White Owl Canyon

Today's plan was to drive up to the Moapa  area and explore Arrow Canyon. A late start and expected warm weather put an end to that trip. So we headed back out to Lake Mead for a hike we know well, White Owl Canyon. We start the hike at the old Lake Mead boat ramp and use the shoreline trail. It is a well marked trail that follows the wash till it empties into Lake Mead. You can take side trails that will lead you into slot canyons or follow it until it reaches the lake and then into the wash that leads into White owl Canyon. The only tricky part to this hike is at the point the wash narrows and leads to a fork.

White Owl Canyon is to the left, if you choose right the path is much tougher and less interesting.  Once in the canyon, the evidence of owls is everywhere. We have had little luck seeing owls in the past but today we got lucky. We saw two different owls hunting in the slot canyons. It may have been because today was one of the first really warm days of the year and the lizards were everywhere.

 The hike continues up the canyon and through two culverts. After the second culvert, the one that takes you under the river mountain loop trail, you should look for cairns on your right that mark a trail up out of the wash and onto the bike/walking trail. The river mountain loop trail is great for biking but is rather boring for walking and gets very hot in the summer. 

Unfortunately to make this hike into a loop it is a necessary part of the trip. We chose to follow the trail all the way back to the boat ramp. You can exit the bike trail and take a slot canyon back towards the wash but some of these canyons have very difficult areas or even dead ends so plan ahead before dropping into an unknown area. This is a great easy four mile loop that, due to all of the water sources, give you the opportunity to see lots of wildlife.

On today's hike we purposely avoided the nesting owl from my previous post. We want to give her owlets a chance to grow a little bit before we check on their progress.