Vegas, Day 2: Exploring around Lake Mead
Trying to repeat yesterday’s success, we followed a similar pattern for the day. We did have a little bit of a slower start, but it is a weekend now. I made everyone breakfast this time around and we chatted for a while, meaning we didn’t leave the house until closer to 9:00 am. Still, we stopped to pick up sandwiches and water, then hit the trails. This time we traveled a tad further east to Lake Mead.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
We actually ended up passing up the lake and the Hoover Dam. I guess you could say we were focused. We have all driven across the dam and enjoyed the lake at other times, so why waste time repeating such activities? We stayed on Northshore Road, with our sites set on Valley of Fire on the northeastern edge of the national recreation area.
Anniversary Narrows
Anniversary Mine Tunnel
Our first stop of the day was a well hidden trail through the Lovell Wash, off the Callville Wash in the Gale Hills. The path led passed the remains of the old Borax excavation site, Anniversary Mine and through Slot Canyon. The canyon was really neat, although relatively short. The trail, from where we parked, was about 2.5 miles, with the tight canyon making up about a half mile of that. The entire trail is about six miles, I believe, if you park near the road, however, we off-roaded it to save some time.
Redstone
Today’s picnic spot was around Redstone, which is exactly what the name implies. It’s a group of large bright red boulders protruding out of the desert. We found a picnic table tucked in by a few red rocks and had a nice quiet lunch. It was nice. I walked around a bit to snap some photos, while the rest of the party chilled out for a moment.
Roger’s Spring
We made a very quick pit stop at Rogers Spring, which is the first of two spring along the road. We really just stopped so I could take a few pictures of the small desert oasis.
This morning’s Flickr set: canyon pics
Valley of Fire State Park
Finally reached our end destination, the state’s oldest state park, Valley of Fire. It’s almost 35,000 acres covered with beautiful sandstones formation, including many bright red in color, giving the park its name. The park is about 50 miles northeast of Vegas and well worth the travel time.
The Cabins
After stopping at the unattended entrance station to pay our $8.00 park fee, we stopped to check out the Cabins. The three stone cabins were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the park’s early days for overnight visitors. They’re small, but pretty neat. On a trail, I think they’d be a welcomed “comfort.”
Mouse’s Tanks
Our first hike in the park was the half mile round trip winds through the Petroglyph Canyon to Mouse’s Tank, and back. The trail is named after an Indian renegade, Little Mouse, who hid out in the canyon in the 1890′s.
There were a number of petroglyphs scattered along the canyon walls, it was pretty neat. They were so clear, it was hard to miss. It’s things like this that really grab me. Where you actually get to see a piece of history. While the land may or maybe look the same as it had, here is something a person did that has remained, kind of like trench remains on battlefields. It just really makes the point that someone stood in this spot long ago… it’s not just words on a page.
White Domes
Next, we drove over to the White Domes and hike through the color landscape on that end of the part. The one mile trail loops around some gorgeous, colorful sandstone formation. The hike overall was pretty easy. The beginning was probably the most ‘difficult,’ in that it required walking/climbing down a relatively significant decent, but the rest was pretty even.
Looking up…
Halfway up…
At the top!
At the end, I snuck off with one of our friends, while the other two chatting in the car, to scale a near-by peak. It was fun. That was a little more challenging. The rock seemed like it went straight up, requiring some actual climbing. It had a great view at the top, but I’ll admit I had to fight through some of fear (of heights). The other two eventually took a break from their conversation to notice we were on top of the large sandstone in from of the car.
Atlatl Rock
The final stop of the day was the Atlatl Rock. It was a quick stop. We climb a set of stairs up to see the large number of petroglyphs on the rock, then headed down. That’s about it for the stop, although it was enough.
From there we stopped by the neighboring campsite to visit some friends who happened to be spending the weekend there. We stayed a little longer than we wanted, but it’s because we were having fun. No one wanted to really leave. The campground is awesome. Who wouldn’t want to spend a couple days there, waking up to a beautiful sun rise over the red landscape. Apparently, when they first got there a large Bighorn Sheep was leisurely standing in the next campsite. How cool is that?
This afternoon’s Flickr set: trail photos
Since we ended up getting back to the house so late, we decided to order in and just spend the evening chillin.’ We ordered pizza (again) from Villa Pizza and watched Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush Alaska and the hardcore “dirt-bag” movie, 180-degrees South.
Overall, great day!
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