Sunday  6th April

We spent a month or so here last Autumn so have already done the “Vegas thing” such as walking the strip, checking out the posh casinos and people watching.  This time it was more visiting family and latching up with our 4 great Canadian friends.

We hiked quite a bit at Red Rock Canyon Recreation Area, which is really close to Las Vegas.  The Beaver Tail cactus was blooming  around the park.

My favorite hike was up a stream bed.  The rock formations were incredible.

Striped rock, spotted rock, curly rock.  Pink rock, red rock, yellow rock. And on it went.

Dean had a good time rockin’ and rollin’ on those rocks.  He left our friend Tom to hold up that giant boulder.

We decided this rock was an alien mushroom as it even had a stem.  Dean had fun with our friends dog.

The Mojave Kingcup cactus was also in bloom.  Rose is finally getting some flower goodness.

Dean decided we should hike to the top of this peak on his birthday. It looked pretty benign the day before with a blue sky and shining sun so I agreed.

The  BIG day was quite nippy so we had to glove up.  I thought it was ash flying about as we got higher, but noooo it had to be snow flurries. We climbed up some pretty rough scree and boulders. Dean got sick of hearing me asking “Are we there yet?”  After an elevation gain of 2000 feet (610 meters) and a lot of gasping and whining from me we finally reached the top. It was only 6400 feet (1950 meters)  Not very high at all. If it wasn’t snowing you would be able to see a panoramic view of downtown Las Vegas.

I felt like we deserved the bottle of wine, the second from the left to celebrate our victorious ascent but sanity and an empty purse ruled the day. Splurged on a $10 bottle instead.

I like unusual shaped hollows and our friend Donna was a good sport squishing into this rock hole.

I was definitely enjoying this tree.  I use my crock back and knee as an excuse to avoid having to contort my self into a pretzel.

Dean got in between a rock and a hard place for this picture.  Our next stop is Zion National Park in Utah which also has many rock formations.  I will keep you posted on the next nooks and crannies I can get him to squeeze into.