Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, NV

March 27, 2012 -- Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is the last place Nathan and I planned to visit while in Nevada. This 200,000-acre park is very close to Las Vegas, about 20-minute drive, and has a lot to offer visitors year-round.

Nathan and I checked out from the casino hotel in Henderson late morning and drove directly to Red Rock Canyon. It took us about 35 minutes to get there. There is no map provided at the park entrance, but everyone can make the first stop to get information at the Visitor Center.

 The Visitor Center at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is very well-organized with many exhibitions and helpful rangers. Nathan and I grabbed a few brochures here to plan our visit.

There exhibitions are both inside and outside of the building. You can also find a few desert tortoises in the garden outside. There is also a very nice gift shop selling souvenirs here.  

 The view from the Visitor Center is spectacular!

After learning about the natural world from the Visitor Center's exhibitions, Nathan and I were ready to take the Scenic Drive around the park. It is a 13 mile one-way road and has over 15 interesting stops.

Calico I is the first stop and it seems to be the most popular spot for visitors to explore the Aztec Sandstone escarpment.

 At the Sandstone Quarry, you will see the giant white stone and a ton of people doing rock climbing.

High Point Overlook is my favorite spot.

 The pictographs "Hand Across Time"at the Willow Springs Picnic Area show that this area has been occupied for thousands of years.

 The last stop in the park is at the Red Spring. This site is actually outside of the Scenic Loop but not too far. There is a nice boardwalk along the field, but we didn't see any pool of water here. It wasn't worth a stop at all.










Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is an interesting natural site near Las Vegas. You can come for hiking, biking, and rock climbing. If you don't have much time, just driving along the Scenic Drive13-mile  is worth the visit. The entrance fee is $7 per vehicle, and the park is open from 6 a.m. -7 or 8 p.m. depending on the season.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada

March 26, 2012 -- Lake Mead is the biggest man-made lake in the United States. It's the result of the Hoover Dam, an engineering wonder  built in 1931. Today, Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US, is a national recreation area that offers visitors all kinds of water sports -- boating, fishing, swimming, and water skiing. Travelers who love the desert and wilderness shouldn't miss this place when visiting Las Vegas.

After visiting Hoover Dam, Nathan and I drove to Lakeview Overlook to get a good view of the big lake. The overlook is just right around the corner from the dam on Nevada side, and it's free of charge. From the park's map, it seems that you will get more access to the beaches and picnic areas from the Nevada side of the lake than from the Arizona side.

The entrance fee for the recreation area is $10 per vehicle. Nathan and I have the America the Beautiful Pass, so we got to enter with no charge. There are many beach areas where you can walk or swim in the cool water. I think the beaches must be pretty crowded in the hot, desert summer when the temperature rises over a hundred degrees!

There are many new, clean picnic areas along the lake. All provide nice sitting benches in the shade and BBQ grills. It must be pretty relaxing and peaceful to come here with a good book on weekends.

Since Nathan and I visited this park on the way to the Valley of Fire State Park, we didn't stop at every single viewpoint along the lake or hike on any trails. We just drove through the park to enjoy the incredible scenery of the desert. Also, it would take one and a half hours just to drive through the park to the Valley of Fire, so we couldn't spend too much time there when there was a lot more to see later.

 Redstone is one of the cool spots in the park. However, if you don't have much time to explore, it's fine to pass on this one because there is plenty to see in the Valley of Fire.

Rogers Spring is the last stop we made before going in the Valley of Fire State Park. The water isn't hot, and there are a lot of fish in the little pond. There is another hot spring about a mile north of Rogers Spring named Blue Point Spring, but there isn't any pond or creek there.

Hoover Dam, NV

March 26, 2012 -- After a good night's rest and a big breakfast buffet in a casino resort in Henderson, Nathan and I headed to Hoover Dam, our first site of the day, right away. It was about 20 minutes driving from Henderson.

We had been there once in 2008 on our honeymoon trip to the Grand Canyon, but we got there in the evening, and the tour didn't give us any time to explore the dam. Nathan had actually been there once before that as well, but he got there late of the day then too and didn't get to see much of the dam. Anyway, our mission for visiting Nevada this time was that we must see everything at Hoover Dam!










The first stop we made was at the Memorial Bridge. I remember seeing it under construction when I came here the first time. Now we can drive and walk on it. The view of the dam from the bridge is amazing!

There are many choices of tours at the dam. Nathan and I took the Powerplant Tour to go down to the building at the base of the dam and learn about low-cost hydroelectric power. More than 1.3 million people in Nevada, Arizona, and California get the electricity generated by these powerplants.

We are on Arizona side of the dam.

The visitor center

The white washout on the mountains show the highest level of the water in the dam.

Nevada side

Arizona side

After walking around the dam, both on the Nevada side and on the Arizona side, we were ready to drive around Lake Mead, the biggest man-made lake in the U.S.