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| - LANDMARK REVIEW 1,000
The fact that I chose to write Review 1,000 on the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area which is also known as Mount Charleston, is evidence that I think very highly of it. I am a true lover of nature. Spending hours in nature is hours spent in a happy state. Essentially this review is a review celebration nature. This is an unparalleled natural ecosystem up on a sky island that ranges between 6,000 and over10,000 feet above sea level. It is a sky island near to Las Vegas and Heaven. This is my island up in the sky where I have gone to escape negatively. In the last two years I have escaped to the Spring Mountains over 31 times.
The Spring Mountains gives so much for so little. For the price of half a tank of gas this is a place that gives priceless adventures. The adventures take place on nature trails passing near and to the top of mountain peaks, through bristlecone pine forests interspersed with aspin, into forested canyons, on scenic overlooks, beneath a 3,000 year old tree (Raintree), at the edge of waterfalls, and by wildlife.
The Spring Mountains has been my sunshine on cloudy days. For example, the Day after returning from Boston with the realization that I may not see my family for a while and possibly Boston never; sadness was kicking in. The next morning I immediately drove to the Raintree where the fresh crisp pine tree air and forest healed the sadness. During the heated days when the Las Vegas desert bakes in the summer, being here extended hiking season from 9 months to a year.
I remember a couple of years ago just after the 2013 Carpenter Fire when the damage shut down a large area of the park creating a hiking season was from late September til May. There was a part of me missing during those months. I need to be in nature. Fast forward to 2015, many of the trails were reopened with a new Visitor Center. This Visitor Center became symbol of the Spring Mountains. With the Visitor Center new trails were born. They included the Acustus and Escarpment Trails. From this point on, nearly every summer weekend during 2015 and 2016, I would make the drive from Henderson all the way up to Mount Charleston to take in its mountains and forests. Every weekend I would hike on a different trail building up to my bucket list hike of Charleston Peak-the highest point in Southern Nevada.
Although the trails and scenery would change, my enthusiasm would stay the same. In my mind, nature is like experiencing a five star meal that I need to cherish and enjoy slowly. Whether it was Lee or Kyle Canyon, my tradition has been to drive the additional miles north on US 95 to use the less traveled Lee Canyon Road up to the mountains.
Regardless of all the hiking I have partaken in the Spring Mountains, it is Mummy Mountain and not Mount Charleston that I often see. From the time I turned onto Lee Canyon Road in the Mojave Desert at 2,000 feet elevation all the way to Deer Creek Road at 8,000 feet where I often made a turn on to Deer Creek Road, Mummy Mountain was a mesmerizing landmark that turned larger and larger until the pine forests camouflaged it in the bristlecone elevation zone. Mount Charleston on the other hand is easier to take in from Pahrump than most of the place that is also called Mount Charleston.
If this review celebrates nature I want to touch on human nature. My only complaint regarding the Spring Mountains is there is an element of human trash that trashes parts of the park with graffiti, carving aspin trees, and even starting fires. That is the bad side of human nature. I witnessed the most evidence of this in the Mary Jane Falls area.
No amount of words can do the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area justice. Especially when I am reaching my allowed Yelp word limit. The spirit of the Spring Mountains is displayed in many of the reviews that I have penned on its hiking trails. These reviews are in my Las Vegas hiking list. In the future I will be sharing more of the trails that I hike in the Spring Mountains. Charleston Peak, the ultimate Spring Mountains and Las Vegas hike, is still on my bucket list. Just like reaching the Yelp peak of Landmark Review 1,000, Mount Charleston is one more peak that I aim to reach.
Mount Charleston for the World!
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