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Entertainment Columns

Pipe Spring National Monument a quiet stop in a scenic setting

Pipe Spring National Monument in Northwestern Arizona near the Utah border remains one of the Southwest’s least-known historical gems. Seldom crowded, the 40-acre tract at Pipe Spring surrounded by reservation lands belonging to the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians hosts about 55,000 visitors a year. Those who pause to visit enjoy a journey into the past in a picturesque setting.

Southern Utah’s high country offers fantastic views of autumn foliage

Few areas within easy reach of Southern Nevadans offer better displays of autumn’s colored foliage than Southern Utah’s high plateaus forested with dark fir, spruce and pine. Accessible within a half-day’s drive, these tablelands in the fall feature wide amber meadows starred with late summer wildflowers that vie for admiration with stands of white-trunked aspens wearing foliage of gold and orange. Head for the high country soon to take in this natural extravaganza, for by mid-October the best of the high country color will be gone with the falling leaves and frost-blackened flower stalks.

Panaca a charming stop when visiting Lincoln County

Following Interstate 15 and U.S. 3 north from Las Vegas into Lincoln County, travelers take a trip back in time. The sparsely populated region still relies upon agriculture, ranching, a bit of mining, some railroading and federal and state agency employment. Increasingly, the county aims for tourist income, but just a few of the millions who annually visit Nevada ever get there. Their loss, for Lincoln County offers varied recreational opportunities, wonderful Great Basin scenery and historic towns like little Panaca.

Ward Charcoal Oven State Park an interesting look into past

Hidden away in remote locations across the Silver State stand beehive-shaped monuments to Nevada’s mining past. These conical stone or brick structures were ovens that reduced firewood to charcoal used in smelters to remove precious metals from ore. At the height of their use in the late 1800s, the charcoal ovens contributed to the denuding of forests on mountain ranges in Central and Eastern Nevada.