Like myself before I moved here, perhaps you believe that Las Vegas is surrounded on all four sides for miles and miles by the desert. The truth is that yes, there’s a lot of desert, but there are also mountains surrounding the city – hence the Las Vegas Valley. Indeed, there is a ski resort within an hour’s drive from the city, albeit not a large one.

This past weekend, Lee and I took a day trip to the nearby Spring Mountains, a National Recreation Area. The highest peak in that range is Mt. Charleston, which is somewhere near 12,000 ft. high. We did a several hour hike that took us to about 8,600 ft. and the temperature was in the low 50’s. Evidently, the Spring Mountains are an excellent getaway during the extremely hot Vegas summer (which I have not yet experienced). I was also pleasantly surprised to see some transitioning foliage, especially since I’m missing my first New England Autumn in seventeen years.