Holly Shelter MST Hike

Sunday morning, I woke up before Sandy and Alex and went for a short hike in Carolina Beach State Park.  Hiking along Snow's Cut, there was a beautiful view of sunrise.

At the end of the trail, I took the greenway back towards the park entrance and crossed the street to get on the Fitness Trail, a short one mile loop.

After completing, the loop, I headed back and we broke camp.

We got donuts for breakfast at Wake N Bake and drove through Wilmington to get on I-40.  We drove a short ways and got off to park at the wildlife depot at Holly Shelter Game Land.  The Mountains-to-Sea Trail follows old roads through the area.

We hiked about 3 miles down Lodge Road to New Road, where the MST turned and turned around here.

Although the area is home to alligators, it was a little cold and we didn't see any in the canals.

There were a number of little songbirds in the open areas.

We saw a number of robins and a little tufted titmouse.

We finished the hike up back at the parking area and drove the rest of the way home.

Fort Fisher Beach Hike

Saturday, we took Alex out to the beach to camp for the weekend.  We left early and arrived at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area around 830 and there were only a few cars in the parking at this point.  It was quite chilly but the winds were calm.  We started hiking down the beach with the tide out.

As the tide went out, interesting patterns were left in the sand where the water drained.  I thought they looked kind of like a tree.  We also spotted a number of jellyfish washed up along the beach.

We went out a mile or so and find a nice place to sit down and enjoy the view.

Alex enjoyed going for a walk on the beach.

We headed back from here to the parking lot and then got on the Basin Trail.  I really like this trail and always try to hike it when visiting the park, at least when the bugs are gone.  We hiked through maritime forest and across the salt marsh.  There were lots of yaupon holly berries along the trail.

We swung by the hermit bunker and went out to the overlook of Zeke's Island Reserve.

On the hike back, we spotted a number of birds.  In the salt marsh, there was a number of white ibises pecking around in the muck.  A few had brown plumage and were juveniles.

There was also a great egret in here.

A little further on there was a Cape May warbler.

And in the open area, we spotted a chestnut-sided warbler.

Lots of birds out on a nice winter day.

After our hike, we drove into Kure Beach and had lunch at Jack Mackerels Grill.  After lunch, we walked down to the beach and enjoyed the waves for a bit.

Then we headed to Carolina Beach State Park and checked in at the marina before setting up camp.  After setting up, we hiked to Good Hops for a drink before dark.  We got back to camp just before sunset and I ran down to Snow's Cut for a view.

The sky turned brilliant shades of pink and orange and the clouds looked like cotton candy.

Back at camp, we built a nice fire as the temperature dropped quickly after the sun set.

Petroglyph Canyon

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and packed up for the final time of the trip.  Our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we headed to Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area for a hike before we left Nevada.  We set off on the Petroglyph Trail and headed into the canyon.

In about a mile, there was a split with Cowboy trail and we went left to stay on Petroglyph Trail.  Soon, we had to climb a couple dry waterfalls.

The first one was easy and the second one a little tougher, but after a week in Death Valley, it seemed like nothing.

After the second climb, we came to the Petroglyph Site.

The number of petroglyphs here was just amazing.

We've seen petroglyphs at other places in the desert where there's one or two, but nothing like this.

It was like an outdoor rock art gallery.

There was some wild buckwheat growing in the canyon.

We really felt like we hit the jackpot with petroglyphs here and spent some time getting photos.

The petroglyphs continued until the end of Petroglyph Trail.

Besides the rock art, there were also some good cacti in the canyon.

At the end of Petroglyph Trail, we took Cowboy Trail to make a partial loop back.

There was some silver cholla growing along the trail.

Some nice yuccas as well.

At the end, we got on Petroglyph Trail to head back.  The Las Vegas skyline was visible in the distance.

Back at the car, we got our stuff packed and ready to go to the airport.  We had some extra bottled water and gave that to a volunteer at the visitor center.

It was just a short drive to the rental car return and our flight home was uneventful.

Ash Meadows

Friday, we were leaving Death Valley.  We woke up to another gorgeous sunset.

It was our last morning so we enjoyed the view before having breakfast at the hotel.

Then we checked out and headed back to Nevada.  Our first stop was in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge at the visitor center.  After talking to the friendly staff, we planned out a couple hikes in the refuge.  First, we hiked the Crystal Springs Boardwalk that started from behind the Visitor Center.

The trail followed a boardwalk through the surprisingly lush area to the Crystal Springs Creek.  The warm spring water was steamy in the chilly morning air.

The boardwalk continued to Crystal Springs, the source of the water.

The spring produces about 2,800 gallons per minute of water at a constant 87ºF and was a beautiful turquoise blue color.

The boardwalk then looped back around to the visitor center.  Our next stop was at the Point of Rocks trailhead, about 10 minutes away.  The short trail led out to another spring and we saw some velvet ash growing, the refuge's namesake.

There was a small bridge across the creek in the boardwalk.

Just past here, we came to Kings Pool, another beautiful blue spring-fed pool.

There were a lot of little Amargosa pupfish in the pool.  These little fish are endemic to the springs here in Ash Meadows.

The far end of the loop came to an amphitheater with nice views of the desert.

We spotted a little cactus, maybe a cholla, along the hike back.

Finishing up the hike, we were successful in finding the rare pupfish.

From here, we started making our way back to Las Vegas.  We made a detour into Spring Mountains National Recreation Area to again try to get a waterfall in Nevada.  Being a weekday, we could drive into Kyle Canyon.  The Echo Trailhead was blocked by snow sow we parked along the road and hiked back to the trailhead.  Little Falls Trail was very snowy, but we had nice views of the mountains.

After passing the connector trail, the trail got steep as we headed into the small canyon.

Near the top, the canyon got very closed in.

Soon we made it to Little Falls at the end of the canyon.

It was too cold and snowy for and water flow but was really pretty.

And kind of ironic that our waterfall in Nevada was frozen.

On the hike back, we took the connector trail back to the road.  There was a great view of Cathedral Rock.

From here, we drove back to Las Vegas and checked into the M Resort.  It's off the strip, so parking is free, but similar to the casinos on the strip.  There was a beautiful sunset from the hotel, our last one in the desert.

We had dinner at the casino and got ready to head home the next day.