Saturday, Sandy and I took Alex for a hike at William B. Umstead State Park. From the last parking area on the Crabtree Creek side of the park, we went down towards the boat house and then hiked along the gravel roads to Reedy Creek Multi-Use Trail. From here, we followed the multi-use trails to make a big loop around the park. As we were finishing up on Graylyn Trail, we went left a short ways to see the chainsaw art.
After a large red oak had fallen, two artists from Gatlinburg, Tennessee came out and used chainsaws to make a beautiful sculpture from the enormous downed tree. It's hard to believe such intricate detail could be carved with a chainsaw.
We got some pictures and then took Sycamore Trail back to the start.
Wednesday, I took a floating holiday for the day before Thanksgiving since Sandy had the day off and we took Alex to Raven Rock State Park. Parking at the visitor center, we took the Raven Rock Loop Trail and then took the Fish Traps Trail down to the river. The water level was up a bit, and we had to jump across just above a scenic cascades.
Once across, it was easy to get out into the middle of the Cape Fear River and take a short break.
Alex was really enjoying the view of the river out here.
Then we headed back to Raven Rock Trail and made a quick stop at the overlook, high above the river.
The trees near the river had lost most of their leaves, but further from the water, there was a lot of color. I was surprised how the fall foliage had lasted so long into November. We continued on and headed down to Raven Rock and stopped for a snack break.
It was a week day and we had arrived early enough to have the area to ourselves. That's not too common at Raven Rock. I walked around to get some pictures and then we headed back up.
We had gotten there at the right time as more people were arriving as we were heading up. We took the Little Creek Loop Trail out again, further from there river here, there was some nice color.
Where the loop cut back around, we followed the Group Camp Trail down to the river.
Then we headed back taking Little Creek and Raven Rock Trails back to the parking area. Just outside the park, we turned on the gravel Moccasin Branch Road and parked at the Overflow Parking and trailhead for Mountain Laurel Loop Trail. This is the newest trail in the park and primarily for mountain biking, but also open to hikers. We hiked the loop in the clockwise direction, opposite the bikers. The total loop was a little over 6 miles and it was a nice trail. True to its name, there was a lot of Mountain Laurel along the trail. I imagine in early May, it puts on quite a show. There was also a lot of nice fall color along the trail.
We really lucked out on our hike.
After finishing, we headed to Fuquay and had dinner at Aviator. Alex had a couple tator tots with his dinner and he sure enjoyed them.
The City of Raleigh is removing the old Milburnie Dam on Neuse River, so I figured I'd head over and get a couple pictures before it's gone. I headed to Buffaloe Road Athletic Park to pick up the Neuse River Trail, part of the Capital Area Greenway. Although November is more than half over, there is still a lot fall color along the trail.
It was about 3 miles or so to where a footbridge leads over the river just past the dam. Although it's Saturday, there were doing construction work to remove the dam today.
I crossed the river and went down to the sandy beach in front of the dam for some pictures.
The original dam had been built of wood in the mid 1800s. Around the turn of the century, the dam was rebuilt with rock and masonry. It operated as a paper mill, a grist mill, and to generate hydroelectric power, operating until the 1980s. Upsteam of the dam is an area of wetlands that had been formed by the dam. With its removal, I could see the water draining from these wetlands. I suppose this will revert back to floodplain forest.
Since the fall color was still nice, I stopped at North Wake Landfill District Park on the way home. Climbing to the Top of the Hill, the leaves were really pretty around the Falls River subdivision.
Looking south, I could see the Raleigh skyline, but it was too sunny for a picture.
Saturday, we were heading home, but our flight wasn't until later in the evening. We had a really good, but expensive breakfast at Avenue Cafe in MGM Grand. After getting our stuff packed up, I went out on the balcony to enjoy the views from the 36th floor one more time.
Then we headed down and checked out. The hotel was nice enough to hold our luggage so we could spend the day walking around Vegas. We first headed south a little ways to Luxor, my favorite of the Vegas hotels on account of the Egyptian theme.
Sandy wanted to get a souvenir glass so we headed to Excalibur next and got some daiquiris. Then we started heading north along the strip, stopping to check out the casinos. At one point, I could see the MGM Signature towers across the street and pictured us way up at the top.
