What is the best 5.8 trad climb in Red Rock Canyon to try?

Hey everyone, I'm just curious to gather opinions of what 5.8 classic climbs in Red Rock Canyon is one of the best choices to do if you're ready to break into that grade?  In the 5.6/5.7 realm I have led the entirety of Birdland, Cat in the Hat, Tunnel Vision, Johnny Vegas and Solar Slab, Physical Graffiti, and Geronimo.

Frogland seems a little too ambitious for me for a first time lead in the 5.8 realm (6 pitches and all trad anchors so it's a bigger commitment as I would not able to bail at any point should I find it overwhelming). I was thinking maybe The Great Red Book or Dark Shadows since they are shorter routes and might give me a taste of the grade? Would love to hear any opinions, thanks in advance!

Dark Shadows is my favorite 5.8 in the park, highly recommend. You can just do the first 4 (or 3 if you link) pitches and rap with a single 70. The climbing is fantastic, it’s shaded, and well protectable imo. Great Red Book was also fun and protectable from what I remember. 

Here is a list of some of my favorite 5.8 trad climbs in Red Rock (in no particular order):

• Ragged Edges
• Cold September Corner
• Dark Shadows
• Black Dagger
• Crimson Chrysalis
• Rainbow Buttress
• Lotta Balls

As a bonus, here are some of my favorite 5.7 trad climbs in Southern Nevada:

• Wilkinson Sword (Christmas Tree Pass)
• Peaches

And some favorite 5.9 climbs:

• Soylent Green Jeans
• Pink Tornado Left
• Mudterm
• Refried Brains
• Epinephrine
• Peanut Butter and Jam
• Arm Forces

Frogland is an excellent 5.8. In my opinion it feels a bit easier than dark shadows. The bottom 3-4 of dark shadows are less secure and have lie backing on the dark rock. If you take dark shadows to the top it’s awesome but it’s a much bigger day with adventurous climbing above the 4th anchor. Frogland is big and has gear anchors but the route finding isn’t hard and the cruxes are pretty safe. I also just did Purblind pillar and thought that was super fun. Lotta balls has a fairly challenging 5.8 runout on the second pitch so you want to be confident for that one. Crimson is excellent but is a definite step up from some of the other 5.8’s. Ragged edges is a fun single pitch. Rainbow buttress is a definite sandbag for 5.8. It’s a huge day

Seraphim Wall might be really enjoyable if you haven't been out there. Shady side of angel food. Excellent moderates. 

First 4Ps of Dark Shadows. Bail whenever you want, pretty low commitment. This is more about breaking the mental hurdle of 5.8 than hitting the greatest possible 5.8 there is and Dark Shadows fits the bill. Though plenty do love Dark Shadows as their favorite 5.8 so it seems to me that you can't go wrong 

So the question you didn't ask, but which may be relevant, is will it affect you if the trad climb has 5.8 face climbing cruxes, or 5.8 crack climbing cruxes.

Because as a very broad generality, a lot of the easier trad climbing in Red Rock is face climbing protected by gear.  If you want a 5.8 in that vein my favorite of the longer ones is  Purblind Pillar. For a one pitch route Peaches.  Almost zero crack skills involved.  I just recently redid All that Jazz, which is a very nice 3 pitch route with one or two moves of face climbing at the 5.8 grade. The second pitch crack - yeah you can get a nice jam but so much of it is face climbing.

If you want to do a couple of 5.8s that require some more emphasis on crack technique, take a look at Classic Crack, Valentine's Day and Varnishing Point.  Dark Shadows uses some crack technique too and is a super route.