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.
Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California may be named for a tree you can see closer to home, but it also offers some other attractions worth the 200-mile drive from Las Vegas.
If you can hit the trail early on these days of late spring, you can still sneak into a few lower-elevation destinations before temperatures soar into the misery range. A good point for such a dawn attack might be Keyhole Canyon in the western foot of the Eldorado Mountains about 20 miles south of Boulder City.
