Fortification Hill, just east of the Hoover Dam on the Arizona side of Lake Mead National Recreation Area, towers about 2,000 feet above Lake Mead’s Boulder Basin. Although it looks impenetrable, there is a short but strenuous route to the top where you will be treated to some of the finest views in the park.
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For those of us familiar with the golf scene in Las Vegas, it’s a tremendous challenge to operate courses these days. Play is down, and attracting golfers to a facility is tough.
For a short outing from Las Vegas, a trip to Corn Creek at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge is a great choice. Less than 30 miles from the city, you can stroll the short nature trails, visit a perennial stream and spring-fed ponds, see lush vegetation and also do some birding in a quiet outdoor environment.
October is a wonderful time to spend outdoors enjoying Zion National Park. Daytime temperatures will likely drop into the pleasant zone, and you’ll be there for the start of fall foliage season depending on the elevation. You can get double value for your visit if you participate in one of the workshops being offered by Zion Canyon Field Institute.
Q: We have lost a tremendous section of our garden. In researching, it appears fire blight disease is the problem. Our red-tip photinia was the first and, in a very short time, it looked as if someone had taken a flame thrower to the plants. Euonymus hedges, flowering pink hawthorn and some rose bushes are starting to show the same problem.
One of the finest backroad trips central Nevada offers to outdoor lovers is Kingston Canyon, lying about 27 miles south of Austin. It offers the multiple joys of hiking, mountain biking, fishing, camping and just sightseeing. September is an ideal time to go there, as the weather will be neither too hot nor too cold.
Old has become new again with a recently renovated Las Vegas course. In summer 2012, a devastating storm pounded east Las Vegas and destroyed dozens of homes and businesses. One of those businesses was Desert Rose Golf Course
Yosemite National Park is one of those places everyone should see at least once in their lifetime, and over the next two months are ideal times to go. By happy coincidence, it is easiest to go there during the very months when Las Vegans most need to escape the heat.
In the torrid midsummer of Southern Nevada, the closest place for local folk to enjoy a cool outdoor escape is in the Mount Charleston area of the Spring Mountains National Recreation area. Since you’re likely to head there anyway, you might as well choose a trail that will show you some of the area’s most pleasant scenery while putting some miles on your boots
Hot weather favors lawn diseases common here. Now is an optimum time for controlling lawn diseases before they in get into full swing. If your lawn had disease in the past, now is a good time to apply a fungicide. Fungicides are primarily preventive and work best when they are applied before the disease rears its ugly head.
Glen Canyon, Ariz., contains one of the few stretches of river whose beauty rivals that of the Grand Canyon farther down the Colorado River. Through smooth-water raft trips, you will treated to a close-up view of Glen Canyon Dam, stunning scenery, plenty of wildlife, and pre-historic and historic sites.
One of the best things about living in Nevada is that, no matter what the season, you can find a place with ideal temperatures not too far away. A place that has them right now is Ely, in White Pine County, at an elevation of more than 6,400 feet.
Calf Creek in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument lies at the end of a 6-mile roundrip hike and offers a reliable view of one of the Southwest’s best waterfalls.
While there are hundreds of stunning slot canyons in our region, most of them are difficult to reach and many require technical skills to explore them. Two of the best, however — tops on my list for being visually stimulating — are pretty easy to access.
One of the better blessings of life in Southern Nevada is the ease of accessing Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The area’s one big drawback is its low elevation and lack of shade, meaning that daytime temperatures become unpleasant by late spring. So the ideal time to go there is in the next few weeks, especially if you wish to hike one of the trails, have a picnic, or catch the last of the wildflowers.