Bentley's Trip to the Desert

One of our adventure plans was to go out to the desert - and maybe drive up Kyle Canyon to go check out the Mount Charleston area.  In case you're not familiar with the area, that's a national forest that's just 20-30 minutes outside of Las Vegas.  Bentley had reservations about going to the desert, because to him, that meant scary snakes, spiders, scorpions, and other things that might get him.  There was no way he was going out there.

Well, our last day of the trip, Bentley decided it might be an ok adventure.  We could see Mt Charleston while playing soccer at the park, and could tell it wasn't as clear up in that area as it had been when we first arrived, but we headed out anyway.

Keep in mind that in Las Vegas, it was around 45 degrees.

About 15 minutes into the canyon, we found a great pullover to go check out the area rock formations, see the plain and the lower valley, and for picture taking.

We didn't count on the cold cold wind.  It was as cold as the January wind in Barrow.  I had neglected the whole heat loss problem of coming up 2000 feet in elevation, and neither of us had wintry gear with us.

I don't think we made it more than 100 paces from the car before we gave in and turn around... only to find that the 100 paces away from the car were easy because the wind was at our backs.  Getting back to the car took monumental effort.  I yelled at the wind, and Bentley yelled at me.  

Luckily we made it back to the much warmer car wherein we decided to take pictures of the desert from inside the car.  Bentley took some great shots of the scrub vegetation and rocks and his hand!

And that wind?  It was bringing down one furious snowstorm through the canyon.  We decided to turn around just before we hit it - there was nothing but dark gray swirling masses of doom in front of us.  

Bentley and I came up with a much better plan for the rest of the day: build with Legos, watch Superman, and eat red meat.  

The day was a success, but I think we're going to have to go to Red Rocks or Mt. Charleston on a much sunnier, warmer day next time.