Robber's Roost

Saturday, we headed to the desert for a week in Death Valley.  We flew to Las Vegas, arriving around 930.  At Enterprise, we got upgraded to a 4Runner with 4WD and high clearance, which would prove helpful for our adventures.  We stopped at a grocery store in Las Vegas to get water, gatorade and snacks and got tacos for lunch.  Then we headed to Spring Mountains National Recreation Area.  Being a Saturday with good snow, it was very crowded.  We planned to hike to Mary Jane Falls but the road into Kyle Canyon was blocked by police and we had to go up Deer Creek Road.  After a ways, we pulled off where we could to check out the snow.

Then we went a little further to the Robber's Roost Trailhead and managed to get a parking space.  There were lots of people here, but most were just playing in the snow.  We crossed the street and started hiking steeply up Robber's Roost Trail in the thick snow.

The trail is short and soon we made it to the top, where it wasn't possible to go further.

It was really scenic up here and we had gotten away from the mad crowds that were just a quarter-mile down the mountain.  Snow in southern Nevada is apparently irresistable.

The views were really nice so we hung out for a bit before heading down.

The cave is near the top.  According to legend, bandits robbed travelers on the Mormon Trail between the Utah and California and stashed their stolen goods in the caves here.

We slowly headed back down the mountain in the snow.

The forest here was full of pine and juniper trees and it was hard to believe we were less than an hour from Las Vegas.

We took a short detour then followed the trail back down to the road.

From here, we drove to the visitor center where there was plenty of parking.  We just did a short walk around here to admire the views.

The snow on the mountains was really beautiful.

We saw some cool caves up on the cliffs.

After some pictures, we headed back.

From here, we drove back down Kyle Canyon passing through Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.  We stopped at one point along the road for some views of some cool rock outcrops along the highway.

There were a lot of Joshua trees along the road.

We walked around to check out the cool rocks and then took off.

Back to US-95, we went north and passed by a collision between a vehicle and a small airplane, but fortunately no serious injuries.  And it was the other side of the road so didn't affect traffic for us.  Shortly before reaching Beatty, the sun was beginning to set and the sky lit up with beautiful colors.  We had to pull off.

Continuing on to Beatty, we checked into the Death Valley Inn.  As we got to our room, there were some "locals" trimming the palm trees.

For dinner, we went to Smokin' J's and got some barbecue, then went to bed after a long day.