Date: Sunday 12/9/12 Place: Floyd Lamb State Park at Tule Springs (About 15 miles north of downtown Vegas) Sights: Lakes, fisherman, birds, kids chasing birds
Hey, Mr. Peacock stop following me. I promise you I don't have any food!!!
Floyd Lamb is a wonderful oasis in North Vegas. This park was filled with beautiful birds and lots of people fishing at the lakes.
Today I ventured back to Red Rock Canyon, just outside of Las Vegas. It was a beautiful day...not to many pictures...... my camera battery became exhausted. Gotta keep it charged!!!!!
Any birders in the house??? Is this a male house finch?
Date: Saturday 11/24/12 Time: 8:00am Place: City of Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve Cost: The low-low free.
The preserve is an open area within the Kurt R. Segler Water Reclamation Facility just south of Las Vegas. The birds just come and go as they please. Check out the website for more information. I took a lot of pictures, here are a few of the better ones.
I did my best to identify the birds correctly. This looks like an American Coot.
Check out the beautiful shade of green on the Mallard.
Ducks chillin' on rocks.
This is a Western grebe.
Here's a Common Moorhen flashing its red and yellow beak.
This was the first time I've seen a Cinnamon Teal.
Today's travel takes us to Sunrise Mountain. Sunrise Mountain is located north east of the Las Vegas strip. Here are a few pics taken from Sunrise Mountain on a cloudy fall day earlier this month. Sin City looks quite angelic from this perspective.
Last Saturday the temperature finally dropped, so I took a trip to Death Valley. This was also my first trip to California. Fortunately Death Valley is only about two hours from Las Vegas... and just in case you were wondering about 2,300 miles outside of 285.
Lets go.
The Timbisha Shoshone are an Indian Tribe. According to the website 20-30 still live at death valley.
After arriving in the park, you will encounter a kiosk where you are supposed to to stop and pay....which I did. It costs 20 dollars per car for a seven day pass. No..there is not a one day pass. The 20 dollar pass is the lowest one. There is not a gate or any type of security that I saw. You have to pay by credit card.
Once inside the park the first stop was Zabriskie Point.
Park and take a short walk to the top.
Here are a few pictures from the top. I took these with an iPad...are they better than the phone I been using??
Death Valley covers a vast area. It requires a lot of driving to get from place to place. I spent more time inside my car than outside walking around. But anyway, after leaving Zabriskie Point, I headed to the visitors center to get some information. Then I drove to Badwater to see the salt flats.
How low can you go???
The Badwater Basin consists of more than 200 miles of salt flats.
There is a gas station inside of the park, but you need to fill up before you get here. I have NEVER seen gas this high. But is this a glimpse into the future???
After Badwater, I drove to Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. It was not difficult to walk on the sand because it was a little damp from prior rain.
After walking around on dunes, I headed back in the opposite direction to the Harmony Borax Works. Borax was processed here in the late 1800's.
I stopped at Dante's Peak on the way out of the Park. This view takes you 5,000ft above Death Valley. Now you can see how thh mountain ranges surround the valley below. The "white stuff" are mineral deposites. There is a small area of water located near the center of the picture below.
The road to the peak got really narrow and steep near the top. It felt like a roller coaster.
I saw two roadrunners on my trip. Just like the cartoon, they zoomed across the street. They moved too fast for a picture. I did not see any black folks, mostly European tourists.
Yesterday, fate blew me into Zion National Park in Utah. This park is located about 3 hours north east of Las Vegas, Nevada. Usually is costs 25 dollars per car to experience this wonder of nature. But September 29, 2012 was National Public Lands Day, so I got in for the low, low free. After doing a little research I decided to take part in one of the ranger lead hikes, but I got there too late. The time in Utah is 1 hour ahead of Nevada and I did not take that into consideration. When I got there I though it was 9:45, but it was actually 10:45. Oh well.....
The park has a wonderful free shuttle system. After parking near the visitors center, I took the shuttle to Weeping Rock. The Weeping Rock Trail is less than 1/2 mile long. It's in such a shady and damp area in the park that I got chill bumps from the cool air.
There were constant drops of water from overhead. I got a little wet.
This area was very cool, damp and shady. I also caugh a glimpse of what looked like a Steller's Jay.
After leaving Weeping Rock I caught the shuttle to the Temple of Sinawava and completed the Riverside Walk. It is a little over 2 miles round trip.
I saw a few animals here. Mostly squirrles, a fox, deer, lizards, lots of butterflies and a few birds. I'm not sure what's going on with this guy, but he's loud.
Las Vegas is sooooo dry, I got excited to see the river flowing through and sculpting the canyon. This is the Virgin River.
After completing this easy hike, I took the shuttle to an area known as the Grotto. Once there I hiked the Kayenta Trail and the Lower Emerald Pools Trail.
Lower Emerald Pool
Can you spot the young buck, relaxing in the shade by the river?
Finally I took the Pa'rus trail from the Visitor's Center, to the Zion Human History Museum.
This is the view from behind the museum.
Well, today I had planned to go to Death Valley. But when I mentioned this to a colleague, he suggested that I wait until it got cooler before heading out there. He suggested that I check out Zion National Park or Red Rock Canyon. So I choose to venture to Red Rock Canyon today. This adventure is still about 2,000 miles outside of 285, but luckily only 20 miles west of Las Vegas. So I checked out the website. It looked interesting so I decided to roll. My first thought.....this looks a lot like the Valley of Fire. My second thought.....nope, this place actually has lots of trees. After a short drive I arrived at the gate, where it costs 7 dollars per car to get into the area. Then I headed up to the visitors center. It has a ton of information especially about the geology of the area. The exhibit is broken down into air, fire, earth and water sections. The people at the front desk were really nice and knowledgeable. Unfortunately, I did not see the tortoises that live there. I guess they were hiding in their holes. What's the difference between a turtle and a tortoise? Turtles swim.
After leaving the visitors center I took a drive on the 13 mile scenic road.
The first stop was Calico 1.
The next stop was Sandstone Quarry. I actually got out here and walked around for a while. Here are a few pictures. Luckily it was cloudy and there was a nice breeze.
It was cloudy, but you can see a little blue poking through.
What is this....a hot Cheeto????? Lets taste it and find out.
At one point it looked like it was going to rain...but it never did.
Twisted Beauty!!!
Amazing colors...this all natural. It looks like something Bob Ross painted back in the day. You know, the white guy with the fro, who had the paining show on PBS.
During the walk I saw a few lizards and a bird. It was a blue bird, but bigger than the ones you usually see in the south. There were a lot of families and couples making the hike. There were also a lot of foreign tourists with HUGE cameras.
After leaving this area, I stopped for a few more pictures.
As I made my way out...I saw some people rock climbing. Can you see the people? LOOK BELOW!
One guy has on a white shirt. Can you see them?
Verdict: This is is nice place to come if you are visiting Las Vegas and you are yearning to get out of the casinos for a few hours. I will definitely come here again when it is cooler to hike some of the more strenuous trails.
