Mancos Vacation

Our summer wouldn't be the same without a trip to the outlaws! Kaleb and Sage had Cousins Camp 2010 this year at Grandma's house, so we stayed the following week for a family vacation. Thanks to Miki's parents for putting us up and feeding us so well. We always relish our time with them. For a couple of days, we even had the whole clan together for some family picture opportunities. Those who hadn't were able to meet Shaylee for the first time. We had a blast relaxing, watching movies, playing games, jumping on the trampoline, riding the four-wheelers, horseback riding, working, partying, eating, hiking, and enjoying time together. One afternoon we were able to leave the kids with grandma to ride the four-wheelers up into the forest where Miki and I shared a picnic to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. Since our camera broke in Sacramento, we bought a nice Nikon D90 to play around with while we were there and got some stunning photos of the beautiful scenery (more photos to come later). It seemed much greener to us this year. All in all we had a great time we will always remember. As always, feel free to follow along in the photo album.

Mancos Vacation 2010

2010 April

April was another busy and fun month. It started with a weekend trip to Sacramento for my parents 50th wedding anniversary party over Easter weekend. The entire family made it for the most part. It was sure fun to see everyone and visit and have our kids get reacquainted or meet cousins for the first time. Photo album:

Hone Family 50 Party

After we returned, we had a little Easter celebration and egg hunt of our own:



Cub Scout Day Camp:



Big wheelin:



And, while Miki went for a weekend with the women folk of her family to Women's Conference, the kids and I went camping and exploring at Mojave National Preserve in CA April 30th. We hit the famous "rings" trail at Hole in the Wall visitors center, Mitchell Caverns, Kelso sand dunes, the Kelso visitors center, and a very cool lava tube. It was quite windy and cold the night we camped, but I cannot remember the last time I saw so many stars at night or ate so many S'mores. We had a blast! Be sure to follow along in the photo album:

Mojave National Preserve

2010 March

March included a short hike to a valley overlook.
A visit from Aunt Cassie and Uncle Jason.
A space derby.
The usual horsing around.
And a visit from Grandma & Grandpa, which also included a trip to the Children's Museum and a hike in Valley of Fire.

White Domes and Mouse's Tank Hikes

2010 January

So, I am officially half-way through the evening MBA program at UNLV and am thoroughly enjoying a short three week break before my summer class begins. While I have many projects around the house on the back burner vying for my attention, I am determined to help get the blog up-to-date...starting with January.

Apart from my usual, grumpy self when I force myself to study...



...we are up to the usual pleasantries, like a hike to the Sloan Canyon petroglyphs...

Sloan Canyon

...losing our front teeth...



...entertaining mommy with the Indiana Jones impersonation...



...Pinewood Derby races...



...and breaking in our fun, new toys from Christmas.



Stay tuned for more action on the Hone range.

Havasu Falls

The good thing about being between semesters on the holiday break is that I can try and catch up on the blog. A few months ago I caught up with my friend from Ricks College, Brit. He and his entourage were heading down to the Havasupai reservation on the Grand Canyon to hike Havasu Falls and invited me to tag along. This hike has been on my list for years, so I was excited for the chance.

With a borrowed Chevy Suburban I picked up the crew from the airport, made a quick stop by the house to rearrange the backpacks and fill up with water, then drove to the Hilltop Trailhead (36.160005°, -112.709277°). Due to the travel time, we started on the trail about 5:30pm to make the 9.7 mile hike to the campground. It was getting dark by the time we arrived at Supai village (36.236485°, -112.688881°), so we hiked past the sound of Navajo Falls and Havasu Falls in the dark without being able to see them. The campground was fairly full and it was difficult to see in the dark to find a good resting place, but we found a nice spot right next to the river toward the farthest end of the campground.

This, of course, was my first time here, but from what I read, the campground was expanded since being reconstructed after the flood of August 2008. We especially enjoyed the new triple and quad berth, solar-powered composting latrines. The erosional forces of the flood water altered the waterfalls significantly and was very evident when comparing photos I researched before the trip to what I saw while I was there. One of the falls, Navajo Falls, was wiped out completely and two new waterfalls were formed, New Navajo Falls and Rock Falls. You can read about the changes on the tribe's website (http://www.havasupaitribe.com/waterfalls.html).

