Behind the Scenes: Tie-dye photo shoot at Mount Charleston (part two)

A necessary evil of running any sort of online business (like, say, our Etsy shop full of tie-dye) is that eventually, you're going to need to provide photographic evidence of the items you are trying to sell. Not only do these photos need to clearly showcase the item itself in a clear and well-lit manner for people to judge the merit of this thing you're trying to sell them, but the photograph needs to be interesting enough to distinguish them from all the rest out there. There's no shortage of places to shop online, after all, and we're definitely not the first or last duo to ever make a tie-dye t-shirt. The trick is to find what sets us and our creations apart, and to try to capture some of that in the photographs. I don't know if we really accomplish that, at least as well as I really aim to, and I'm certainly not at the point where I would hang up my hat and consider myself a smashing success, but it's all part of the process. With each new photoshoot, and every photograph I go through and edit, refine, and polish I'm learning. If we can have some fun along the way, I think we're on the right path. 

Part of what makes us who we are, in my estimation of such, is our love of travel. I can not long live without some form of travel, lest I become bogged down with pervasive cabin fever and start to go a little nutty. Getting outdoors and into nature is absolutely necessary for our well-being, along with being a known boon to human health. Given as much, we try to get as many of our shoots done outdoors among nature now as we possibly can. More often than not, this gives us an excuse to go camping, though for this shoot we ended up making it a single day excursion rather than staying overnight. This was more a practicality, as camping locations at Charleston are mainly pay-to-play, and we're trying to be judicious in our spending as we prepare to take off for a new location. That's right, kids, this summer might be our very last in Las Vegas for awhile, because we're sick and freaking tired of all these motherf**king snakes on our motherf**king train! Haha, I kid... more so we're just sick and tired of the heat out here, of it, of how it saps the life from our pets, our plants, and us, not to mention all the additional vehicular stresses it adds. I've been driving the same car since college, and I've had to replace the radiator more than three times in the last decade. That seems....excessive...to say the least. My previous car suffered from a water-pump malfunction that left me overheated and stranded on the side of the road on my way to work (at the mall) on Black Friday, of all days. Suffice to say, it's hot, and I'm tired of being hot the majority of the time. Mount Charleston, while a nice respite from the heat of the city, is still not far enough away to break the umbilical. We must go further! And we will. Soon. 

But for now, enjoy these photos of the lovely Mount Charleston, a short drive from the Vegas valley. 

Vegas: Charleston 03 - Scenic drive

Despite stopping to take photos of and greet the wild burros down the road, we still had some ways to go before we actually reached Mount Charleston proper and all the things it has to offer. The drive to get there is beautiful, though, and in and of itself quite a worthy inclusion on the blog. The higher the elevation climbs, the more the desert landscape recedes to make room for the mountain trees and all the lush foliage the snow melt provides for. It's always fun, to me, to see the drastic change so close to home. You can see a similar change in the scenery on the drive out to Los Angeles once you pass the state line and start ascending into the mountainscape. Here at Mount Charleston, you'll find yourself quickly elevating out of the Joshua trees and dry, desiccated shrubbery of the lower desert, to find the shuddering leaves of cedar and pines predominant. The temperature dips into a more comfortable chill as you leave the valley bowl, no longer scorching the goodness from the earth with as much rapidity as the harsher elevations below. It's still rough terrains, with a gravel-rich soil forming the base from which the life grows. Even so, life, uh, finds a way. Always. And the life in this area is especially rich and green, especially after the many small rainstorms that worked their way through the region over the summer months.  I mentioned it and then Antho kind of paused, before reassessing the scenery and thanking me for calling it to his attention. The desert is a landscape of extremes, after all, and it's not exactly one to boldly proclaim it's resources to those without eyes. If you know what to look for, though, it's quite beautiful. 

Blue skies provide a sharp contrast to the greens, tans, and greys that proliferate below. After decades of living here, I've grown to love the desert scenery for what it is, but I can't acknowledge it's beauty without also giving nod to the scarcity it exists under. While deserts make up a fair portion of the landscape of the United States, the conditions they exist under are extremely fragile. Lake Mead is already down to 38 percent of it's capacity, and while it's an unnatural addition to the landscape thanks to the workings of humans it has provided an important facet to the area since its inception. Charleston, though, is its own locale...

Vegas: Charleston 02 - Wild burros!

Believe it or not, the extremely arid and seemingly inhospitable desert of Southern Nevada plays host to a large variety of wildlife, from large and impressive fauna like wild burros and horses to the smallest of insects and ants. And lizards! So many happy little lizards running among the heated stones, warming their creepy cold blood and wiggling their little legs. To endure in an environment as tough as this, many larger species have adapted to the surroundings, thriving on succulents and water-rich grasses to survive.  They do pretty well, actually, and there are signs all over the area warning against feeding the wild animals... After all, these are wild animals, right? We don't need them becoming dependent upon humans for their survival, wandering into the roads and cityscape looking for scraps and snacks. Even though the speed limit is only 35, even that speed can be extremely dangerous when an animal as large as a burro has wandered into the middle of the road...

So, seriously, be careful out there! We went slow and found this group of wild burros grazing alongside the road, but even in approaching them without the vehicle we were extremely trepidatious. These are large, strong, aggressive animals capable of wrecking a several-thousand-pound vehicle, let alone a fragile human skeleton. While I've been around domesticated burros during my childhood and gotten to know and love their stubborn, sassy, independent attitudes, they're definitely not an animal you want to underestimate in the wild. Sure, they're cute- they're adorable! They remind us of Eeyore, and wasn't he just such a lovable grump? But the thing is, these are fully grown wild animals and not some cute cartoon character... they can wreck your shit, and you. So be cautious. We were. We shot these photos from a safe distance, after pulling the van off into a safe side area away from the main road and out of traffic. We walked back roughly half a mile to find them and then used the zoom feature on my camera, and even so, we got a few aggressive grunts from the main male in the area before we turned and started heading back for the safety of the van. On the way back out from the mountain at night, we passed at least four or five burros just along the periphery of the road, and a wild horse grazing alongside the road that scared the ever-living-crap out of us. Even with our high-beams on, the winding roads and the camouflaging nature of their coats made it difficult to spot any of the animals until we were really close.  Be careful guys!

