Spring Mountain Ranch State Park is near Red Rocks (where we climb) but we'd never stopped there before this trip. It's small but it has some interesting history (past owners include Howard Hughes). We also enjoyed the short walk through the park.
One of the things that made the ranch sought after was that it has water from a number of springs. The lake is artificial but is still a treat in the desert.
A hawk circled overhead, too high for good photos but I tried with the lens I had.
Some of the trees were starting to flower. (Ones that flower before they get leaves.) I love spring time!
After the rainy weather in Santa Barbara our best bet for good weather looked like Las Vegas. Usually we come to Las Vegas to climb at Red Rocks. This was our first trip since we learned to paraglide and we were keen to check out the local sites. Jean Ridge looked like the obvious choice - close to town and doable on our own without a second vehicle to shuttle. Driving to the top required a four wheel drive vehicle, but we could get to the bottom in a regular car and then hike up. We tried to contact the local pilots but didn't get any response.
The first day we were the only ones there. We hiked up to the launch about two thirds of the way up the hill where the wind was about 12 mph, no problem to launch. It was forecast to get stronger later so we didn't wait around. Shelley launched first without problems. She went up right away but moved out front and seemed to be doing ok. I launched shortly after. I was more concerned about staying up but the problem turned out to be the opposite - I was soon well over launch and unable to penetrate. Even on full speed bar I slowly drifted back behind launch. On the positive side the air was smooth with no turbulence. I debated whether to turn and run downwind but I wasn't sure what was back there. I landed (if you can call it that) going slowly backwards. If I'd been thinking I would have killed the wing with the rears as soon as I landed. But I wasn't thinking that clearly. I was too busy cursing myself for ending up in this situation. Luckily there wasn't much rotor (turbulence) since the slope was rounded and not too steep and there was a big plateau on top. It was hard to resist the instinct to flare (pull the brakes) but that's not what you want to do when you're landing backwards. I didn't even attempt to look behind me and steer. Luckily there was only scattered bushes and sand. Since I hadn't killed the wing and there was (obviously) strong wind, I got dragged until the lines caught in the bushes. Thankfully there was no cactus here! Every time I'd untangle some lines the wind would grab the wing and wrap it around a new bush. Eventually I got it free and gathered up. I was about half a kilometer behind launch and then had to walk down the hill. Holding my bunched up wing I couldn't see my feet and the stumbles on the walk down were more painful than the landing!
In hindsight, I obviously should have gone to the top of the hill and checked the wind up there. I knew it would be stronger up top, but didn't think it would be that much stronger. If we could have contacted the locals and got a site briefing that probably would have helped too.
The next time we drove out, the wind was the same at the bottom (about 12 mph) so we hiked up to the top without our gliders. Sure enough it was too strong at the top (over 20 mph). No flying that day.
Our third attempt was on Saturday and there were actually other people flying. Winds were light and they weren't staying up long, but at least we could fly. There wasn't enough wind to ridge soar but there were some small thermals to stretch the flights out.
As we were leaving some other pilots showed up and offered us a ride to the top for another flight. We decided not to go since conditions were getting a little squirrelly. I felt a little guilty about passing up a flight, but it turned out they weren't able to fly due to the winds, so I guess we made the right call.
The next day conditions looked similar (i.e. light and unpredictable). Although it was still the weekend there was no one else at the bottom of the hill when we arrived. But a few minutes later, a truck pulled up. They opened the window and asked "You here to shoot?". We said, "No, we're here to fly". It turns out this is a favorite site for shooting. They can get up to a mile away from the hill. We countered by saying it was a favorite site for paragliding. Eventually they conceded that we'd got there first. Every day we flew here we could hear constant gun fire in the area. A bit disconcerting!
We also got visited by the dirt bikes and ATV's. One time I was coming in to land and was lined up to land on the road right beside the car. Three dirt bikes roared up and stopped to watch me land. The only problem was that they stopped right where I was about to land. I assumed they would clue in and move, but no such luck. I had to shift to the side and land in the bushes instead. They called out "nice job!" and roared away.
Another dirt biker showed up as we were packing up. He asked what we were doing and we explained we were flying off the mountain. But he was more impressed with us getting our Prius up here. (The road is marginal for a car with the clearance of a skateboard!)
