It's a Wrap in Vegas!

18 Mar 2014--Went to Red Rock Canyon on Monday and Friday this past week, an area owned by the Bureau of Land Management, about a 30 minute drive west of Las Vegas.  They have wild burros and horses along with tortoises here, although we didn't see any.  But I don't think I have ever seen these signs in Boston or Tallahassee anywhere, no?



Having traveled quite a bit in the west over the past couple years, Cathy and I have been surprised at how many National Parks, etc., are out here, so we looked up what percentage of land in our states is actually owned by the federal government.  Check out the 2nd pic...it has the percentage of land owned by the feds in each state, with Nevada leading the pack at a whopping 84%!!!  The way I see it, these states are getting a lot of federal subsidies...just think of all the roads they don't have to build/maintain because our federal tax dollars do it for them!  Hmmm...just something to think about.

 

At the outdoor exhibit at the visitor's center...can't believe Cathy grabbed that snake!



Off we go for the 13 mile drive through the park.



Interesting info as to the white vs. red rock and why it looks like it does.




A picture gone haywire!  Notice in this panoramic picture we took with the phone how Cathy is actually in there twice...once with only half her body there.  haha  We gotta work on this.



There are several hiking trails throughout the park, but we only had time for one on Monday, so we took this 2 1/2 mile round trip trek that led to a watering hole where we hoped to see some bighorn sheep (not) and also looked down into the valley leading to Las Vegas.  Again, weird that we are in the desert but they have bighorn sheep here.  Anyway, it was beautiful...so here are just a bunch of pictures of our hike.



 

These 1st 2 pics are not fake photos..we really did have to walk along the side of this mountain to get where we were going.



We went back to the park again this past Friday and took a different trail, this time into a spot called Ice Box Canyon, billed as the coldest place in the park.  Because you hike into a canyon and it is all shaded, the temperature drops 10-15 degrees once you are in there.  This was much more of a climb to get to the end than the 1st trail we took, and harder for us to follow the trail...not marked very well at all, but it was definitely fun.



Cathy at the end of the trail, and the video shows her climb to the 1/2 way point.

 

This is a "where's Waldo?" situation.  None of this looks that high in the pictures, not until you take a look at the people that are in them.  You will have to click on the 1st 2 pics to see Cathy in them...check'm out.



Isn't this a nice picture?



And here she is coming down...I am coaxing/coaching her the whole way, so turn up your volume for the videos.  haha  Cathy is a bit nervous as the surface is a bit slippery.



Three pretty rocks/boulders on the trek.



End of the trail.  As you looked at all the pictures from the 1st to the 2nd hike, isn't it amazing how many different colors the rocks all are?  



So that's the end of our 2 weeks in Vegas.  Heading to Death Valley National Park in California tomorrow, about 160 miles northwest of here.  From what we can tell, there is, at best, limited phone and internet service in the park, so there may be no blogs till I get out of there...we'll see!  (So, you get a week break!)  haha  We are really looking forward to it, so we will TTYL!