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: Atlatl Rock at Valley of Fire

Atlatl rock is an ancient structure standing in the Valley of Fire national park. The stone itself is riddled with petroglyphs, which unfortunately some of our modern human brethren have tried to improve upon with their own additions...but the original art adorning the rock is still clearly visible and now fairly well protected to prevent any additional future defacing to these valuable historic treasures. The stairs leading up to the petroglyphs can be a little intimidating, perhaps, and once we got to the top I found a previously unrealised fear of heights made me want to get lower (closer to solid ground) as I approached the edges of the platform. Antho was there to encourage and support me the whole time, holding my hand and offering gentle words as he encouraged me to step closer to the precipice. This, it turns out, provided a bit of foreshadowing to our future camping trip to the park, as he somehow managed to talk me into walking close to the edge of a cliff for a photo... not something I would normally have felt comfortable doing these days. It's a bit funny, I used to work on the 108th floor of the Stratosphere tower at the now defunct caricature stand and the heights never really bothered me that much, even winds or a bit of mild earth-quaking would cause to sway just enough to cause my pens to roll off an otherwise horizontal table. It's been quite a few years since then, though, and I suppose my inevitable mortality has started to sink it a bit, jangling my nerves.  

We didn't stay terrible long here, as there were a lot of other visitors passing through and we didn't want to hinder their visit or photo opportunities any.  I also had the unfortunate designation of having to go in to my day (or, in this case, night?) job later on. This meant our adventure had a bit of a limited time constraint from the get go. It was still a lot of fun and we got quite a bit accomplished, so I'm quite proud of us for making it work while still managing to adult. 

More photos below!

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.