Our first day, we traveled downstream from the campground to swim in Mooney Falls, then continued the hike down to what we think is Beaver Falls. The rope swing below Mooney Falls was especially refreshing around noon with the sunshine reaching the bottom of the canyon. Our hike took us through the beautiful valley of vines and carried us a total of about 4 miles round-trip back to the campground. The second day we hiked back upstream to visit Havasu Falls, Rock Falls, and New Navajo Falls. By lunch we decided to begin our hike back out of the canyon, but we only made it as far as the village before we decided to fore go the beautiful hike out and take the helicopter ride instead. This got us back to Chili's restaurant in Kingman, AZ by dinner and back to Las Vegas by nightfall.

I knew that this trip would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience as it was every bit as beautiful as I imagined from the pictures I had seen. What I didn't expect was such a strong desire to return again. I highly recommend it. Let me know if you would like more details or especially if you would like to invite me along on your trip to guide.

Click below to see most of my pictures from the trip:

Havasupai Trip

Hanging out in Hoodoo Lounge

Last weekend, Miki had her annual retreat at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, so I offered to chauffeur her to and from to get a little change of scenery and away from the Vegas heat we love so dearly. After some Friday lunch at Iceberg, the kids and I left Miki in good hands as we headed up Cedar Mountain and across to Bryce Canyon National Park for two nights of camping, hiking, and hot chocolate by the campfire. We had a blast! Unfortunately three-quarters of the park was closed due to a lightning fire they had been fighting for nearly a month. And of course they couldn't have announced that on the website I scoured for hours the night before, planning out our itinerary. The park was a little more crowded. Let's just say that the open portion of the park is very familiar to us now. In fact, it forced us back out the park entrance to hike Mossy Cave, which turned out to be a welcomed refreshment as we discovered the fall/winter flowing waterfall of Tropic Ditch.

The kids and I had fun hiking and spending quality time together. Hopefully we will be able to return again someday to see the portions of the park that were closed. Click the photo album below to follow along and see the beautiful park of Bryce Canyon.

Bryce Canyon NP

Saturday Stroll

Last Saturday Miki helped work a roadshow booth at Costco, so the kids and I went on a little hike at Lake Mead NRA. Just below Lake Las Vegas where the wash runs into Lake Mead is the Wetlands Trail. It's one of the only hikes in Las Vegas where you can hike along running water, but since it is mostly urban runoff it carries an "urban" odor and color with it too.

Afterward, we picked up a Little Caesars pizza and headed to the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, where we ate lunch and continued our walk around Pond 3 to see many kinds of birds. The "cooler" weather with partly cloudy skies was perfect for getting outdoors.

Of course we stopped by Costco on the way home to check in on Mommy. Click the link below to see the highlights.

Lake Mead Wetlands Trail & Henderson Bird Preserve

Memorial Day

This Memorial Day Miki took the kids and some friends to the Clark County Heritage Museum. It was a bit of a surprise. It only cost $1.50 for adults and $1 for kids. It has an old train depot from Boulder City, an old print shop, a few houses redone to represent their era in Las Vegas and an old red barn that served as a land mark for early Las Vegas residents. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It left us feeling a bit of a connection to Las Vegas. It used to be just a town, not so much a tourist destination. It was surreal to see the city in that light.

After the museum, we were introduced to O'Callaghan Park near down town Henderson. I was amazed at how beautiful that park is. It's a beautiful green heaven in the middle of our desert city. We enjoyed lunch with our fabulous friends then headed to the movie theater to see Night at the Museum 2. My kids will tell you it was a perfect day. Too bad Kalvan was in Utah.

Kalvan drove to St. George to stay the night with Rob and his family and get an early start on climbing Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. The weather was perfect and it was a beautiful day for a hike. Click on the link below to follow along and see the amazing scenery so difficult to capture with the camera.

