About Me

An avid traveler I have had the good fortune to have spent my career in the travel and vacation industry. From Bali to Copenhagen and all points between is where I have been or intend to go. This blog however is specific to the Western half of the United States as I explore this part of the world.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Ice Box Canyon


Decided to take a nice hike this Sunday... it was a little late when I got out of the door but hey... it's playoff time. And Hail to the Redskins! I headed out at probably 3:30pm... it gets dark at about 5:00pm this time of year. The Ice box trail is about 3/4 of the way down the scenic drive in Red Rock Canyon... I hadn't hiked this particular trail so I was excited to check it out... it was listed as a difficult trail... and there was some climbing involved.



The main difficulty was the temperature... I had dressed in shorts, boots and t-shirt with a sweatshirt over... when I left the house it was about 58 degrees... when I stepped out of the truck at the trail head it was 45 degrees... brrr but after ascending half way up the trail I was comfortably warm. The canyon continued to narrow and climb... as the canyon walls closed in from both sides and with the sun going down the temperature was still dropping... the terrain was getting even more difficult and I decided it was time to turn about before I got caught in rough terrain in the dark...

I didn't bring a light and only had my blackberry which can cast a faint glow... in fact a cell phone saved me when I got caught on the 45th floor penthouse of the Hilton on 6th and 53rd in NY when we had the east coast blackout... the stairwell emergency lights failed to illuminate so about 20 of us used our cell phone screens to light the way down the pitch black stairs.


I probably got about half way back when the sun finally set over the horizon but the terrain was easy at that point and I realized that I was still casting a shadow and could see relatively well... nearly a full moon... what luck.

When I reached the end of the path I had a decent view of the Las Vegas valley so I set my camera up on a rock and set a timed exposure to avoid motion blur.

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