My parents decided to get themselves an RV this year as a retirement gift to themselves. Their second trip was to spend Thanksgiving in Vegas and hike in the surrounding area. My brother, his wife, and their friends rented an apartment for themselves and to have a kitchen for cooking the important meal. I spent the week with my folks in their RV, testing out the bed that’s above the driver area. My verdict of the bed: 4 out of 5 stars.
We spent most of our time hiking in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area. On one hike we went to what are called the Calico Tanks. My dad and I confused my mom with making her think they were Army tanks, but in reality they are just big dips in the rocks where water can collect. There was absolutely no water there when we went but we did get a sweet view of Vegas from afar. We also did a trail that lead to a waterfall. It was almost bigger than I expected but I will let you be the judge of that.
Our second destination was the Valley of Fire State Park. This place felt was a combination of Red Rock Canyon and Death Valley. The main hike we did passed through a bunch of colored rocks with colors I had never seen before. There were the regular reds, oranges, and white, but some of the colors went into the purples, pinks, and yellows. The area also had a ton of petroglyphs and other forms of wall art by the native inhabitants of the area, though sadly many modern visitors have decided to leave their marks as well.
My folks and I also spent a day hiking near Lake Mead, near a marina. It felt so weird as the hike spent most of its time on the hills that used to be at the waters edge, but now it was nothing but rocks and a few hardy plants. We decided to go off trail, down one of the dry canyons, and made our way to the current waters edge. We did see a small group of big horn sheep on an opposite hill as we were hiking out, but I had sadly decided to not take my extra long zoom lens on this hike as I didn’t feel I would use it.
