Nevada

After two months of delays, I was all set to return to work March 2nd and was actually excited about it. The Thursday before, my start date was delayed by another week so I browsed through last minute vacation deals and ended up in Las Vegas for 3 days.

I didn't actually spend any time in casinos (unless you count the casino at my hotel in which I kept getting lost while trying to find the elevators to the hotel rooms) or on the Strip. Instead, I rented a car and went hiking at some near by parks. I hiked all day each day and then returned to my hotel and crashed (I was a bit sleep deprived when I got there because of flight delays and my stomach still being on eastern time).

The first day I went to the Hoover Dam and then to Lake Mead National Recreation Area. I did a walk from the park to the dam which went along an old railway line that was used during construction of the dam. What I found really noticeable was how low the water level was in the lake. The lake was created when the dam was constructed - the water in the lake is what powers the hydro generators in the dam and also provides water to Las Vegas. The ever-decreasing water level (and dire consequences) has been in the news in the past year - it will be interesting to see what happens in the future and what solutions for electricity and water supply are found.




Hoover Dam

Upstream of Hoover Dam

Lake Mead Recreation Area



Railway tunnels



Lake Mead

The second day I went to Red Rock Canyon Park, just west of Las Vegas. It was here that I forgot that I can control the weather by putting on sunscreen. There wasn't a cloud in the sky when I got there so I figured I should put on sunscreen and then an hour and a half later it started hail/rain/snowing. I retreated to my car for a while (ate lunch and read a magazine) while it blew over and then continued hiking. Near the end of the day I came across a small herd of deer, which was kind of neat.

Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon




Consequences of sunscreen application




Red Rock Canyon




Deer
























 



The last day I went to Valley of Fire Park. I enjoyed scrambling in the rocks in the park (which I may or may not have been allowed to do... but I didn't get hurt and neither did the rocks so I figure it's all ok).




Valley of Fire

Wave of Fire

Rock Erosion

Me

Valley of Fire



Desert moonrise

There were a lot of "no guns/weapons allowed" signs in the parks, casinos, stores, etc. I could never decide whether the signs made me feel safer (because there would be no guns/weapons there) or less safe (because they needed to post the signs in the first place).