Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area protects a striking Mojave Desert landscape west of Las Vegas, where red sandstone peaks, cliffs, and escarpments record immense geologic change. Layers formed as the region shifted from ocean basin to swamp, streams, and vast dunes that hardened into Aztec Sandstone, then were dramatically uplifted when older gray rock was thrust over younger red rock along the Keystone Thrust Fault. The area has sustained people for thousands of years, with Native occupation shown by petroglyphs, pottery fragments, and roasting pits. After limited quarrying and later use as a film setting, federal protection expanded from 1967 to national conservation area status in 1990.