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Tom Rankin

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... can mostly be discussed! :D

We flew out Friday after work and arrived at around 1:00 AM. After getting a rental car, and driving to Harrah's we jumped right into some Blackjack! :D

Saturday we drove to Red Rock Canyon. This is a spectacularly beautiful preserve, with a paved road winding around a 13 mile loop. (Cost $5.00 / car). There is a visitor center with lots of displays, and a LOT of trailheads that head off into the desert, canyons, foothills, and some pretty big mountains. We walked around the nature center the first day, then around some foot hills, and then into Ice Box Canyon. It wasn't particularly cold, but it was nice to splash in the still trickling stream, and take in the awesome views. There were tons of people in this area. The canyon more or less ends at a large waterfall, which we hiked to within site of, and then turned around. There are tons of flowers in bloom, a few birds, and lizards. No large mammals were sighted, but we got wind of the burros! :eek:

We hit a few casinos, and brewpubs, more of which will be described on my VNBs site soon.

Sunday, we went to Red Rock again and tackled Turtlehead Peak. It's about 6300', with 2000' of climbing over about 2.5 miles. It starts off easy but gets very steep and becomes a scramble at times. The 'trail' is very gravelly so we had to pick our way with care. 'Trail' here means a huge network of herd paths, that all lead to the same place. The only things impeding your view around these parts are a few scrubby bushes, so basically you can always see in every direction that a mountain is not blocking you. Sometimes this is a few feet, but at the top of Turtlehead, it was probably over 100 miles! A large part of the view from here is of the sprawl of Las Vegas, but it's still a magnificent site. There was still just a trace of snow in the surrounding higher peaks. It started out in the high 40's but quickly warmed up to around 85. This peak had a couple visitors before we summitted and seemingly a LOT more heading up around 11:00.

Ditto on the casinos and Brewpubs! :D

Monday, we went back to near Red Rock and parked in a pull-over spot, and walked into Upper Oak Creek Canyon. The canyon is flanked by 2 huge walls of rock. One is called Mt. Wilson. The other seemed to be a popular climbing spot. We saw climbers easily 1,000' higher than the bottom of the canyon floor. This canyon had almost no one in it, but it was Monday now...

After a few more Brews and bets, (which turned out quite succe$$fully), we caught a plane home that left around 1:00 AM PST, (4:00 here) and after a quick stop in Chicago, landed us in Newark around 9:30 AM. And yes, I'm still awake, after essentially 0 sleep! :eek:

Generally, if you go: Bring a lot of water! It's very dry, dusty, windy, and sunny, all of which means you will get thirsty! Get an early start. Hike in the shade if you can. This is not as hard as it sounds. Vegas is expensive to eat in, at least on the strip, but moderate hotels are available. There were several good brewpubs we found. Being mostly off the strip, they are moderately priced. One even comped me 2 free beers for spending $20 on a gambling machine in the bar area!

More to come, and pics galore! :cool:
 
Pics, Finally!

http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n1.jpg - Red Rock Canyon - Day 1
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n2.jpg - Flowers - ID solicited!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n3.jpg - Ditto
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n4.jpg - Ditto
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n5.jpg - Red Rocks and Turtle Head
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n6.jpg - Flowers...
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n7.jpg - A natural sculpture
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n8.jpg - Climbing
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n9.jpg - Barrel Cactus?
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n10.jpg - Flowers...
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n11.jpg - Flowers...
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n12.jpg - The biggest tree for miles - Ice Box Canyon
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n13.jpg - Bird - ID solicited!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n14.jpg - More of the Ice Box (it was still hot!)
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n15.jpg - My sentiments exactly!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n15a.jpg - The Turtle! Not quite the right angle to see why it's named that...
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n16.jpg - Magic Rocks!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n17.jpg - Yet another amazing peak
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n18.jpg - Me and the turtle
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n19.jpg - View ascending the Turtle
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n20.jpg - Old Tree
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n21.jpg - At the top!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/n22.jpg - VFTT

Yes, the desert is ALIVE with flowers, a few birds and lizards, and maybe a burro or two, judging by the leftovers!