Angel's Landing

My Garmin GPS watch did pretty well at maintaining satellite reception until further up when we went into Refrigerator Canyon.

Natural Bridge Hike

This morning we gave the kids the option to forego our usual Saturday bike ride for a hike, to which they enthusiastically agreed. We headed south this time to Nelson, NV to hike to a natural bridge. This area is still part of the Lake Mead NRA, but lies south of Hoover dam along the Colorado River. A natural bridge is similar to a natural arch except that it is formed by water erosion as opposed to wind erosion. You can actually see the arch if you look carefully at the Google imagery (35°43'36.74"N, 114°49'7.37"W: look for the shadow spanning the wash). This is a good 1.0 mile hike each way with a tiny bit of thigh-high rock scrambling on the trail. This destination is tucked away at the bottom of a wash with some neat rock formations, plenty of oak shrub, a spring, great vistas of Boulder City and Nelson, as well as a small glimpse of the Colorado River.

We had a baby rattlesnake cross my path today between Karter and I. Baby rattlers are about 10 inches at birth. This one was about 12-13 inches long and I could only see maybe two little rattles on the tip of its tail. The snake was about 3 feet from Karter and heading his way when I spotted it as I was about to step near it. We were in a small space between the rocks and I realized I couldn't get around the rattler to get to Karter, so I frantically called to Miki, who was in front of Karter, to pull him clear of its path. Karter did a great job of standing very still, probably frozen from me raising my voice suddenly. Miki swooped Karter up while the baby snake quickly hid under the rock not to be seen again. Karter decided after this that he never wants to step on a snake and had me carry him past that spot on the way back out.

This time we packed a lunch that we ate in the shade of the natural bridge while we enjoyed the cool breeze. Of course the "tired" starts to kick in on the way back, but we made it back home to enjoy a short nap followed by Saturday chores. It was a fun time! Now maybe I should probably start thinking about getting ready to plan to possibly go about getting some studying done for my upcoming economics test. Can't wait!

Natural Bridge Hike

Cottonwood Spring

Karter and I decided to go on a hike Friday while everyone else was in school. We went to Cottonwood Spring in Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NRA). (36°12'9.94"N, 114°38'36.93"W). Have I mentioned I love my new Garmin GPS watch? Comparing to Google Earth imagery, I can see some of the positions were off by as much as 80 feet, which is unusually high.

The Cottonwood Spring hike is an easy, 1.24 mile journey each way. Along the journey, we saw some pretty plants, petrified ripples, some cool rocks, mini narrows, a recently expired trantula, an old watering basin, and the spring. There are some aquatic fossils there too, supposedly, but we could not find them. There are a couple large cottonwood trees at the spring that looked very dormant. There was water just below the surface an seen by a small hole maintained by animals for watering. Follow along by viewing the photo album below.
Again, all the photos are geotagged so you can see the approximate locations of the photos.

Cottonwood Spring

Redstone Safari

Kaleb's friend, Ethan, invited Kaleb and I to go hiking with he and his dad for his birthday activity. We went to the Redstone Dunes in Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NRA). (36°14'32.29"N, 114°30'57.01"W). I put my new Garmin GPS watch to good use.

The Redstone Dunes are petrified sand dunes that have eroded differentially to create some spectacular caves, holes, pockets, youngster labyrinths, and other neat formations. Along the journey, I saw many rock formations that resembled animals and other creatures. Follow along our safari and see if you can pick out the animals we saw by viewing the photo album below. Feel free to leave comments on the photos of what you think we saw on our safari!

Redstone Safari

Note that there is a map that goes with the photos showing the approximate locations of these formations. If you decide to go on safari yourself, let me know and I'll send you the exact path of our travels (1.4 miles) since you'll have to be mildly adventurous and get off the beaten path and explore a little to see the rare and exotic species we located. Better yet, if you're serious about a mini-safari, let us know and we'll plan a customized adventure the whole family (both of our families) will enjoy...compliments of your adventure guide, Kaleb, who can guarantee that these critters will not be roaming too far from where we found them!