How I Spent My Christmas Vacation, part I: Beauty in the Glitz

So after powering my way through the finish line of my 1st Semester of Grad School, I quickly boarded a plane to the land of neon lights and slot machines to help my parents run the UPS store and deal with what turned out to be a plethora of last minute holiday shippers. Working retail turned out to be not so bad and apparently I have some skills in the packing/shipping/upselling department. Exhausting hours though.
I was finally given a day off the Saturday before Christmas and decided to get out of casino/strip mall central. I drove out to the Lake Mead Recreational area to take a look at the dam that makes Las Vegas possible and also go hiking in the desert. It was fairly chilly in NV that week - below freezing at nights and lots of wind. But pretty sunny and my new ultralight parka made it a wonderful day outside. There was some traffic to get over the Hoover dam and I snapped some photos from the car while we all inched along across. Some interesting statues - very Ayn Rand era. It was really cool to cross time zones as you crossed the dam and there were even clocks up on both sides to keep everyone in the know.

After I got free of tourist central, I had a 7 mile drive into AZ to the start of the 3 mile hike to some hot springs. Unfortunately, the turnoff was very unmarked and so I wound up going way too far - 15 miles or so - before I decided to turn back and head to the random spot where 6 cars were parked. I got some cool pictures at the turnaround spot which was one of those scenic photo opportunity areas.

Because of the misadventures in getting out on time, the traffic etc, it was much later than I'd wanted when I finally started on the hike. It was a 3 miler, 1st across desert then through rocks etc to get to a lake and then to hot springs. I was a little uncomfortable hiking by myself, seeing no one on the trails and the afternoon sun behind the rocks made me a little wary since I had no watch so I only went about 2 miles in. It was still really cool in the rocks, lots of red sandstone and huge cliffs - I felt like a hobbit.

Anyhow, I never made it to the springs (boo!!) so I'll have to try do the hike again next time and start a little earlier. It might even be a nice little trail run in on the gravel/sand. Headed back to town and had to cross the dam again. Of course, there was even more traffic, but I did pull over on the AZ side (where parking is free) and took a look at Lake Mead and the dam. The water line scares me a little. Wonder if things will be better in the Spring with all that snow we are getting up here in CO. There was a lot of work being done around the dam, but I don't really know why.

On the way home, I stopped by the very deserted beach to get a couple more pictures of Lake Mead. It is awfully pretty even though it's not a real lake.

At any rate, it was a nice day to spend outside in the national park and away from Vegas. I really wished I'd brought my road bike with me to get some riding in, especially since the park was so deserted and I'd have the paths to myself. Oh well.