We had a great time, and this was just a small set of the pictures we took. The memories will last a lifetime! :)
 
Tom, wonderful photos! I agree, there is SO much to see in the desert! As to your photo IDs, I think the second one is a type of paintbrush.
 
Nice Tom...The west is spectacular...Vegas ain't bad either....Spotted Towhee:D
 
Tom, some flower ID's...

3. Phacelia (Fremont's)
4. Orange one is a globemallow (Sphaeralcea)
Yellow looks like desert marigold (Baileya)
10. Mariposa lily (Calochortus)
11. Amsonia

Glad to hear you fell in love with the southwest and the desert!

--Audrey
 
Tom -

Flower #2 is Desert Indian Paintbrush. And number 9 is a type of barrel cactus, often called "Cottontop" because of a large white tuft which forms on the top.
 
Every time I go out to Vegas a spend at least a day out in Red Rock, it is simply one of the most beautiful places in the US. My best hike there was in 2008 when I did a scramble and hike across the entire Calico's. :) The hike and views were tops!
 
We were in Vegas the same week as you, Tom. Ditto on Red Rock Canyon. The new visitors center was a surprise!

Had fun running mountain bike trails in Cottonwood/Blue Diamond and Bootleg Canyon near Boulder City. A drive to Hoover Dam afterward revealed another surprise: the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge, due to be completed in November. Pretty impressive engineering feat!
http://www.hooverdambypass.org/

Any hopes of climbing Mt. Charleston were squashed by snow still at the trailhead. Silly me didn't think to pack snowshoes, crampons, and an ice axe for a trip to Vegas.

Did ride the roller coaster at New York New York -- fun!! :eek::D:p
 
We were in Vegas the same week as you, Tom. Ditto on Red Rock Canyon. The new visitors center was a surprise!

Had fun running mountain bike trails in Cottonwood/Blue Diamond and Bootleg Canyon near Boulder City. A drive to Hoover Dam afterward revealed another surprise: the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge, due to be completed in November. Pretty impressive engineering feat!
http://www.hooverdambypass.org/

Any hopes of climbing Mt. Charleston were squashed by snow still at the trailhead. Silly me didn't think to pack snowshoes, crampons, and an ice axe for a trip to Vegas.

Did ride the roller coaster at New York New York -- fun!! :eek::D:p
Dang! Who knew? :D

We heard the same thing about Mt. C from locals. But we figured, if we need all that stuff in April, we'll just go somewhere else!
 
I was in Vegas for the NAB convention which ended just before you arrived. It was a work trip, but we flew out super early Sunday and managed to get out to Grapevine Canyon for a hike. The canyon is a place of spiritual signifigance to Natives. It leads to an oasis. The walls are adorned with petroglyphs from earlier inhabitants.

Kinda hoped the rest of the week would be quiet and restful.
Then our hotel was invaded by the Avon convention with some 2000 women. (Rest of story censored)
 
HEY! I'm in Phoenix right now and spent yesterday in Red Red Rocks country. We didn't get in any peaks, but sought out smaller trails and some that led to Vortex (energy) spots. Just returned from a great hike in the White Tank Mtn - and desert hiking wasn't too bad at alL. Got in some nice mileage and some scrambles... (thanks PA Ridgerunner)

On to Vegas tomorrow and stopping at Grand Canyon on Monday/Tuesday.

Oh... (edit) the cactus and other flora are still in bloom. Added beauty. (Thanks Audrey -- I was tolking about you on the trail, and was asked if you would know western flowers!!)
 
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Oh... (edit) the cactus and other flora are still in bloom. Added beauty. (Thanks Audrey -- I was tolking about you on the trail, and was asked if you would know western flowers!!)

Bubba, we just got back from Utah and I regretfully was able to concentrate more on the geology and the vftt and the vftb (views from the bottom...of canyons) because the flowers are a couple of weeks behind in the SE sector. Still, they were no slouch.

I still have to post some pics, and I hope you will too when you return.
 
Looks like everyone went to Las Vegas / Utah area recently.

Just got back myself !

Next time, maybe we should coordinate a beer night !?!?
 
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