About 900 big-beaked northern shovelers, sometimes swimming in large swirling circles, can be seen feeding on fallen seeds and anything else nutritious at Henderson’s bird preserve.
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Natalie Burt
Natalie Burt, a former news reporter at the Review-Journal for 11 years, spends as much of her free time as possible enjoying Southern Nevada’s outdoors. She’s now a teacher and has lived in Henderson for 17 years.
McCullough Hills Trail allows hikers, runners and mountain bikers to traverse 8 miles of Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. Hiking this marked trail is moderately difficult.
Jones and Klaus Bremer started interactive, in-person cooking demonstrations long before cooking shows became a popular source of television and internet programming.
Whether visitors are on the prowl for coyotes, roadrunners or a better understanding of the Las Vegas Valley’s water drainage network, Wetlands Park offers insight and exercise.
A good place to launch that learning is at REI in Henderson, a gear hub for camping, climbing, biking and snow sports that has a classroom in the back of the store.
Through binoculars, we spied the moon’s craters. We spent a few moments taking in the full moon’s beguiling beauty before tackling the remaining steps of our more than 3-mile night hike.
Whether you have plans to build a scrumptious salad or to grill peaches to top on vanilla ice cream, a local farmers’ market visit will help with fruit-and-veggie needs.
Some Henderson resorts offer reasonable pool deals. Included on my must-visit-again pool list are M Resort, Green Valley Ranch Resort and The Westin Lake Las Vegas.
Our kayaking journey along the Lower Colorado River started with a phone call a month in advance to an outfitter licensed to shuttle paddlers close to Hoover Dam’s base.
The tires of my loyal, fully human-powered bicycle had helped me log 13 of the 34 miles that make up Southern Nevada’s River Mountains Loop Trail. Sadly, that had only amounted to flirting with this paved path of challenging hills and epic views of the Las Vegas Valley, Lake Mead and Boulder City. Biking the entire loop would remain the stuff of my Mojave Desert dreams, unless I began a rigorous daily training routine. That’s when the epiphany of e-biking struck.
Food tastes better outdoors, and plenty of empty picnic tables are just waiting for you and your PBJ sandwich or homemade Dutch oven dinner or curbside pickup pasta and chicken feast.
Some art is best viewed by plopping yourself down on desert gravel under a big blue sky and gazing upward. That was my approach at the Gallery in Petroglyph Canyon earlier this fall. After a moderately difficult hike, my reward was spotting hundreds of the gallery’s approximately 1,000 American Indian designs and images displayed on two rocky canvases stretching about one-tenth of a mile.
Henderson boasts hubs of tempting breakfast eateries and the accompanying paths to lead you in their direction. Why not earn your breakfast with a ride or walk, as long as you don’t cancel out the calories your exercise might have just burned off?
Henderson’s southern edge is fortified by a dark, imposing mountain range that looks unwelcoming and unmanageable. At least that was my impression before I got my shoes dusty and started exploring the many trails of the McCullough Range and Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. Now I’m a hiking regular in this sprawling space of rugged beauty and serenity.
Throughout the scorching-hot weeks of August and September, marching bands and color guard teams across the Las Vegas Valley have been practicing the music, marching, teamwork and pageantry that go into each school’s production.