Passing Bellagio, we stopped to see the fountains again and then headed inside. The Conservatory and Botanical Gardens had some pretty displays of flowers in the shape of peacocks.
Sandy played slots for a little while and we checked out the stores at the Forum at Caesars Palace. We went as far as Circus Circus and then started making our way back as the sun set behind the mountains. We enjoyed the lights of the city for a while before getting dinner at Buca Di Beppo in MGM Grand.
After dinner we got our luggage and headed for the airport. The flight home was uneventful and I slept the entire time.
Friday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and checked out. Leaving Springdale, we had to stop for the construction zone one more time. While waiting, we spotted a mule deer along the side of the road.
Driving back towards Las Vegas, we headed to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. After paying admission, we stopped at the visitor center. We first walked around the outdoor viewpoints - the panoramic views of the canyon and colorful rocks were beautiful.
The Calico Hills were very red and appeared to have stripes of color.
The bright red really popped against the desert landscape.
I was hoping to see the park's most famous resident - Mohave Max, a desert tortoise, but he has gone underground for the winter. I spoke with a ranger and she suggested we hike the White Rocks Loop Trail after making a couple scenic stops. So we continued on the one-way scenic drive around the canyon. We first stopped at Calico I with closer views of the colorful Calico Hills.
Our next stop was Sandstone Quarry. Here there was a nice view of the distinctive Turtlehead Peak.
The northern end of the Calico Hills were here and the red-striped rock was really fantastic.
Finally, we made one more short stop at High Point Overlook, the highest point on the scenic drive. This overlook had great views of the entire canyon.
Looking to the west, I could see the White Rock Hills that we would be hiking around next.
Continuing on a short ways, we turned right on the road for Willow Spring Picnic Area and parked here at the end. After getting our stuff together, we first did the very short Petroglyph Wall Trail. This short trail led across the wash to a wall where some ancient petroglyphs and pictographs were visible.
We got a couple pictures and headed back. Following Rocky Gap Road past the picnic area, we went just over a half-mile and turned right on a trail that entered La Madre Mountains Wilderness and we began the loop around White Rock Hills.
Despite the name, they weren't necessarily all white; there were some patches of red similar to Calico Hills.
I was surprised by the amount of green out here in the desert. We did spot quite a few cacti though.
In about another half-mile there was a split. First, we went left on La Madre Springs Trail. Along this trail, we had more nice views of the not-so-white White Rock Hills.
In about a mile, we made it to the namesake spring. The water level was low and the area had not had rain in months, but there was still some water flowing.
The area immediately around the spring was very lush - a stark contrast to the dry landscape elsewhere. Heading back, we quickly returned to desert terrain and the lush green gave way to more cacti.
I was impressed with the spines on some of these cacti. Besides the prickly pears, we also spotted some hedgehog cacti.
Following La Madre Spring Trail back, we turned left to continue on White Rock Loop.
The trail got moderately steep and headed up to a ridge where we had great views of the valley we had hiked up from.
The trail turned right to the right to loop around White Rock Hills, leading to a gap where we could see Las Vegas in the distance.
Past the gap, the trail gradually descended and we saw more interesting cacti along the trail.
Passing by the Upper White Rock parking area, we made a quick detour to White Rock Spring.
Unlike La Madre Spring, there was no water flowing here. After a few pictures, we continued on the loop. I spotted some nice silver cholla along the trail.
We continued heading south as the sun was getting lower in the sky and the wind picked up.
At one point, we had a very nice view of the whole Red Rock Canyon area, with the scenic drive below and Calico Hills across the valley.
At this point, the trail turned to the right one more time, passing the southeast corner of White Rock Hills.
Past the parking for Lost Creek Trail, we soon came back to Willow Springs.
At the parking lot, we got our stuff arranged and then headed back to Vegas to return the car.
From the rental car center, we took a cab to our hotel - the MGM Signature. We had a room on the 36th floor, so the evening view over the strip was great.
In the distance, we could just see the sun setting over Red Rock Canyon where we had been hiking earlier. After checking in, we got dinner and walked around the Strip for a while. We stopped in front of Bellagio and watched the fountains a couple times.
The we headed back to our room.
Only staying here one night, I wanted to get take advantage and get some night time pictures of the strip from high above.
