselves which made it even better.

We then backtracked and went on the Black Rock Canyon trail. This is considerable more difficult, starting right off with a steep narrow, off camber climb. There were several challenging obstacles along the way as you continued deeper into the wilderness. Since we still had to make it to our next destination that day, we didn’t quite make it to the end of the trail, but it was a blast.

It was a short visit that we certainly would have enjoyed another day of, but this is a destination that you can fully explore and enjoy over a long weekend. Preferably you will want to do this when it’s a bit cooler, but that “cooler” season is pretty short lived in these parts.

If your travels take you to southern California and you’re looking for a little adventure and an escape from the crowds, consider a stop at Red Rock Canyon State Park. In fact, if you’re visiting Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park or Alabama Hills, this is only a short diversion to the south. You will have no idea that you’re under two hours from LA.

Check out all of our pictures from Red Rock Canyon State Park,