Vegas: Charleston 01 - drive out to Mount Charleston!

Driving out to Mount Charleston from the city of Las Vegas is a fairly short sojourn of roughly an hour for the vast majority of the mountain. When it comes to finding a change of scenery, though, it's an absolute treat and for such a short distance it's practically like traveling to a foreign planet. For the cost of gas and some time rolling down the freeway, you can escape the asphalt and concrete jungle to frolic among wildflowers and trees, plus the additional elevations let you chill off by about 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit: a much-needed respite from the summer heat of the valley! It's beautiful out there, too. There's a lot of camping available, varying from the power and water necessitating RV setups to boondocking areas, depending on your skills, needs, and equipment. While both Antho and I have done overnight boondocking camps here in the past, most of our visits over the more recent years have been day trips. It's an easy drive from the city, not so far that you really need to worry about extensive preparations but you should absolutely take a big bottle of water and some snacks along, just to be safe. Whether you're going hiking or just hoping to do the scenic loop in your vehicle, it's better to be prepared in the event of an emergency. On top of going camping most weekends with my family as a kid and getting stuck in sand dunes, rock pits, mud, and any other perilous desert surface, I've had the same car for over a decade, and as a result, I've gotten uncomfortably familiar with the variety of ways a car can poop out on you in a time of need. Crap happens, so be prepared. Maybe that timing belt you never thought about decides it's time to let it go, like Elsa in a blizzard, right as you crest a perilous peak. With my old lady, she simply loses engine power and glides to a stop wherever she loses momentum- but maybe your car will go out in a violent paroxysm of mechanical failure when you least expect it. As a responsible human being, we need to plan and prepare for these things to happen when we least want them to because murphy's law insists that's when they must absolutely happen. Such is life. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. But don't let that stop you from hitting the road! There's so much out there to see and enjoy. The world is a big, beautiful place after all. Get out there! 

Vegas: Mount Charleston part two

After hiking around in the snow for a bit then jumping in and making snow angels we felt it time to warm up and made our way back to the car. From there we headed out on the scenic route that loops around the mountains, connecting the various mountain ridges of the parks together. We usually approach from the other entrance by Mount Charleston lodge, so coming in from the other direction this time was a lot of fun! We stopped at several view points along the way before eventually ending up at the Mount Charleston lodge for hot cocoa. Definitely recommended after walking around in the cold for a few hours! There's even a series of adorable cabins you can rent up there along with rooms near the lodge, which I imagine is quite lovely. There's also RV and regular camping for those who prefer to get a little more up close and personal with their wilderness.  We didn't have the time for those things on this trip, though we hope to make it back soon and camp overnight! It's really only a short drive from the Vegas Valley so if you're an out of town visitor looking for something different than the usual Las Vegas strip stay I can highly recommend you check out the camping either here at Mount Charleston, out at Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon or Bonnie Springs Ranch! There's a lot more to do in the Las Vegas area than get drunk and gamble away your life savings, and believe it or not our desert landscape offers a bounty of different ecosystems and environments rife with various animal and plant species to encounter. Now that we have Vanticore in our armada to make camping and exploring easier, we're definitely planning to get out and about and explore all the beautiful national and state parks surrounding our fair glittering city.  I hope that you enjoy these photos from our outing and that they inspire you to go out on an adventure all your own! If you don't have a vehicle of your own at your disposal you can opt to take a Lyft, Uber or get a rental car- in this instance getting a rental car (or even better yet, a camper van) would likely be your best route. You can even bicycle out there if you're so inclined!

More photos below!

Vegas: Snow day at Mount Charleston part one

Snow is one of those exceptionally rare things that graces the Las Vegas valley maybe once every decade or so, if we're lucky. Precipitation of any kind is pretty rare in Vegas, with the city averaging  only roughly 2 inches every year, and snow is even more so rarified. It can, and does occasionally, happen but it takes such a lucky convergence of factors that I wouldn't ever try to bet on it happening on any given year. Fortunately for Vegas-dwellers, we have several nearby mountain ranges that are far more prone towards getting precipitation and even SNOW during the colder months of the year! It can come and go quite quickly, so when the snow is visible on the mountains you've got to act fast to really make the best of it. Some years we'll get lucky and the snow will be deep and dense in the mountains for weeks, or even months, and the skiing and snowboarding will be bountiful. Personally, I've never skied or snowboarded, I just like snow. Last time I really got to play in much snow I think it was during the blizzard of 2011 in Tokyo! Given as much, I was super excited to be out in the snow again.  I wasn't feeling all that well and struggled to get very far up the mountain, but I did my best given the circumstances and I'm just grateful we got to go and experience it while it was there. Mount Charleston is about an hour outside of Las Vegas, so if you plan a visit during the winter months you can easily make an escape with a rental car or Uber if you're wanting to escape the city. I highly recommend it, and there are cabins you can stay at up at Charleston if you want to truly immerse yourself into the snowy beauty for more than a few hours. Since we've been having health issues over the past few weeks, we opted for a shorter stay this time round but would love to stay for longer in the future!  We had a lot of fun while we were there and enjoyed our stay. We'll definitely be planning for an extended visit next time.