Vegas: May Visit to the Springs Preserve part one

Another Springs Preserve post! Can you believe it? I know, readers, I certainly like to drivel on about this place a lot, but it's endlessly evolving and so much fun to visit!

This post is, unfortunately, a bit delayed in going live given that it's from a visit last month. It's been a hectic month or so, though, with new jobs and changing schedules, adventures, out-of-town work requiring road tripping, and all sorts of other excitement. I've touched on this outing a little bit already, having shared our visit with the friendly tortoise and the snazzy Gila monster, but these photos will cover more of the open grounds from when you first enter the preserve itself. The Springs Preserve is massive, with a lot to try to take in on any given visit and then it changes with every season and holiday to boot, making it an endlessly fascinating place to stop at while here in lovely Las Vegas. Antho and I got annual memberships after our very first visit in the September of 2017, and we've gone time and time, and time, and time, again since then! There's a museum with rotating exhibits, live animals to check out, then gardens and hiking paths galore. It's pretty epic. Not only is there the animals in their zoo, but plenty of wild animals stop in, too, like this cute little green guy above. Nature doing nature stuff. 

This particular visit took place on a warm, beautiful, sunny day in early May. I guess you'd say that was the tail end of spring by Vegas standards, as we start to get into the high 80's / low 90's (Fahrenheit) by the end of May, if not higher. Once the heat really settles in, it takes hold for months on end with only brief thunderstorms and heavy rains surprising us once or twice, if we're lucky. Those summer monsoons provide much-needed moisture to the drought-ridden desert landscape, along with providing some flash-floods that catch unwitting drivers by surprise. You win some, you lose some. The ground is so hard packed here that when we do finally get that rainfall the land so desperately needs, it tends to collect on the surface and run into the lowest points of elevation before eventually draining. There's an extensive system of tunnels and drainage tubes underneath the city of Las Vegas, because even though our rain is few and far between it tends to come with quite a flash.

  

Despite our drought conditions, life does thrive here. From lizards to birds, spiders to mountain lions, there are plenty of creatures that have adapted to survive the terrain. Plantlife, too, has adapted to these tough conditions. 

More photos below~

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

💖

XOXO,

NAU