Loading...
Ultras · US · NV

Red Rock Canyon Ultra

Red Rock Canyon 50K · 50K
Registration open
Registration closes on Friday 13 November at 11:59pm Pacific.
Race dateNovember 14-15, 2026
Duration2 days
Start8:00am
Whenin 79 days
First held2021
Free, and always will be. NavRun makes money from race-day planning for runners who want it, never from this. Ultras change constantly, sometimes the morning of. Always confirm with the race director and the official website before you rely on anything here.
Distance 50K
Climb not checked yet
Descent not checked yet
High point not checked yet
Time limit 11:30:00
Aid stations 6
Started not checked yet
Finished not checked yet
Finish rate not checked yet
The course

Where it goes point to point · 6 aid stations

Course line from the race's own GPX. Source file.

The 50K starts in front of the Red Rock Canyon Visitor Center an hour after the 100K and finishes in Blue Diamond. It shares the first twenty miles through Calico 1, Sandstone Quarry, Grand Circle Loop, SMYC, Dale's, Knoll and South Oak Creek, including the stretch between miles 7 and 15 known as Dream Killer. After Blue Diamond comes a steep climb over Hurl and a run through a Joshua tree forest to Mud Spring, then a fast few miles across the north side of Landmine back to the finish in Blue Diamond.

The race describes the ground it crosses as ancient Aztec sandstone canyons and washes, quarries, and limestone formations millions of years old. Aid stations are positioned between 5.5 and 8.5 miles apart.

The race

What this one is

Red Rock Canyon Ultra runs in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just outside Las Vegas. The 100K and the 50K both start in front of the Red Rock Canyon Visitor Center and finish in the town of Blue Diamond, running through ancient Aztec sandstone canyons and washes, across quarries and around limestone formations millions of years old. The 100K covers the whole length of Red Rock and Cottonwood Valley and turns at the bottom of Satan's Escalator. It is held in November, and the race says the weather is usually stellar for running in Vegas at that time of year, with the temperature dropping into the low 40s after dark.

The first Red Rock Canyon 100K was run on 8 May 2021 and had 21 finishers. The race moved to November from 2022 and has been run every November since.

Getting in

Getting in Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.

Lottery
No desertdash.com
Lottery opens
not checked yet
Lottery draw
not checked yet
Field cap
not checked yet
Registration
UltraSignup ultrasignup.com
Qualifying
not checked yet
Minimum age
not checked yet
Transfers
not checked yet
Deferrals
not checked yet
Crew access, pacers and drop bags

The rules that shape your day Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.

Crew allowed
Yes desertdash.com
Vehicles per runner
not checked yet
Pacers
No desertdash.com
Muling
not checked yet
Drop bags
Yes desertdash.com
Cupless
not checked yet
Course marking
Fully Marked desertdash.com
Night running
not checked yet
Dogs
not checked yet
Headphones
not checked yet
Crew rules
Crew can reach Blue Diamond at mile 19.5 and at the finish. There is no crew access at Lost Creek, South Oak Creek or Mud Spring; South Oak Creek is out because space there is limited. desertdash.com
Pacer rules
not checked yet
Drop bag rules
Gear drop for the 50K and 100K is taken at the starting line. Mark each bag clearly with your full name, bib number, contact number and drop bag location, and it will be taken to the location on the label. Bags without a label go to the finish line bag drop in Blue Diamond. Drop bags go to South Oak Creek, Blue Diamond and Red Valley. desertdash.com
Cutoff philosophy
not checked yet
Aid stations

Every stop, and what you get there ● yes   · no   ? nobody has checked   – does not apply to this race

Mile Station Cutoff Crew access Bag Pacer Med To next
0.00 Red Rock Canyon Visitor Center ? ? ? ? ? 7.00
7.00 Lost Creek 10:30am · · ? ? 8.50
15.50 South Oak Creek 2:25pm · ? ? 4.00
19.50 Blue Diamond 3:45pm ? ? 6.25
25.75 Mud Spring 6:00pm · · ? ? 5.25
31.00 Finish 7:30pm ? ? ?
Same race, other lines

Other distances and other years

Other distances
Red Rock Canyon 100K (100K)
What it looks like out there

Somebody has been out there with a camera the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.

6 people have been out there with a camera or a microphone.

These are other people's work and we link straight to them. Watching costs nothing and needs no account. More of them: every race we hold, on film.

Add to this page

What you know every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything

Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know.

Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.

Leave blank if it applies to the whole race.

Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Optional. Something like “Cal Street, mile 62 to 78”.

Write it the way you would say it to someone at the start line.

Optional, and it decides nothing. It only tells the next runner where this is coming from.

Optional.

Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this note.

Leave this field blank.

See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit.

This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.

Optional. Filled in for you when you start from a specific line on the page.

Copy it as it appears, so we can find it.

The corrected value.

Required. Where it came from: the race email, the runner manual, what you saw on the day.

Optional.

Optional. A screenshot or a photo of the sign works.

Optional, and it decides nothing.

Optional.

Optional, only so we can come back to you about this correction.

Leave blank if it is about the whole race.

Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Leave this field blank.

Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send it over.

Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.

Required. A line is plenty. Where the climbs are, what the footing does, what the last twenty miles look like.

Optional, and it decides nothing.

Optional.

Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this one.

A YouTube link, a race report, a photo gallery, whatever it is.

Optional, and we credit them on the page.

Leave this field blank.

Have the GPX? Send us the link.

We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.

The page or file on the race's own site.

Optional, and only so we can ask you a question about it.

Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.

We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.

Required, because this is a conversation and we write back.

Tell us what is wrong, out of date, or missing on this page. We read every one of these and we will get back to you.

Optional.

So we know who we are writing back to.

Optional. Director, assistant, comms, whoever you are.

Leave this field blank.

Where this came from. Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 115 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.
35% of what we track for a course is filled in. The rest says "not checked yet" rather than guessing.
See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit
Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know
Got footage of this course? Send us the link
Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.
Anything else: [email protected]
Running this one?

NavRun builds your pacing from your own training, then turns it into a plan your crew can follow: when to leave and where to park.

Start free