52 Peak Club and Follow Us on Facebook

If you are a hiker living in Las Vegas, you should join the 52 Peak Club.

What is the 52 Peak Club?
The 52 Peak Club is a unique club that motivates you to improve your fitness level and become healthier by getting outdoors and hiking the best 52 Peaks around Las Vegas. Each time you stand at a peak with Hiking Las Vegas/ Meetup.com you get a one-of-a-kind playing card. These cards are not available to the public. The goal is to get all 52 cards by hiking/scrambling to all 52 peaks. Once you have climbed all 52 peaks, you will climbed over 100,000 feet and hike the equivalent from Las Vegas to Los Angles!!! Not many people can say they have done that.

How Do I Join?
First you must be a member of Meetup- Hiking Las Vegas. It's free to join. More information here.
Now, go to this page and sign up to become part of the 52 Peak Club.
Start signing up to go on hikes and earn cards.

52 Peak Club Party

I am having a party for all members of the 52 Peak Club in March. All 52ers who attend will have a chance to win some great prizes (they must have earned at least one card before the party).
Prizes include:

• Two $35 REI gift certificates
• Two Geigerrig daypacks ($100 each)
• Seven Las Vegas Adviser Coupon books (over $1000 in coupons)
• A Nikon camera ($150)
• Men's Baselayer Midweight pants by Columbia ($55)
• Tilly TTMC Airflo Cap ($65)

More prizes are being added weekly.

Join Our Facebook Group

It's free, quick to join, and you can add your comments, videos and photos. I and others update this page almost daily. It's the best way to keep up on what's happening in the hiking world.
Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_68936636102

Hidden Peak Hike Re-Routed

Hidden Peak stands deep within Black Velvet Canyon, which is in South Red Rock Canyon. This is a seldom hiked peak due to the popularity of Black Velvet Peak. The first part of the route travels through Black Velvet Canyon, one of the best canyons in all of Red Rock.

About halfway through the canyon the route heads north into a large gully. This gully is solid with little chance for rockfall. As the route heads west it travels up a very loose gully with large boulders. We changed the route to avoid the loose boulders in the gully.

As seen in the photo  below (photo shows hikers descending) the route leaves the gully by the tree and heads north (right) up a solid sandstone slab. It then heads west where it soon meets up with the standard route. From there it's only 10 minutes to the summit.

If you do this hike, let me know how you like the new route.

Anniversary Narrows Closed

The hike to the incredible Anniversary Narrows is closed, sort of. Actually what is closed is part of Lovell Wash that leads to the start of Anniversary Narrows. This is by the mines. Apparently the mines are either being sealed off for lower insurance premiums (reduce risk) or the owner has started mining the mines again.

There's a way to still do this hike and not hike by the mines. The photo is pretty self explanatory:

• Park where you have always parked or walk the gravel road to this point.
• Walk cross country as the red line indicates (about a mile).
• Drop down into Lovell Canyon just before the start of the Narrows.

Admittedly not as good as the orginal route, but this should work. I have not done this yet, but I think this will work fine. There might be a few old roads to follow. It's hard to tell.

Gold Strike Hot Springs Update

On Saturday (11-12-2011), Kathy and I hiked Gold Strike Hot Springs. A lot has changed since I first did this hike back in the 90's. First and foremost the main hot springs is dry. It was the best hot springs with lots of room for people and very hot water. See the then and now photos.

Then

Now the best hot springs is small (room for maybe 10 people) and the water is only warm, not hot. This is just one of many disappointments. The route is littered with empty water bottles from people too lazy to carry them out. The constant buzzing of helicopters flying overhead is annoying.

There are enough ropes on the route to hang enough politicians to make a real change :) Some of the ropes are not in great shape. I did this hike back in 2009 and I don't remember so many ropes, maybe the floods changed the route. Most of the ropes are needed due to the rock being slippery.

Now

All in all, this hike was a disappointment and I will probably not do this hike again. No big deal for me. I am not a fan of Lake Mead to start with and the hot springs hikes are really not my thing anyway. One thing for sure, in another few years the route will again change.

