BJ and I headed to Las Vegas for a week, without the trailer. The morning after our arrival we went out to get oriented to the area and find a few geocaches. We started with one of the most popular caches in Las Vegas, located near the famous sign. While there, we met a couple from the UK who were finishing a trip to visit many of the national parks in the western US, geocaching along the way.
Our second full day in town was wet, and the weather was much cooler, leaving some snow on the higher elevations. We headed to Bullhead City to visit a river friend.
I was surprised to see some geo-art when I was looking at Geocaching.com's map of caches in the area. There were several large collections of caches north of town that formed distinctive shapes.
We were going to do the K-9 set that formed a large paw print, but the gravel road to access the area was overrun with construction equipment when we tried to get there. Instead, we decided to complete the Green Bay Packer's circuit since we wanted to go to Mount Charleston and this was on the way.
The circuit for us was a bit over 5 miles of hiking in the high Mohave desert. It took us about four hours to find the 30 caches that defined the shape. Most of the caches were small ones that only contained a log,
But the "final" one (which was about mid-way through the pattern given where we started) was packed full of Green Bay paraphernalia. In spite of having a nephew and a cousin who are Packer fans, we decided to take nothing, and leave nothing.
The weather was cool enough that the Pendleton felt really good. Occasionally the breeze would quit for a while and the day would warm up nicely but when the breeze started, it flowed downhill from the snow.
We pretty much had the 5 mile route to ourselves. We saw lots of jackrabbits and sign of other wildlife. We chatted with a couple out exercising their horses and saw one bicyclist although I doubt he saw us.
We finished up the caching and even found the truck again.
Logging our finds, the caches turned to smiles. Even with the Green Bay circuit all smiling, I'm not rooting for them.
After finishing the caches, we drove up to the trailhead at Mount Charleston, checking out the campgrounds along the way. There was some snow on the ground above 6000'. The campground at 7000' had electric hookups for $18.50 a night with the senior discounts. The lower campground was dry camping and we didn't stop to find out the rate.
All told, a fun time wandering the area around Vegas. Didn't even lose any money in the process.
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