Skip to main content

Red Rock Canyon National Park

When someone mentions Las Vegas to you...what comes to mind? Usually one gets images of bright lights, the Bellagio fountains, extravagantly decorated hotels, high end shopping, scantily dressed women, gambling, excessive spending, and hangovers.

Well I'm here's to prove that belief wrong. :)

I am currently in Vegas accompanying my husband. He is at a 2 week course for the Air Force, and I happened to have Wednesday-Sunday off from work (I had taken PTO many months ago as we were planning a vacation during this time). So I packed up the car, set off for a road trip to Vegas.

The one thing I had to do was figure out how to entertain myself during the day while Ryan is at school. My initial thought was, "I know! I'll buy myself a pack of Marlbarols, drink Manhattans, and spend the afternoon with my ass planted at a slot machine so I can waste thousands of dollars!!!!"

Oh wait, no. I wouldn't do that. Ever. In a million years. In fact, I loathe casinos. I am sorry to offend anyone reading this -- but I get absolutely no appeal to casinos. Ryan and I are too practical to gamble. Last time we each set aside $10 to gamble. Lost it immediately. And then thought, "We could've bought a martini with that money!" I just don't get the lure that some people do. And if you've ever watched people in casinos?! They look like slugs -- I actually think I could see their brain matter melting out of their head and being sucked into those machines...


Okay, rant is over. ;)

I did a little research of fun outdoorsy activities to do in Vegas, and I found Red Rock Canyon. It is about 10 minutes west of Las Vegas (it was about a 45 minute drive from our hotel on the Air Force Base). It is totally worth the drive!!

You go from city and residential to absolute pure natural beauty. The landscape is painted with Red and white speckled canyons and giant rocks formations. There is a 13 mile "scenic path" that loops around the park. Many road bikers. Only a few runners out there crazy enough to attempt. I was one of them! I only did 6. It was 90 degrees out, if I had done the 13 miles I'd probably be laying dead out of the desert from heat exhaustion. (I only joke...kind of)

Here are a few photos that I snapped on the run!!

 Here is the road I ran on. It is a 13 mile loop, and it's a one way. I was relieved it was a one way --so I could run in the middle of the road. For I could hear snakes on the perimeters. For those of you not well-accustomed to the desert...this is "mating season" for rattlesnakes. They are hungry, protective, and like to bite.
 Here's a photo I snapped of me. (I cannot figured out how to flip the image on my blog, sorry!) As you can see...I'm rather diaphoretic. Thank God I carried a bottle of Gatorade with me. It was hot!

 Here is an example of the colorful rock formations. It's as if someone went and painted the rocks. This was a structure of Sandstone.
 More Red Rock. This is one of the pull outs -- where a nice couple asked me if I needed any water. People are always so happy and kind at National & State Parks....
One last view of the canyons off in the distance

I was definitely kicking myself afterwards for not bring my road bike on this trip! This area was road bikers heaven with lovely, newly paved roads. The bike lanes were huge! And miles upon miles of road to discover!

Comments

Lisa's Yarns said…
What a pretty area! That is great that you got outside of the city and got to check out a beautiful state park!
Marlys said…
Beautiful pictures! I had to laugh at your rant about casinos! One is either a lover of them or a despiser, which I assume you attained from your parents? I would rather spend my money in most any other way than gambling! Uck. You are getting to see so much country since you left ND! Good for you!

Popular posts from this blog

Currently - May edition

   I haven't blogged much - but the last time I did one of these, Maddy was 9 months old. It's really fun looking back on the things that were "stressors" to me at that time. Prior to that - my currently post was a pregnancy edition.  So here goes May 2022. Maddy is almost a 15-month old and summer has set ablaze here in Tucson.   Reading :  I really wish I had a better answer for this one, but I have not been the best about reading lately. The only book I'm reading is "How to talk to your kids so they'll listen and listen so they'll talk". It is really good. Most of the book is geared more to school-aged kids, in my opinion. But it highlights some great communication skills with children to help them trust you as a parent to be open and honest. Eating: All the smoothies. It has been getting really hot here - and every day when we get home from our stroller run I make a smoothie for Maddy with whole milk, Fage, and fruit - and then a smoothie for...

A weekend of the great outdoors

As I am preparing for my return to the real world tomorrow, I feel a strong sense of dread. As I won't have a weekend or free week for a long while! Instead of focusing on that.......I'm sharing a few snapshots from our awesome weekend! This weekend we were in Big Lake, AZ -- which is about 20 miles from the New Mexico border (just 5 1/2 hours from our house). (last weekend we were in Parker Canyon...which I will blog about another day) We camped from Friday-Monday, which was the perfect length of time. The temperatures were a great escape from hot Tucson. In fact...it was VERY cold at night. It was in the low 30's at night, 60's during the day. The trout fishing was incredible. Here's a few snapshots: Home Sweet Home for the weekend! Look at the giant tree I cut down!!! Wow!! (Okay, this was posed...) But...Ryan did teach me how to use a wood-saw! There were tons of dead/fallen trees lying around. So we cut all our firewood for the weekend! I felt very ...

Good things

I must say there are many good things I have to be happy about right now! I am in my psychiatric-mental health nursing rotation right now. I originally chose nursing as my major beause from the time I was like 12 I wanted to be a psych nurse. I love it so far. The clinicals are incredible. I am finding I am more organized and ahead of things in this class than I ever have been! Now, if I could be this motived with Critical Care and my Capstone this summer......:) Ryan and I got an entire day together yesterday!!!! This is rare. My spring break kind of sucked. He would leave at about 6 a.m., and not return until 8 p.m. The poor guy is spread too thin! So I cherish a day like yesterday! Which consisted of............. Spring Training baseball!!!!!! Diamondbacks vs. Oakland Atheletics. It was nearly a close-out. 10-1. We met his bosses wife at the game and she insisted we ditch our seats & sit in the seats in front of them that they had purchased . So we were FRONT ROW BEHIND HO...