What You Should Really Do in Vegas

Half and hour from Vegas is the ruggedly beautiful Red Rocks Conservation Area. This place has amazing hikes, and an insane amount of hikes. The are a series of half a dozen stops with parking lots and trails for visitors to follow. For the day hiker, the area is full of excellent year long hikes and petroglyphs. The moderate climate is perfect for winter recreation. Summer recreation, however, could be rather hot. Our trip was in mid February and the sun and temperature were great.

Our goal was the thousands of climbing routes there, but we managed to see petroglyphs on the way to some climbs. We were there for several days, climbed the whole time, and we only stopped to climb at two of the six pull-offs. The place would keep any respectable climber busy for months. However, the majority of the climbs are 5.11 and above. Those routes rated below 5.11 can be crowded.

The area also offers great traditional climbs for experts and those less expert (I'm in that category). A huge dihedral, called Red Book, topped the the red-rock walls. Brent climbed on up and I followed right behind, cussing the whole way.

The first night we slept in a wash a couple miles off the road and woke up with frost all over us, Danielle was not to happy with that. This wouldn't do for night two. Camping at the Red Rock campground and other surrounding areas were crowded, ugly, and expensive for camping without fires. Instead we went to the nearest saloon and asked Moe, the owner of Mountain Springs Saloon, where to go. Moe then told us of the wilderness area behind the saloon, offered us water from his well (non-alcoholic), and a sandwich if we bought it. The camp area was great, no people, no fire restriction, and a great view of the little township of Mountain Springs.

Altogether Red Rocks is a win-win. A great place to for a weekend trip to and close enough to Vegas to make a worthy day trip on vacation in Sin City.