Las Vegas

Spending time at a snails pace…….

Enjoying not getting moving till we want to. Coffee in bed, hanging out with my sweetie.  The weather is 10 or so degrees hotter than normal for this time of year, should be upper 80’so to low 90’s.  It is 100 plus.

As you know, Rotinipoker.wordpress.com and I enjoy being outdoors wherever we go (just read our city parks adventure).  Las Vegas is no exception.  There is the Springs Preserve here in town, Red Rock NCA, and one place we have not been yet, The Valley of Fire State Park.  We decided that we should head out there and have a look.

This park is 55 miles north of Vegas on I-15, take the exit marked Valley of Fire and travel through the Moapa Southern Paiute Reservation.  The drive  is kind of long across the desert with not much to see but as you draw closer to the hills the anticipation grows.  We love going to new (to us) parks.

You arrive at the entrance to the park and are greeted by a very helpful ranger there.  The fee is 10 dollars per vehicle if you don’t qualify for one of their discounts (and being a Nevada resident is indeed a discount in this state full of tourists).   Ranger lady tells us that the desert bighorn sheep are being seen along the roads, so to keep a sharp eye out.  She also points out the 35 MPH speed limit throughout the park and says that it is being enforced.

We head off into the wilds of a land of colors and wild rock formations.  The blending of all the colors is a unique feature of the park.

The first stop for us is “the beehives”.  These are unique formations that look like monstrous ancient beehives (or solidified cow patties, lol).  It was fun watching the tourist kids climbing the rocks and hiding in the wind holes.

We continued on to the very nice visitors center and struck up a conversation with Barbara (park ranger lady).  She gave us some great advice on hiking in the park (after we gave her our resume) and then R.P. got her assistance in choosing a custom made hiking staff.  We collect the hiking stick medallions and lapel pins from each park that offers them, so we bought them, some post cards and R.P.’s stick.

On Barbara’s recommendation,  we headed out to the white dome area for our hike.  This area has one of the narrow hiking canyons that the park is known for as well as a partially remaining movie set from 1965.  Barbara recommended that we hike the loop trail in a clockwise direction and told us it would take about an hour to complete.  Due to the heat, it is recommended that you do not hike most of the trails in this park at this time of year.

These signs were posted at the trail head of each trail in the park and they mean it.  This is not an environment for the physically marginal person.  The conditions are extreme, heat is well over 100 degrees on most of the trail systems, there is very little shade, almost no wind and NO WATER!  If you have read my blog you know that we prepare for these hikes, no matter what the terrain or circumstances.  We wear good sturdy hiking shoes with ankle support, hats, walking sticks and Camelbaks with 3 liters of water each.  We also have a small first aid kit, knives, cordage, snacks, sun screen, a shemagh and a lot of patience.  You can hike almost any trail anywhere with these items, especially the patience.  You have to be willing to abort a plan and turn around if you have to.  Be conscious of the limitations of each person in your party and be ready to accommodate those limitations.

Anyway,  back to the trek…..

We get out of the parking lot and immediately walk into deep sugar sand.  This sand is as soft and fine as any beach sand and is very loose.  After trudging through the sand we came to the water course to walk down to the movie set of “The Professionals”, which was filmed here in 1965.

This was the first shade we found.  It was a rock scramble down this watercourse to get to the old movie set, so we paused in the shade (hahahaha) and had some cool refreshing water while looking back up the trail.

Refreshed, we moved on down the trail.  The trail markers here are very well done, no questionable rock cairns, and should leave no one guessing where to go.

We dropped into another water course and entered into one of the famous canyon walks in this park. Ahhh, shade and a little breeze and some more cool, clear water from our camelbaks (while humming the tune from the Sons of the Pioneers song).

The canyon is definitely a marvel.  The way it has been carved from the sandstone over the millenia is amazing, this is absolutely the highlight of the hike.

We exit the canyon and are greeted by this rock and the trail marker again.

And start the the less strenuous(hahaha) but definitely hotter(panting all the way) portion of the hike.  We did this at a snails pace, as we were basically in a rock oven that concentrated the heat into a frying pan.  Much water was consumed and often breather breaks were taken.  I think both of us lost 5 pounds on this hike.  Thank goodness for efficient (Kind of, should have gone much earlier in the day) planning and equipment preparation.

We are both veterans of many strenuous hikes all over the country and in high heat areas, but this hike took its toll on us.  R.P. was definitely worse for wear on this one.  We got back to The Beast and after we cooled down and we’re driving back toward the next hike, R.P. says she sees deer.  I pull over and no deer…………

just a herd of about 15 desert Bighorn Sheep.

Took a bunch of pictures of the sheep and then trucked on to “Mouses Tank”.  R.P. decided to set this short hike out.  We have seen some great stuff, but on this short down and back canyon hike the north wall of the canyon reads like a book written in petroglyphs.  They adorn the walls in many spots on the way to this rock water tank that today still had water in it and birds drinking from it.

I hiked back to The Beast, where R.P. was sitting in the AC and we headed back for the city.

Another great park in another great place.  We never seem to tire of walking in these places and taking more pictures of dirt and rocks.  We laugh about that and know that very few people are interested in our pictures or our experiences.  R.P. and I are such polar opposite that we orbit each other most of the time.  This is one of those things that bring our orbits totally in synch.  We like hiking in the dirt and looking at rocks, funny huh?

I hope you enjoy the blog.  If so, follow along on the trip and check back to see what we are up to now.   I am trying to put something up every couple of days, but I am on vacation and this little hobby is time consuming.

Well, it’s time to go sit at the pool with a cool drink, see you next time………

BFD