Overall I've been pretty happy with my launches this trip. But I had a sketchy launch on my first flight that day. The wind was shifting directions and strength and my wing didn't come up straight. I lowered it almost to the ground, and brought it back up, straight this time. I turned and ran, but the wing again got off to the side. I followed it and steered. You can see in my video that I turned to look at the low wing tip, decided it wasn't too bad and kept going. I got off fine, but the corrections cost me some speed and I barely cleared the boulders below launch. It's a fine line between what you should try to correct and what you should abort and start over.
Jean Ridge is normally a ridge soaring site but unfortunately we didn't get soarable conditions. The wind was either too strong to paraglide or too weak to soar. We did get enough small thermals to stretch out a few flights to about 15 minutes, not bad for a 400 foot hill. One flight I managed to catch a thermal to about 300 feet above launch, but that was the best I did.
Luckily the one time this trip that I actually videoed my flight was the longest flight here. This is a few highlights. For more viewpoints and much more polish see Shelley's video.
One of our favorite places in Las Vegas is Springs Preserve. Unlike most people, we stay on the edge of town near Red Rocks (where we climb) and don't visit the strip or go shopping. If you're careful where you go and squint a little, Vegas can almost appear to be a "normal" city (as far as there is such a thing).
It seems a little artificial to go to Springs Preserve instead of just visiting the actual desert but the advantage is that there are a range of habitats and plants concentrated in a small area. And usually birds attracted by the water and flowers, although often just common ones like this House Finch.
I was surprised to see this Great Egret out in the desert, usually they are by the water. Maybe he was hunting lizards.
Later we saw (the same?) one in a more expected spot by the water.
I didn't get any photos of them, but we saw a couple of cormorants fly in and land on the water. Later we saw them take off. They are not the most elegant fliers (better underwater) and they always struggle a bit to take off. But this time, one of them crashed into a bush just past the water! It reappeared and waddled down the beach and back into the water. If it had been me, I would have been hoping no one had seen it happen!
As usual, there were a few hummingbirds around, although not many flowers for them. I couldn't get very close so didn't get great photos.
The most common birds on this visit were Northern Mockingbirds. This one was singing up a storm and let us approach quite close.
Of course, I enjoy the plants as well as the birds. It's a treat to see spring so early in the year (relative to Saskatchewan). Some of the trees were flowering:
And some of the leaves were coming out. I always love the color of new leaves on the trees:
And tall grasses backlit by the sun:
I got frustrated because these ones kept blowing in the wind when I was trying to photograph them. So I switched to a longer exposure and embraced the blur :-)
One of the reasons for the plants and animals here is the water. I'm always fascinated how the reflection of the sun traces lines as the water moves (with a long exposure, in this case 1/30 of a second).
Normally I wouldn't even attempt to photograph hovering insects but this one was surprisingly cooperative. Not sure what kind it is.
Funny to see domestic flowers beside the ocotillo.
Some of the ocotillos had lots of leaves - must be getting water. (In the desert they are bare sticks most of the year.)
Sunday morning we headed out to climb. The forecast was for rain but supposedly not till the afternoon. We climbed Man's Best Friend at Sandstone Quarry as a warm up, planning to head to Ragged Edges afterwards, but it was already starting to rain so we bailed.
Monday morning we awoke to snow on the ground! Snow in Vegas, who'd a thunk it! We decided to visit Clark County Wetlands Park. Unfortunately, it's on the opposite side of town from Red Rocks so it was a bit of a drive. It was cold and windy, but we had a nice walk and enjoyed seeing rabbits and various birds. The nature center was nice as well.
Since we were over on the west side of town we decided to continue on to Valley of Fire State Park. It was getting later in the afternoon so we just did the short hike into Mouses Tank (and a bit beyond). Unfortunately, with the cold weather there weren't any lizards or even insects around. The rain will likely trigger some good wildflowers but not till after we're gone.
Tuesday was sunny and a bit warmer, but we still couldn't climb because we had to wait for the snow to melt and the rock to dry out (the sandstone gets soft when wet). We decided to do the hike around the Calico Hills, starting at Red Springs. There was a bit of easy scrambling to keep it interesting. When we got around to Sandstone Quarry we were amazed to find the parking lot empty. We later find out they had closed the road for the morning. Not sure why, but probably related to the snow and rain causing problems. I didn't take too many photos on the first half of the hike. That may have had something to do with stupidly whacking my knee on a rock hard enough to trigger an instant of nausea and a limp for the rest of the day. Luckily I don't seem to have done any lasting damage! It was a change to find so much water in the desert.
