Oh yes we did, we planned a get away weekend to Vegas, baby! To hike, not to gamble and see shows, we came for outdoor activities.
We landed in Las Vegas late Friday night, all we could see were bright lights everywhere. After picking up our rental car, we headed straight to our hotel outside of Vegas. We unpacked quickly, hitting the pillows as soon as we could.
We awoke surrounded by mountains and hills, it was a beautiful sight and I was happy to sip my coffee while looking over the highway, through wires to view the sun rising over the hills.
After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we stopped at Trader Joes for snack items to enjoy while hiking in Red Rock Canyon. The Canyon is about 10 minutes from our hotel and a perfect introduction to hiking in this area.
We used our park pass that we purchased last November, when we had booked a trip to Utah for April 2018, but ended up canceling to return to the Bahamas.
Our first stop was the visitor center, we didn’t spend much time here and know we missed a lot to see there, but we did peek at the views that were stunning from inside the center.
We decided to hike Calico Tanks and then thought we would do Ice Box Canyon after that. Well that didn’t happen, we just hiked Calico Tanks and what a great 2.5 mile hike that was. At the turn around of the hike, we could see down into Las Vegas. The trail was busy at 9:30 a.m. but everyone was happy and friendly.
The hike did take us about two hours and after we continued the drive on the 13 mile Scenic Loop.
After that we had lunch at BJs Restaurant in Summerlin and did some grocery shopping. We returned to our hotel to drop off our items and I was under strict orders not to lay down and nap! We still wanted to fit one more thing in, Ethel M Chocolates and Cactus Garden.
What a fun place. We walked the cactus garden that is ready for the holiday season. Would love to return in the evening to see it with the pretty lights.
After the walk around the garden, we went inside to the chocolate shop and factory. We took the free “tour” of the facilities and were given 5 pieces of chocolate to enjoy while learning about the process.
After our tour ended we headed over to Henderson to enjoy a beer at CraftHaus Brewery. Really good beer in a friendly atmosphere.
After a beer, we were beat, we ordered a pizza for take away from BJ’s restaurant, returned to our hotel to enjoy it with some beer from CraftHaus. Our way back we noticed a lot of smoke settling into the area, we found out the California fire smoke has made its way over here.
Our evening consisted of writing and planning tomorrow’s adventure, Death Valley! Early to bed!
CTHikergal Travels 
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