I love Las Vegas. Not because of the usual Las Vegas activities but because of hiking. Las Vegas is a wonderful place to go hiking simply because no one goes to Vegas to hike. Except during the pandemic. There are some other amazing benefits to Vegas – like authentic NYC style pizza, and Ethel M’s Christmas lights.
It seems like the world is finally returning to pre-pandemic trends. It was impossible to get into Red Rock with a time entry permit during the last four years. EVERYONE always wanted to go and there were never any slots available. This is the same scenario that has played out at nearly all the popular outdoor recreation areas since the pandemic. I didn’t plan ahead for Vegas this year so I decided I needed to be lucky: this year I was able to drive up to the Red Rock entry area, request an entry, and then drive right in. This would NEVER have happened in the last four years. It was wonderful.
Some of the ‘neater’ things about Vegas involve stuff off the strip. There are a lot of pizza-by-the-slice restaurants made by people from New Yorker in Vegas. The pizza is just as good as the pizza-by-the-slice I have had in NYC. It’s lovely. Some of the other neat things are Ethel M’s, the chocolate candy factory, and, the Pinball Hall of Fame. All are super cool and were fun things to visit when I wasn’t hiking.
This year I hiked around Red Rock and then found some slot canyons to hike. It was wonderful to hike in quiet solitude; the slot canyons were fabulous too. The bang:buck ratio was insane – all three slot canyons were super easy to get to and super easy to walk. In the early mornings I went down to the strip and to Fremont, more on that later.
The first trail was a sunrise hike just outside of Red Rock on a popular hiking / biking trail that gave a view of Red Rock while hiking up and Las Vegas at the top. I didn’t realize it would be in the 30s and windy but fortunately I was prepared. The alpenglow was magnificent and it was such a treat to see Las Vegas in the early morning hours. The second hike in Red Rock was Ice Box Canyon in Red Rocks and it was wild. It’s such a short hike yet there was a ton of scrambling and climbing. I ended up helping some women who were trapped because of an area they hiked to – they needed some assistance getting down from where they climbed.
The three slot canyons, Anniversary Narrows, White Owl Canyon, and, Spooky Canyon were all pretty close to Vegas and super easy to find courtesy of Alltrails. Anniversary Narrows was, by far, the coolest slot canyon I’ve hiked. It was an extremely large slot canyon and there were varying features along the way.
Years prior, I would visit the strip in the early morning hours while I wait for the sun to rise since I’m an early riser and a SUPER early riser when I’m on Pacific Time like in Las Vegas. Not a lot is happening on the strip at 4AM but the Bellagio conservatory, the Venetian, and, other places are still open. It’s fun to see these places with nearly zero people. Unfortunately, this year Formula1 is racing in Vegas and sooooo much of the strip is closed off; it really sucked. So, the next morning I went down to Fremont street only to learn that the clientele is vastly different between the strip and Fremont, and, Fremont street at 4-6AM is probably not a place I’ll be going back to anytime soon.
All in all, 10/10, 100%, would go back. I love Vegas :).
Enjoy the photos!
