Vegas π² Baby
Bring your own supercar car in its own garage on wheels! The 2022 Ford GT starts at $.5M. Glamping at its best in Vegas, baby!
I took Jake on his very first tour of the strip in Las Vegas. He didn’t seem impressed π€£πΆ. We got in line with a bus-load of tourists (like ourselves) to take a selfie at the famous sign. Later in the week Dan, Maggie, and I went in to celebrate her birthday at Wynn’s famous buffet. I was stuffed!
I would guess that I’ve been to Vegas more times than anywhere else (if you don’t count Detroit – and I really would like to forget Detroit π€£). In my many years of high-tech marketing Vegas is the place to go to keep the cohorts happy.
So I really didn’t want to necessarily visit Las Vegas again. On the other hand, there is a side to Vegas you don’t hear about as much – the Red Rock desert and mountains. After all the rain this year – the sights were epic!
Valley of Fire State Park
We toured Nevada’s first state park, Valley of Fire, early the first morning. It’s best described as an oasis of beautiful shades of red rock surrounded by desert. Deposits from an earlier time when the area was a river, the red rock has been since exposed and weather in a stunning display of the force of nature and time.
Very moving and yet another reminder of the star stuff we all come from. There is no difference where the elements that make up this rock and our body originate. Interstellar Overdrive, indeed!
Complex uplifting and faulting of the region, followed by extensive erosion, have created the present landscape. The rough floor and jagged walls of the park contain brilliant formations of eroded sandstone and sand dunes more than 150 million years old. Other important rock formations include limestones, shales, and conglomerates. [from Wikipeadia]
Prehistoric inhabitants of the Valley of Fire included the Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, who were farmers from the nearby fertile Moapa Valley. Their approximate span of occupation has been dated from 300 BC to 1150 AD. They left us a message on the rock which has fortunately withstood the test of time.
Rainbow Gardens Overland
My friend Dan got into off-road driving and Overlanding a while back. He’s been working on equipping his awesome Land Rover with some serious hardware and taking lessons on technique. He demonstrated that superbly on the Rainbow Garden trail just east of Las Vegas. It was a blast!
This was a vastly different landscape than we saw just a few miles north at Valley of Fire. The colors here were more varied with bright yellow and deep red showing together with some nearly white formations. Some of the hills were covered with an organism that had a grayish-purple color. Everywhere was evidence of the shaping forces of wind and water. Exquisitely beautiful and accessible thanks to Dan’s great driving.
Potosi Mine Overland to Goodsprings
Our second day of overlanding took us to Springs Mountian in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area just west of Vegas. An old mine was the entrance to incredibly colorful desert scenery.
This route took us into spectacular scenery with Joshua Trees and many other desert plants that were in bloom. The colors – purple age, strawberry hedgehog cactus, yellow desert marigold – were stunning. The settings with the colorful plants and Joshua Trees were amazing. We even got lost a couple of times to test Dan’s skill and my fearlessness π€£. The Land Rover didn’t care – it just kept on ticking!
At the end of the drive, we stopped at Goodsprings and visited the historic Pioneer Saloon for some merch. It was a great day’s ride!
We enjoyed our time here with our friends and got to see some splendid sights! We now start our two-day journey to Yosemite. Long on my bucket list, we have to go the long way around because of all the winter rains and snow in the mountain passes. Should make for beautiful sights at the park though!
