After a spring coronavirus lockdown, Las Vegas Valley residents have taken to local hiking trails in large numbers.
Recreation
Introducing your children to the great outdoors and teaching them to appreciate nature are two of the best gifts you can give them.
Although here in Southern Nevada we don’t experience the brutal winters seen in much of the West, hypothermia can still be a real threat for outdoor lovers. Many people are unaware that you can become hypothermic without even being exposed to freezing temperatures.
With its red and orange Aztec sandstone formations surrounded by mountains of gray and tan limestone, Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park is a feast for the eyes. Established to protect the scenic, geologic and archaeological features, it’s a great place for weary folk itching to get out of town for the day.
China Ranch Date Farm makes an easy cool-season getaway for a day of treats and hiking in a place the entire family will enjoy.
Outdoor lovers have long recognized the special character of the southernmost part of Clark County with its expanses of open land, geological wonders, canyons, springs, rolling hills, prehistoric sites and a wide variety of flora and fauna. Now a new national monument is being proposed to protect and manage these treasures.
Lone Pine, California is a laid-back town of around 2,000 people in Owens Valley on the foothills of the eastern Sierra Nevada. You’ve probably heard of it because it’s used as a base camp for hiking Mount Whitney, located just 12 miles west. What you might not know is Lone Pine is also home to the Alabama Hills, which draw people from around the world for their recreational opportunities and their rich film history.
Big Bend of the Colorado State Recreation Area is at the southern tip of Nevada, along the Colorado River, about 6 miles south of Laughlin. It’s a great place to visit, even for a day trip, as it’s not too far from Boulder City, about 85 miles away.
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.
