I have never been one to pass up the opportunity to express my disdain for the barren wasteland that we live in. While some may try to color it up a bit by referring to our environment as the beautiful desert landscape of Las Vegas, the fact of the matter is it is hot, dry, brown, hot, dusty, generally dead, hot, windy, unforgiving, and did I mention it's really hot. However, I must admit there are small pockets of beauty that I happen upon and just have to ask myself, "Am I still in the same state?" Mt.
Charleston is quite enjoyable, the temperature is cooler and there are even naturally growing trees that are taller than my house. Red rock is another place we like to go as it extends the Nevada landscape pallete beyond the typical options of light brown, brown, and dark brown and embraces such shades as red, orange, yellow, and even an occasional green. Today we discovered another such place to add to my very exclusive list of natural places in southern Nevada worth venturing outside your door to experience.
As Lindsay's hand is still on the mend (though the cast was removed last Wednesday, WooHoo!) and I don't start my first clinical until next Monday we decided to have an adventure day. We contemplated seeking new trails in our typical haunts, Mt. Charleston or Red Rock, but settled on the idea of trying something new and a little closer to home(Gas still isn't cheap my friends). We have often heard people speak of the hot springs near Hoover Dam, but neither of us had ever personally made the trek,
so we decided to check them out. The trail is not marked or part of any State or Federal Forest service, but it's easy enough to both find and follow. The heaven's shined upon us this day and provided some cloud cover to protect us, otherwise I may have found myself sprawled out on a rock half dead, waited for the world's largest spatula to come along and flip me. I will take 95 degrees with 30% humidity over 113 and no humidity any day.
This post is getting really long, so I think I will quickly sum up the highlights of the hike. The first half of the hike was very gentle and followed a natural wash. The second half of the hike was much more fun, requiring a
little bit of bouldering, scrambling, jumping, up-se-daisying, and even the use of some conveniently placed ropes. We encountered the hot springs about half-way through and I must say they exceeded my expectations. Not only were they cleaner than I expected, there were many more of them than I anticipated. The only downside was there were warnings not to drink the water because there were bacteri
a in there that like to get in your brain and kill you. Needless to say, we chose not to bathe in the springs, but did enjoy looking at them. Don't worry though, that same water runs all the way down the canyon and empties into the Colorado river, I'm sure the bacteria become diluted enough that they don't pose any threat to anyone downnstream (maybe). So from the springs we followed the water down the canyon to the Colorado River. We thought we would take a dip and get refreshed, but that water is cramp your muscles and shrink your manhood cold! So we just waded around where the warm spring water met up with the river. So the bes
t part of the trip was the plethora of Big Horn sheep we enjoyed along the way. We saw solitary ones, a full-size heard, little baby-ones, mama's, and big males with the fully formed and curled horns. It's incredible watching them scale the cliffs with ease. They are however, quite careless about knocking loose rocks that may fall on those below. All in all, it was a four hour trip. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the wildlife and the sheer cliffs that towered above on either side of us during most of the hike. I would highly recommend it to anyone feeling adventurous and looking for a quick day trip.
Okay, this is our guest bedroom and, yes, that is the color. I'm trying to give it an international flare. Can I just tell you it makes me happy and does not even give one a headache to sit in?
