Cindy's Birthday Run - Exploration Across Southern Nevada

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
As some of you may know, there's one thing that Cindy always asks for when her birthday comes around and that's to get in our Jeep and hit the dirt! And, being that we already had plans to be down in the Vegas area to visit family, we decided this birthday would be spent making a trek across the Southern Nevada desert. As luck would have it, our good friends Tony and Steph were able to join us for this adventure and the following are a few highlight pics from all the fun we had. I hope you enjoy. :cool:

Oh how we love the wide open Nevada desert!
20190203133823-1bedd11c-me.jpg


The long drive down to Vegas is always a beautiful one.
20190203133817-ba647e63-me.jpg


WooHoo!! Hooking up with Steph and Tony at Jack's down in Boulder City and celebrating a fun filled weekend ahead - CHEERS!
20190203125544-207382a3-me.jpg


I knew we should have taken an Uber instead of a Lyfffffffffffffttttttttt......
20190203125550-5273df0b-me.jpg


DAY 1
Looking like it's gonna be a beautiful day.
20190203133749-06817800-me.jpg


Being that this was Cindy's Birthday Run, she got to pick the Jeep we would take and of course, she chose her favorite - Moby!
20190203125559-640e4afd-me.jpg


Being that we were planning on covering well over 100 miles and all on dirt, we decided it might be good to let a little air out of the tires to soften things up.
20190203125557-f28830ff-me.jpg


So... If I'm reading this right, this confusing set of signs are saying that only cars are allowed beyond this point. I guess that explains the "TRAVEL AT YOUR OWN RISK" :crazyeyes:
20190203125604-eebfd150-me.jpg


Just for emphasis... LOL (Clearly, they are referring to the kind of climbing that you do with your hands and feet)
20190203125606-244085fd-me.jpg


And we're off on another adventure!
20190203125613-cf69da67-me.jpg


20190203125624-fa169c25-me.jpg


Making a stop to see the beauty of the desert.
20190203125719-a002d734-me.jpg


Don't know if you can see it or not but there's an enormous cave up in the mountains.
20190203125638-46766b7e-me.jpg


View looking out across a massive Joshua Tree and Yucca forest.
20190203125713-1976ff38-me.jpg


On the move again and with lots of ground to cover.
20190203125702-86290b24-me.jpg


Wiggling our way through a really cool canyon - temperature wise as well!
20190203125728-5b69fc03-me.jpg


Moby hiding out and keeping an eye out while we do a little exploring on foot.
20190203130943-3409ebbd-me.jpg


Looks like people used to live in this one.
20190203125825-a997208e-me.jpg


20190203125750-1a8a11aa-me.jpg


20190203125758-9a3acb6f-me.jpg


View from the cave looking back down at Moby.
20190203125809-54bd83ef-me.jpg


20190203125811-cdfb987b-me.jpg


After a long climb out up the canyon and to the top of the pass, we found ourselves in a bit of snow.
20190203125847-5bac4401-me.jpg


Heading back down the other side.
20190203125858-b56b2aa3-me.jpg


20190203125917-e19cf316-me.jpg


Back down in another valley.
20190203125931-9931b91d-me.jpg


Blasting down a Nevada Superhighway.
20190203125942-48b747a9-me.jpg


And working our way up another canyon.
20190203125948-b4a76a84-me.jpg


20190203125952-b67df6ec-me.jpg


20190203130016-2d247ead-me.jpg


On the other side of yet another mountain range and down in a kinda dry lake bed.
20190203130055-cb27359c-me.jpg


It's a little hard to see but out on a rocky point at the edge of the lake bed were these cool petroglyphs.
20190203130043-fbb47887-me.jpg


Soaking in the setting sun out in the middle of nowhere.
20190203130119-35cb84a6-me.jpg


20190203130125-0f4f6324-me.jpg


20190203130127-bd0a7d4c-me.jpg


Examining some really interesting patterns on the lake bed surface.
20190203130205-6594cefe-me.jpg


20190203130240-2d921b4c-me.jpg


20190203130218-40af4c1b-me.jpg


Back in town after a long day of fun on the trail - HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY!
20190203130246-05b834f3-me.jpg


DAY 2
Good morning from our home the night before - this historic Boulder Dam Hotel.
20190203133758-1d77cb79-me.jpg


For our second day, we decided to do something we rarely do and that's to visit some tourist attractions. Specifically, we decided to make our way out to Valley of Fire and take the route that goes along the shorts of Lake Mead. As you can see, the water level is still quite a bit down.
20190203130256-ceaabf91-me.jpg


As soon as we crossed into Valley of Fire, we got out of our Jeeps and hoofed it on foot over to Elephant Rock.
20190203130309-420b2389-me.jpg


Sure is beautiful out here.
20190203130306-cbab1a96-me.jpg


And there it is - Elephant Rock! Do you see it?
20190203130332-b6f406a9-me.jpg


Here's a closer shot to help you see the trunk and front leg.
20190203130327-8b03a874-me.jpg


But I think the view from the other side is nicer.
20190203130342-e02259ab-me.jpg


Back in our Jeeps, we stared to work our way across the park to see what else we could see.
20190203130410-e2f83d99-me.jpg


Landscape starting to change quite a bit.
20190203130437-a777254a-me.jpg


So many pretty colors!
20190203130425-2be5d64c-me.jpg


Back on foot, we hiked our way out to the Fire Wave (not to be confused with The Wave out near Page).
20190203130442-c2818980-me.jpg


Kind of a bummer there were so many people out and about but then, what would you expect to see out in a park.
20190203130456-f8f9638e-me.jpg


20190203130502-aa25d14f-me.jpg


20190203130510-6fc165b2-me.jpg


20190203130521-197c92cd-me.jpg


20190203130529-7cb1105c-me.jpg


20190203130541-8b64c72b-me.jpg


20190203130448-a0ea6234-me.jpg


Well, in spite of the crowds, it still was pretty.
20190203130611-3810d641-me.jpg


After another short drive, we stopped again to do a hike up Mouse's Canyon.
20190203130714-dd57efb8-me.jpg


Tons of amazing petroglyphs can be found here.
20190203130628-c7ceab98-me.jpg


20190203130617-901cc08d-me.jpg


20190203130711-df5e6f6e-me.jpg


There literally are petroglyphs anywhere and everywhere and even in places that are hard to imagine how anyone could have climbed up to make them.
20190203130722-5cce33fc-me.jpg


20190203130732-8a2c3a61-me.jpg


After another short drive, we found ourselves over at a set of old cabins that were built by the CCC way back in the early 20th century.
20190203130805-7a815f4f-me.jpg


20190203130758-98ff38bd-me.jpg


With the sun starting to hang low in the sky, we decided to head out of the park and to our home for the night.
20190203130850-8b454825-me.jpg


HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN to CINDY!
20190203133804-ee8a6123-me.jpg


I know it wasn't much but I hope you enjoyed seeing the few highlight pics that we took from our weekend of fun celebrating Cindy's birthday. :cool:
 

Brute

Hooked
Happy Birthday Cindy!...Nevada is the land of dry lake beds...and the striations in the rocks are amazing...
 
Top Bottom