With cooler autumn temperatures upon us, my thoughts always go to Zion National Park in Utah. Just a few hours’ drive from Boulder City, the park seems worlds away with its majestic red sandstone monoliths, mature deciduous trees and diverse wildlife surrounding the banks of the North Fork of the Virgin River.
Wupatki National Monument in Arizona is about a 45-minute drive east of Flagstaff. The park boasts 35,000 acres, encompassing roughly 2,500 documented archaeological sites. While you won’t be able to see them all or even be allowed to, it’s worth a trip here to see the highlights, and it’s a good time to go. The elevation of the park is about 4,700 feet so weather forecasts call for average daily highs in the 80s through most of September.
Sick of the scorching Southern Nevada summer? Ely is a wonderful escape destination this time of year to enjoy outdoor activities and visit historic sites at pleasant temperatures.
Mammoth Lakes, California, in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, is the jumping-off place to visit Devil’s Postpile National Monument. The monument was established in 1911 to preserve a rare columnar basalt formation, as well as other natural features.
If you are a wildlife photographer, aspire to become one or simply enjoy a very remote place “where the wild things are,” consider investing some of this long summer in a visit to Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in extreme northwest Nevada.
“It’s a hell of a place to lose a cow,” Ebenezer Bryce apparently said in the late 1880s about the ungodly terrain here. Whether he had personally misplaced a bovine, or was just humorously theorizing, it’s still pretty funny as Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah is an extraordinary mazelike place of steep terrain filled with hoodoos, spires, pinnacles, nooks and cow-sized crannies.
The Nevada desert is home to abundant wildlife, but Doug Nielsen, a conservation educator at the state’s Department of Wildlife, offers a reason why residents may not see it very often.
“Nevada’s Alps” is one name locals have given the spectacular Ruby Mountains, and for good reason. They are majestic and unlike any other place in the state. Here you will find alpine lakes, waterfalls, cascades, avalanche chutes and running streams; this time of year there is also a plethora of wildflowers.
Craving clean air, cool temperatures or spectacular scenery? You can have all three together at Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah.
Access to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area still requires an annual pass in these days of partial shutdown, but those who hold one can again enjoy the Colorado River’s Black Canyon.
Children and parents have known for years that the sports programs offered by Boulder City Parks and Recreation Department are top-notch.
To outsiders, the Joshua tree might look nightmarish and threatening, with its daggerlike spines and odd, sometimes grotesque growth habit. But to most Mojave Desert dwellers it is strikingly beautiful. In the morning light, or under a full moon, the Joshua tree’s silhouette is the definition of drama. And because they grow almost nowhere else, to see one is to know we are home.
Now is the time of year you’ll probably be seeing and hearing more hummingbirds around Southern Nevada. If you want to attract them to your yard or patio — and who doesn’t — think about putting up a hummingbird feeder. While this is an easy task, it does come with a commitment of changing the nectar and cleaning the feeder.
If you can’t get outdoors to enjoy the sights and our natural treasures right now, a great thing to do would be to find out more about them on the internet. One good choice might be to learn more about rock art, specifically petroglyphs and pictographs, as there is a large concentration in our area.
It’s that time of the year again when we want to be out exploring the desert in the perfect hiking temperature. But be warned: Snakes are out and about doing the same thing.
