Margo Bartlett Pesek writes about day trips from Las Vegas and information about the surrounding areas. Her column appears Sunday in Travel/Living.
China Ranch, a family date farm in a secluded oasis near Death Valley National Park, offers visitors a variety of attractions and unique experiences. The farm produces dates from several varieties of palms, as well as delicious date shakes, date bread and other baked goods showcased at a gift shop and snack bar.
A privately owned zoo flourishes in Moapa Valley’s rural setting, drawing visitors for guided tours of the facility and hands-on acquaintance with many animals in the 160-member menagerie. Where else in our area can you pet a gentle camel, watch agile and amusing otters at play, touch a soft young kangaroo, feed carrots to a zebra or get within inches of porcupines dining on fruits and vegetables?
Scouring the desert and mountains, wind gathers tiny sand grains and pushes the grains into drifts. Over time, when conditions are favorable, the gathered sand grows into shifting mountains several hundred feet high. In some places in the desert Southwest, vast dune deposits cover miles, taking on a life of their own. They form shapes such as stars or crescents. They even make sounds. All of them whisper as the sand moves, but some squeak or sing and a few actually boom as dry sand cascades from a high crest down the lee side.
The rugged Bitter Springs Trail lies not far from the sprawl of urban Las Vegas, but seems a world away. Designated a scenic back country byway by Congress in 1989, the 30-mile route south of Valley of Fire State Park connects old mining roads, a mountain pass and desert washes between Interstate 15 and the Northshore Road in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Allow at least two hours just to drive the route, more if you stop to explore.
When winter storms frost the mountains to the west of Las Vegas, hordes of visitors head for the high country in search of snowy adventures. Following Christmas, visitors don bright new mufflers and gloves, load sleds or toboggans in the car and eagerly aim for the alpine wonderland. The only place in Southern Nevada with enough snow, the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, part of Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, offers a variety of winter activities.
Nevada’s vast regions of public lands contain hundreds of intriguing sites where its ancient human history is written on the rocks. Over several thousand years, various cultures living in what is now Nevada left a rich heritage of rock art in the form of petroglyphs and pictrographs. Visiting some of the most accessible sites provides glimpses at the mysterious past long before European settlers arrived on this continent.
A little-known oasis of natural warm springs, meandering creeks and thick stands of palm trees lies less than an hour’s drive from Las Vegas in Moapa Valley. Once a popular destination for swimming and picnics, Warm Springs became part of a national wildlife refuge in 1979, dedicated to the preservation of endangered fish and other unique native species.
The Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, Calif., celebrates 42 seasons of live theater this winter with weekend presentations at 7 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday matinees. Seating starts a half-hour before performances. Opening in mid-November, the 2009-2010 season concludes with shows on the first weekend in May.
During the next month, thousands of “citizen scientists” will participate in the 110th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Braving cold and often inclement conditions, these volunteers assemble before dawn in pre-selected locations between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5 to tally the birds they see during a full day in the outdoors. In Nevada, counts are planned for locations in Southern Nevada, as well as sites near Elko, Snake Valley near Great Basin National Park, Carson City and Minden.
Death Valley Ranch, the remote Moorish-styled mansion in Death Valley National Park better known as Scotty’s Castle, continues to fascinate visitors as it has for more than 85 years. Located in Grapevine Canyon, the ranch served as a vacation retreat for wealthy Chicago businessman Albert Johnson and his wife, Bessie. Introduced to the desert in the early 1900s by Walter Scott, a colorful character known as Death Valley Scotty, the Johnsons developed a campsite, then decided to build a grand house. Construction began in 1924, but was never completed. The Johnsons provided the funds and Scotty the notoriety.
The nostalgic scenes of the family trek to the woods to cut the holiday tree exist only on Christmas cards for most urban Americans. The closest they come to that festive expedition is a trip to the temporarily forested tree lots that spring up seasonally in every American city. The tradition survives, however, in areas where private tree plantations allow cutting and on portions of forested public lands where tree cutters pay small fees for limited number of trees.
An impressive display of ancient American Indian rock art decorates granite boulders at the mouth of Grapevine Canyon, a desert oasis near Laughlin. Located along the scenic Christmas Tree Pass Road, Grapevine Canyon provides opportunities for hiking, exploring and tailgate picnicking, and is best enjoyed during the cooler months of the year.
A delightful cool-season destination, Rogers Spring in Lake Mead National Recreation Area provides opportunities for picnicking, hiking and exploration. The natural oasis features a shallow pool fed by a warm spring shaded by palms, tamarisk and other vegetation. The overflow creates a meandering creek that heads toward Lake Mead. A few hundred yards distant, tiny Blue Point Spring supports more trees and marshy undergrowth.
A popular autumn event for the past 14 years, the Moapa Valley Art Guild’s Pomegranate Art Festival will take place for the first time at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Logandale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. With record attendance and parking problems in 2008, the Pomegranate Art Festival outgrew its location at the Old Logandale School. Just a mile away, the fairgrounds provide plenty of safe, off-highway parking and room for indoor and outdoor booths and activities. The event welcomes visitors free of charge.
Death Valley National Park welcomes the 60th annual Death Valley ’49ers Encampment Nov. 4-8. During the park’s most popular special event, thousands of participants fill Death Valley campgrounds, hotels and resorts, spilling over into nearby desert towns.
