Summer hiking in Las Vegas

Now that high temperatures are here to stay for awhile, I've relocated my hikes to higher elevations. The Mount Charleston area offers countless hikes and is located just minutes north of Las Vegas. In preparation for my Nepal trek, I've been focusing on the higher elevation hikes. In early June, I hiked Griffith Peak and later in the month summitted Mount Charleston (11,918 feet) from the South Loop trail as an up and back. During the earlier part of June, I encountered quite a bit of snow and got lost a few times, but the hot sun has baked away most of it and the trails are now easy to follow. My plan is to hike Griffith at least once a week and possibly Charleston again once the memory of my sore feet fades. (It's about 18 miles and over 4000 vertical foot climb). Charleston is a great hike, just very VERY long.

Please enjoy my pictures and video from the recent hikes.



When I saw this, at the beginning of the South Loop Trail, I should have turned around! Instead I kept going and had a very lengthy hike to to the top of Grffith. I missed the trail countless times due to snow covering the way. Eventually, I hiked up a non-trail on the backside of the mountain and laughed at myself when I saw how obvious the trail was from the top.



Griffith Peak with part of the trail still covered in snow. (6/1/08)



Essentials for snow hiking: gaiters and snow baskets for your trekking poles.



Detail of tree bark at the top of Griffith.



View of Mount Charleston from Griffith Peak



Sweet!! The top of Charleston...



This video features prayer flags hung from the tower at the top of Mount Charleston. The flags give a great illustration of the wind up there!
Through another hiker, I learned that a man who recently attempted Mount Everest brought them back from Nepal. Please excuse the silly finish, I would have edited it out if I knew how to edit video! It's on my list...


This is part of the wreckage of a C54 plane from a crash on November 17th, 1955. For more information, please click on this link:
http://communitylink.reviewjournal.com/servlet/lvrj_ProcServ/dbpage=page&GID=01207001050986256098866016&PG=01207001050986267721405191
(Or google the crash site on Mount Charleston for endless, informative websites. One sad note about this crash: A mere 500 foot climb would have saved all 14 people who died.