We finished the hike by early afternoon so afterwards we wandered around the Downtown Summerlin mall. The only place of much interest was the Apple Store, but since there are no new products even that wasn't too exciting. I did manage to find a few things to take photos of, including a few reflections :-)
Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to get back to climbing.
It's too bad that Red Rocks, one of our favorite climbing areas, is right beside Las Vegas, one of our less favorite places. But even Vegas has some redeeming features, and for us one of them is Springs Preserve. On our rest day from climbing we spent the morning there. One of the best parts of buying a membership (apart from supporting a good cause) is that you get to enter the gardens and trails early, at 8am, instead of waiting till 10am when they open. It's great to wander around when it's quiet and peaceful.
Here are a few of the photos I took. It still seems quite early spring here, so not as many flowers or birds or insects as I might have liked, but it's still a far cry from arctic Saskatoon.
As we entered the trails I noticed something on top of the water tower. I quickly swapped lenses on my camera (from my usual 18-250 to my 150-500 telephoto). It turned out it was a pair of American Kestrels, North America's smallest falcon. Thankfully they stayed there long enough to get a few photos. The angle and distance made it hard to get good shots but it was still nice to see such beautiful birds. They flew away, but a bit later, from a distance I could see they were back on their perch. Probably a good spot to hunt from.
There were also a few hummingbirds around, despite the shortage of flowers.
Thanks to Shelley, here's one of me busy taking photos (Sigma 150-500 lens, Jobu Designs monopod, Really Right Stuff monopod head)
We're three days into climbing at Red Rocks. The first day we warmed up on bolted sport climbs at first pullout (Panty Wall and Hamlet). The next day we did a longer multi-pitch trad route called Johnny Vegas. And today we did more sport climbs at Meeting Wall at the second pullout, including a few (for us) harder ones. We usually alternate days of sport climbing and multi-pitch trad routes. If you come to Red Rocks and only sport climb you're really missing out. The longer trad routes are great, and even if you're not that confident trad climbing there are lots of good moderate routes.
It's always hard to take climbing photos when there's only the two of us. Here are a couple from Johnny Vegas.
Shelley starting to lead the first pitch
Shelley following the second pitch
After three days of climbing I'm starting to feel a little worn out. Tomorrow we're planning to take a rest day and go to Springs Preserve (recommended).
My mind surfaced slowly from a deep sleep. What was that incessant noise beside my head? Eventually I woke up enough to realize it was the radio clock alarm that the previous guest of the room must have kindly left set for 6am. Of course, it was a high tech radio clock alarm with a million buttons so it took me considerable groggy fumbling before I got it to shut up.
By this point I was awake enough to notice the fantastic sunrise. Luckily we were on the 16th floor (of the Red Rocks Hotel & Casino) where no one was likely to be looking in since I didn't bother putting on any clothes before grabbing my camera. FOMAS = Fear of Missing A Shot :-)
It would have been nice if the window was cleaner, and the reflections were problematic, but the results are still pretty good. Almost too colorful, but I didn't boost the saturation at all.
After three days of climbing we took a rest day. It turned out to be a busy rest day, though!
First stop (after morning coffee, of course) was Desert Rock Sports, the local climbing store. I didn't buy any climbing gear but I did end up buying a beautiful coffee table book of climbing photographs - Stone Mountains: North America's Best Crags by Jim Thornburg.
After that we headed for our favourite spot in Vegas (other than Red Rocks) - Springs Preserve. This is a wonderful combination of museum, gardens, and natural area, right inside Las Vegas, amazingly, not far from the strip. Unless you're glued to the strip and shopping, we highly recommend a visit. We spent about 3.5 hours there, largely due to me taking a zillion photographs :-)
After Springs Preserve we went to Gravity (the movie) in IMAX 3D. I could quibble with some of the science and physics, but other than that it was good.
Next stop was REI, where we didn't actually buy much but always enjoy browsing all the latest outdoor gear.
We ended the day at Vintner Grill, one of the restaurants we like here. As usual, we had a great meal with good service.
It was a full day, but at least it didn't involve any additional abuse to my sore fingers and muscles!
Here are a few of the photos from Springs Preserve. Or view all 34 as a slideshow or overview.
I had my full contingent of cameras and lenses. Shelley helped carry "the baby" i.e. the long telephoto in between bird sightings, while I played with close-ups with the new macro lens.