What's Next: Update on Anniversary Narrows Closure

Route Updates: Indecision Peak

Indecision Peak is the peak south of Mt. Wilson in Red Rock Canyon and  is one of the first routes I found during the mid-nineties. The route was very dangerous due to an unstable gully full of huge boulders, hence the route was not done often. For a longtime I wanted to reroute the lower part of the hike to avoid the boulder field.

Last Friday on a whim I did that. The original plan was to hike White Pinnacle Peak. I started from First Creek trailhead and followed the trail to the point where I headed up an alluvial fan toward the red cliff band. The original route heads south just below the red band to the boulder filled gully. I continued up the fan and started to find cairns. The cairns led to steep walls and brush. The brush was thick, but short lived.

Once through the brush I saw more cairns and followed them. Soon I was on a rocky ridge just north of the boulder field heading for the Shale Rock, a major landmark for this hike. This is a great alternative to the old route. It's much safer, shorter and has some nice views.

At the Shale Rock I followed the normal route to the main gully that leads to the summit. In the past this gully had brush, but now due to some rerouting it's mostly brush free. This part of the route is well cairned and worth doing again or, if you have never hiked Indecision Peak, I recommend doing it.

I did not have a GPS with me, so there are no waypoints for the lower part of the route yet, but this photo tells the story. I get waypoints and update this hike for members of Hiking Las Vegas soon.

Stats:

Trailhead: First Creek pulloff - marked
Distance: 6 miles - round trip
Elevation gain: 2,010 feet
Elevation peak: 5,560 feet
Time: 6 hours
Difficulty: 4
Class: 3
How easy to follow: 4

Seven Great Hikes from the Sierra Added!

I just added seven more great hikes from the High Sierra. The Members Only Club of Hiking Las Vegas now features 400 hikes members can download and 45 of those hikes are from the Sierra.
Here are the hikes I just added from the Sierra:

• Mt. Whitney Trail - highest peak in the lower 48
• Lookout Peak - one of the best vistas from any summit in the Sierra
• Crystal Crag - short hike to a stunning peak in Mammoth
• Crystal Lake - short hike to a beautiful lake in Mammoth
• Ruby Lake - easy hike to a stunning lake out of Mosquito Flats
• Pyramid Peak - cool peak near Bear Creek Spire
• McGee Creek - very pretty hike with lots of water

The video below features some of these hikes and peaks from our September trip.

Avoiding Vegas Burnout

Las Vegas is an amazing city for gamblers and non-gamblers alike, but it’s also an easy city to celebrate excessively, with the risk of burning out before your trip is done. This is especially true for poker players who spend over a month in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker each year, as the buzz and joy of being in Las Vegas can quickly wear out after the first few weeks. The good news is that Vegas offers much more than just gambling -- especially if you’re willing to get out on the road -- with plenty of day trips and activites to recharge your batteries before getting back to the Vegas fun.

Assuming you’re outfitted with the proper footwear, hiking at Red Rock Canyon is one of the best ways to relax and recharge and it’s just 20 miles or so outside of the city. More than 1 million visitors visit Red Rock Canyon each year, with a 13 mile scenic loop drive as well as many different hiking trails of varying difficulty. Make sure you account for the heat if you’re there in summer and pack plenty of water, as even an easy hike can take its toll during the serious summer heat in the desert.

The Grand Canyon is a longer drive of several hours but the West Rim offers a chance to witness one of the natural wonders of the world, with the Grand Canyon SkyWalk and its transparent floor is located there as well. You can also stop along the way and take advantage of several helicopter tours that give you a bird’s eye view of either Hoover Dam or pricier trips that take you all the way to the Grand Canyon. Lake Mead is also another popular stop that’s just over an hour outside Vegas, with boating, jet skis, and other water sports available to enjoy.

For those really looking for a change of pace, Los Angeles is about a five hour drive from Las Vegas, with the long drive offset by the chance to see some of the sights of LA. Aside from celebrity spotting and visiting other landmarks, poker players can also take advantage of some of the many poker tournaments held at the Commerce Casino and the Bike, which rival Vegas casinos as far as big tournaments with huge prizepools.