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 29 days
First held2021
Who's going to Red Rock Canyon Ultra?
Free. You can start with nothing.
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
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
Running, crewing, pacing or still deciding
How NavRun helps with Red Rock Canyon Ultra
Four stations with a clock on each.
You are running it
You reach Blue Diamond, mile 19.5, before its 3:45pm cutoff, and you already knew that this morning.
An arrival time for all 4 stations, each next to its cutoff, worked out from your own training.
Start free →
You are deciding
You find out Red Rock Canyon Ultra is months of work away, not years, and you enter.
Put in a race you have already run. NavRun shows you where this one sits from where you are.
No account needed →
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.
Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.
No account, and nothing to cancel.
What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.
I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.
