June 5, 2021
The last year has been a challenging one especially in terms of travel. Jim and I decided to take a chance and book a trip to Las Vegas, Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon in January. It turned out to be a good decision as the Covid-19 travel restrictions started to loosen up in May.
Our trip started on May 20 with a very early flight at 6:30 AM. With a layover in Atlanta and the time zone difference we landed in Las Vegas at 11 AM. The flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas was totally full so that indicated how many people were traveling!
We had reserved a standard SUV in January which was the right choice for our travels. What we didn't expect was temperatures 20 degrees below the norm of 80 degrees. Living in Florida full time makes 60 degrees feel chilly. The winds were also whipping around at 30 mph, also unusual, and prevented Bellagio, from providing the fountain show that happens every day....except when there are high winds. We did a lot of walking around the hotel which was decorated to the max. The ceilings were decorated with glass flowers and other interesting glass decor.
The ceiling has glass flowers
The hotel also featured an inside botanical garden which changes every season
There are numerous restaurants and shopping throughout the hotel. We made reservations at Lago, a small plate restaurant for our second and final night stay at the hotel.
Here is one of the entrees we ordered. It was yummy. We had hoped to see the fountain show from our table but it was too far away.
We did see the fountain show after dinner. It runs every 15 minutes after 8 PM and each show is different because the fountain moves to various music such as Elton John, etc.
We visited other hotels on the strip over the next day. It was still cold and there was so many people that we were anxious to leave Las Vegas and get out into more open areas...and hopefully some warmer temperatures. There were not a lot of shows and performances going on in May but they were going to start opening more in June and July.
We moved on the third morning to a hotel in Summerlin which is about 30 minutes from the strip but still considered the western part of Las Vegas. We had two destinations that day. The first was Mt.Charleston which is located in the Spring Mountains National Recreation area. I had heard much about this area but never had an opportunity to visit. The road climbed up to 8,000 ft but you could hike up to the top of Mt. Charleston peak at an elevation of 11,000 ft. It was very cold and surprise.....it started to snow.
You can see the snow flakes in this photo.
There were also horses roaming the area. We think they belonged to one of the residents. We had planned to do a short hike and we were able to find a quarter mile hike that was enough for us in the cold weather.
There is an actual town of Mt. Charleston. The lodge is the main tourist area but there are houses in the surrounding area The winds had been over 60 mph the day before this photo was taken and the town was now running on generators . What a different world exists on Mt. Charleston. Note....the temperatures in Mt. Charleston returned to the high 80's a few days after we were there. Go figure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Charleston,_Nevada
Our next stop for the day was Red Rock Canyon. It is a National Recreation area and there were timed tickets required for visits to the canyon. You can hike it, bike it and drive it. There is a 13 mile road that meanders through the canyon and allows access to the hiking areas throughout the canyon. Luckily I looked up information for the area the day before and discovered we needed a timed ticket and were able to obtain one before we got there. You also need a National Park pass to enter as well as the timed ticket (the time ticket was only necessary through June 1 ) so we had both and access was easy. It is definitely worth a visit. Here is the link for information on Red Rock.
https://www.redrockcanyonlv.org/
We had decided to do a hike in the canyon. I had looked over some hikes and decided on Calico Tanks. It was listed as a moderate hike with a scenic view. It turned out to be a more difficult hike than we thought. The sole of my hiking shoe started to come apart from the shoe and I slipped going back down the canyon and hurt my right leg. Thank goodness it was not debilitating and we were able to finish the hike. Here are some photos from our drive/hike in the canyon.
This blog is the first of two blogs. The second blog on our visit to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon as well as Hoover Dam will be completed very soon.
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