We slept as late as we could after our all night travel. The sun pierced our black out curtains at 8 am. The room is equipped with a Keurig and two pods. My normal routine includes at least two cups to function correctly. I’m familiar with Keurig machines. You can get two cups out of a pod, the second is merely a weaker brew than the first. Maybe this one was programmed to make sure guests couldn’t milk those pods; while attempting to brew a second cup, the pod exploded in the machine. Coffee grounds everywhere! I got the last laugh: I drank the cup anyway.
We hit the road around 9 and headed toward the mountains. We were on our way out to the Red Rocks, where there is a long, gorgeous scenic drive with several spots for parking and dozens of hiking trails, ranging from easy, to very difficult (experienced climbers only). Jay had gone online and found us a moderate trail that looked great.
It wasgreat!!
Our plan was to grab some breakfast on the way out. We stopped at the last mall in Summerlin at a place called Krayve’s. Their sign said “Good food; Good mood”. We wondered if it would be all organic or what. Right inside the door was a large chalkboard covered with vegan offerings. I was momentarily afraid that we’d have to find a different eatery but then I saw the rest of the menu and relaxed; plenty of bacon on board.
It was a really neat place; very laid back and easy, the décor was rustic industrial and the young men who ran the place (this is the only one) were very enthusiastic and friendly. The food was really good. I had a bacon egg and cheese sandwich, every element of which was just right. The whole grain bread it was on was delicious, toasted to perfection and not so much that it was hard to eat. Jay had a make-your-own omelet and was just as happy with it.
It always surprises me how quickly you can go from feeling as though you’re starving to death and being stuffed to the gills.
About a half hour out of Vegas, we were in the Calico hills, which are foothills that look just like you’d expect from the name. The rock was so many different colors I wished I knew a bit about geology to explain the variations.
The park has become a very popular place in the last few months, according to the young man at the entrance. It took over ten minutes for the long double line of cars to pass the front gates. We got a map that showed us just where the 2 mile hike to Calico Tanks began, so were on our way.
It was a perfect day: blue skies, mild breeze, mid-sixties.
It’s a darned good thing we fueled up on food and didn’t attempt the ‘moderate’ hike on empty stomachs. We’d never have made it.
The hike started out easy enough; gravel paths, several feet wide and fairly flat. The trail followed a tiny stream flowing out of the higher hills, probably due to snow melt. Their were a lot of folks on the trail, not to make it crowded but enough so we didn’t feel like we were going to get lost in the rocks. A younger couple on their way down from the tanks told us that the trail got pretty muddy but if you climbed up on the rocks it wasn’t so bad. So we climbed up into the rocks, as did nearly everyone else on the trail that day.
It was really fun and we climbed and climbed. The direction of the trail was easy enough to follow but picking the best way up and over the rocks was a continuing puzzle. Sometimes hikers coming down would point out the easiest path up and sometimes groups of younger people would come prancing up the rocks behind us and demonstrate the way ahead with their younger, springier, stronger legs.
Oh, how I remember being able to do that!
When I was young, I had the legs of a cartoon super hero. When I was 30, I could have gone straight up that trail, barefoot as a mountain goat, in no time.
I was 30 a long, long, long time ago.
As we got higher in the hills, we became very careful. At our age, the possibility of turning an ankle, rupturing a knee or just toppling over is fairly high. We did not hesitate to go on all fours or scoot along on our bums to get across the rock faces. It was never scary but we’re well aware of what our bodies can no longer do.
We didn’t make it all the way to the tanks. We were very close, according to the other hikers we passed going down but the final climb was a steep scramble up a rock, which we could do but then we’d have to turn around and go back down. Going down is harder than going up; your momentum is going in the dangerous direction. We decided we’d gone far enough so we drank the bottled water Jay had hauled all that way and began our descent. I have no idea how long the whole hike took us but we had a blast the whole time and got all the way back to flat ground without any injuries!
Getting out of town and seeing not only desert but the mountains that surround Vegas, I can see why people who aren’t in the business would live here. I’d miss water but there’s a lot of beautiful scenery here.
We got back into town in midafternoon and decided to skip lunch and have an early dinner. Jay had a basketball game to get to in the evening and I planned to crash early, the sleeplessness of the night before, on top of the ‘moderate’ hike (difficult would have killed us) having caught up with me.
We had dinner at Gallagher’s in New York, New York. First of course, we had to wander through several casinos and gawk like the tourists we are. I’m pretty sure it’s mandatory. We put a few bucks in a few different slot machines. We played for quite a while on ten bucks.
At the steak house, we split a wedge salad (yummm), Jay had some oysters and we split a giant prime rib that was out of this world. I had a glass of cabernet that went exceptionally well with the beef.
The casino has a roller coaster that goes around the outside of it. Part of it roars right over the strip. We watched it go around several times as we waited for my uber to take me back to our place and all I could think, watching the riders scream their way overhead was “No.”
There’s a roller coaster atop the Stratosphere, too. I can see it from my hotel room window but I was too tired to see if anyone was foolish enough to ride it last night. I got back to the room and slept for ten hours.