by George Acosta
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Visitors taking a trip out to Red Rock Canyon will now have a new spot for a photo opportunity with the iconic Red Rock Canyon Marker along the North side of Nevada State Route 159.
The sign was recently moved in an effort to increase public safety, and will now sit about two miles east of Calico Basin and the Red Rock Visitors Center.
Currently, the sign is covered as construction is underway for the new parking lot, an area that those behind the Red Rock Legacy Trail project say will help visitors safely stop and take photos.”
“It’s a lot of collaboration, all of the parties that are involved are super excited about this project,” Clark County District F Commissioner Justin Jones said.
The project is set to consist of five phases, and currently, Commissioner Jones says partnering agencies are focusing on phase one of the project, which broke ground earlier this year, and in addition to the relocation of the Red Rock Canyon Marker, further west, phase one of the project will include a mile long, 12-foot-wide paved trail from West Charleston Boulevard and Sky Vista Drive down to the Red Rock Canyon Marker.
“This phase 1 is really starting in Summerlin and gets out to Calico. We are also adding, as part of this project, deceleration lanes at Calico and at the visitors center entrance, which was something that really was a priority for safety, for BLM, for NDOT, and for the county,” Commissioner Jones said.
While the Commissioner says those deceleration lanes have already been added near the visitors center, the current relocation of the Red Rock Canyon Marker from its previous location, which stood just feet from the roadway, further east from its new location, is another enhancement he and many others say they hope will help reduce the number of crashes in the area.
“If anyone has ever been out there, then they know that this is truly a safety concern; lots of people would pull off to the side of the road, take pictures there’s, because it’s just sort of an iconic sign, but unfortunately, when people would get back in their cars they’d do U-turns to go back to town and it sits at the top of a hill and its really dangerous,” Commissioner Jones said.
‘They get a little distance between the motoring public and people want to get some pictures taken. I think that is a good idea. Very dangerous on a hill, definitely, because you can’t see what’s coming over the crest on he other side. I am definitely for that. I have bicycled out here before, and I happened to go down the highway to go through the gate, and traffic was by that fast; it was a little uncomfortable, so anything they can do to make improvements on that, definitely,” hiker, Rod Brott added.
While the NDOT updates its crash data every five years, crash reports along Nevada State Route 159 show a series of both fatal and non-fatal crashes within the area from 2019 to 2023.
“There have been multiple accidents out there, not just with cars but folks running across the road or interactions with cyclists. So, this was part of the phase one project was to make sure that we are creating a safer opportunity for locals and tourists to enjoy Red Rock Canyon,” Commissioner Jones said.
