How to get a hiking season started right
Las Vegas and St. George have great in-town and near-town trails, before encouraging visitors to venture farther afield to Zion and Death Valley national parks, when weather conditions are suitable.
What did you keep an eye on weather-wise during the 2021 outdoor recreation travel season?
For me, it started with unusually dry conditions in the Las Vegas and St. George areas, late last winter. It was a premonition of things to come.
The blue sky and relatively warm temperatures made for good biking around the 34-mile River Mountains Loop paved bike trail, between Las Vegas/Henderson/Boulder City and Lake Mead, Nevada. The trail affords great views of the low level of Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam, which has been in the national news of late because of the drought along the Colorado River. In-shape bikers do the entire loop in a few hours, while hikers bite off smaller chunks.
Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area near Henderson, Nevada, offers desert hiking trails on the southeast edge of the Las Vegas metro area. It was so dry that when 0.04 inches of moisture fell one night, it ended a 300-day drought.
St. George up in Utah has an extensive in-town trail system for biking and hiking. It sets the table for adventures farther afield, around Hurricane and Zion National Park.
No visit to Zion National Park is complete without the invigorating hike up Angels Landing, by clinging to its cables near the top a thousand feet above the canyon. During the winter season, visitors can drive their own vehicle up Zion Canyon, instead of taking the mandatory shuttle during summer. Parking for the Angels Landing trailhead is limited and in high demand, so park back south at the ample lots around Zion Lodge and walk a half-mile trail to the start of the Angels Landing classic (BWO photo).
St. George has lots of hiking just outside town, in Snow Canyon State Park and a bit farther afield in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. Trails to Yant Flat and the formation known as the Bowl/Vortex (BWO photo) are prime destinations in the Red Cliffs, which also offers a Bureau of Land Management trail to the overlook of Snow Canyon State Park (BWO photo).
Death Valley has many interesting places, perhaps none more than the remote Racetrack (BWO photo) where rocks slide across a dried lake bed under the right conditions of winds and a slightly wet surface. Just be sure to save your visit for winter, unless you’re one of those travelers wanting to take a photo next to a thermometer reading 130 degrees.
Back closer to Las Vegas, just west outside of town, is the Red Rocks Conservation Area (BWO photo), a heavily used BLM area in the cool season. Get there early before the entry gate is staffed to avoid a fee and a required admittance reservation (seasonal).
The commonality of these hiking destinations, other than their locale, was the dryness, the unseasonal warmth and the premonition of a hot hiking season to come. Climate change is having an affect here, but establishing a direct connection is tenuous. Rather, the link is the widespread heat, drought and extreme weather amplified here and throughout the U.S. West as 2021 progressed. Much of the Las Vegas and St. George areas picked up lots of rain (for their locations) during the summer monsoon, which brought several flood events to Zion National Park.