Trip of the Week
Margo Bartlett Pesek writes about day trips from Las Vegas and information about the surrounding areas. Her column appears Sunday in Travel/Living.
SUNDAY TRAVEL/OUTDOR – for April 4, 2010
Trip of the Week – Springtime in Mojave National Preserve
Copyright 2010 by Margo Bartlett Pesek
PESEK – MAR 28
Trip of the Week – Valley of Fire
Copyright 2010 by Margo Bartlett Pesek
Springtime arrives at Corn Creek Field Station with a flush of green in the pastures, a froth of flowers in the orchard and a flurry of wings in the tules. The major access to the sprawling Desert National Wildlife Range just north of Las Vegas, Corn Creek provides an introduction to the largest federal wildlife refuge in the country outside of Alaska. Created in 1936 as a refuge for the desert bighorn sheep, the range also protects many other species under the management of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Laughlin hosts the second annual Wings and Wildlife Festival scheduled for March 11-15, an award-winning event created by the Southern Nevada Birding and Wildlife Trails Partnership. Participants explore a tri-state region rich in varied Southwestern habitats on guided nature walks and hikes, during seminars and workshops conducted by experts and while on field trips led by knowledgeable guides. During the festival weekend, at least 20 special exhibits by federal and state agencies and organizations concerned with nature, the environment and conservation will be open to the public free of charge.
Proud of its history, the Nevada town of Mesquite invites visitors to get acquainted with the border town’s past, starting with a visit to its diminutive museum at 35 Mesquite Blvd. Housed in a flat-roofed rock building erected to serve as a library during 1939-41, the Virgin Valley Heritage Museum contains remnants of its past dating back to original settlement by Mormon colonists in the early 1880s. The single-storied museum, later turned into a hospital, was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.