From the Canyons to the Stars

On top of Griffith peak in the Spring Mountains

Lately I’ve been feeling like my creativity has been sucked dry.

Planking on Mt. Ellis

With that in mind, this is what I've been up to lately:

In late September we took a trip up to the Henry Mountains , which are located between Canyonlands and Capitol Reef. As you may know, those are two rather distant landmarks from Las Vegas so our trip consisted of a lot of driving. But it was worth it 100 times over because those mountains are so beautiful, and the views from the top of them are even better. Imagine looking down into all those red canyons in Utah—oh geez, it’s time to go back. We drove all night Friday, then got in some good hiking Saturday.  Then it was Sunday, time to go home. We took our time, first driving down to Lake Powell, then up along the waterpocket fold that gives Capitol Reef its fame, and dabbled a bit in Escalante before getting on the state route that would take us back to Vegas.  Two weeks later the Henrys got hit with ice cold weather and will remain covered in snow until next June. We got there just in time J

View from the Little Rockies, Henry Mountains

Hiking around the Henrys

The Henry Mountains as seen from a plane.

Last weekend we flew up to Duluth, Minnesota, a town most people didn’t know existed. Joe wanted to go mainly to stock up on Christmas presents for his family, but there was also the annual Raptor Research  conference that he was presenting at. Raptor biologists are a special breed and if you’re wondering what skill set their jobs require, well… to put it simply, you just have to be awesome. Because of that, you can imagine that those conferences get pretty entertaining. He did a great job presenting and we had a good time seeing those familiar faces that come around once a year. Duluth is a pretty cool city, and we got there just as the leaves were changing colors—stunning, totally breathtaking.

Working on our balancing act on the shores of Lake Superior

Trees and colors

Shortly after returning to Las Vegas, Joe took off for Texas where he will spend two weeks catching peregrines. So far he’s had some pretty incredible moments out there with the birds, and he even managed to catch a white tailed hawk, an incredible feat if you ask me.

Joe the bandit and his regal companion

Meanwhile, I’ve been working quite a bit and occasionally slip in something fun. On Sunday I took a much needed trip up Bonanza peak in the Spring Mountains. It was delightful and delicious. And Saturday I went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream up at Lake Las Vegas. It’s playing for free at a different park in Henderson every Saturday night in October. Highly recommended—the public nature of it will give you a taste of what it meant to go to the theater/opera/symphony before the 20^th century came around and made concerts a stuffy event for the social elite.  But aside from the historical value, it’s a great play and this theater company gives it an adorable modern twist.

Clinging for dear life on Bonanza Peak.
The timer wasn't working with me.

One more note before I sign off, it would appear that some connoisseur of classical music has passed on, or gotten a divorce. In any event, the Enterprise Library has come into a wealth of used classical CDs which they are selling in the used books section for $1 each. There are some excellent recordings in there, if that’s your thang.