As some of you may know, there's one thing that Cindy always asks for when her birthday comes around and that's to get in our Jeep and hit the dirt! And, being that we already had plans to be down in the Vegas area to visit family, we decided this birthday would be spent making a trek across the Southern Nevada desert. As luck would have it, our good friends Tony and Steph were able to join us for this adventure and the following are a few highlight pics from all the fun we had. I hope you enjoy. 
Oh how we love the wide open Nevada desert!
The long drive down to Vegas is always a beautiful one.
WooHoo!! Hooking up with Steph and Tony at Jack's down in Boulder City and celebrating a fun filled weekend ahead - CHEERS!
I knew we should have taken an Uber instead of a Lyfffffffffffffttttttttt......
DAY 1
Looking like it's gonna be a beautiful day.
Being that this was Cindy's Birthday Run, she got to pick the Jeep we would take and of course, she chose her favorite - Moby!
Being that we were planning on covering well over 100 miles and all on dirt, we decided it might be good to let a little air out of the tires to soften things up.
So... If I'm reading this right, this confusing set of signs are saying that only cars are allowed beyond this point. I guess that explains the "TRAVEL AT YOUR OWN RISK" :crazyeyes:
Just for emphasis... LOL (Clearly, they are referring to the kind of climbing that you do with your hands and feet)
And we're off on another adventure!
Making a stop to see the beauty of the desert.
Don't know if you can see it or not but there's an enormous cave up in the mountains.
View looking out across a massive Joshua Tree and Yucca forest.
On the move again and with lots of ground to cover.
Wiggling our way through a really cool canyon - temperature wise as well!
Moby hiding out and keeping an eye out while we do a little exploring on foot.
Looks like people used to live in this one.
View from the cave looking back down at Moby.
After a long climb out up the canyon and to the top of the pass, we found ourselves in a bit of snow.
Heading back down the other side.
Back down in another valley.
Blasting down a Nevada Superhighway.
And working our way up another canyon.
On the other side of yet another mountain range and down in a kinda dry lake bed.
It's a little hard to see but out on a rocky point at the edge of the lake bed were these cool petroglyphs.
Soaking in the setting sun out in the middle of nowhere.
Examining some really interesting patterns on the lake bed surface.
Back in town after a long day of fun on the trail - HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY!
DAY 2
Good morning from our home the night before - this historic Boulder Dam Hotel.
For our second day, we decided to do something we rarely do and that's to visit some tourist attractions. Specifically, we decided to make our way out to Valley of Fire and take the route that goes along the shorts of Lake Mead. As you can see, the water level is still quite a bit down.
As soon as we crossed into Valley of Fire, we got out of our Jeeps and hoofed it on foot over to Elephant Rock.
Sure is beautiful out here.
And there it is - Elephant Rock! Do you see it?
Here's a closer shot to help you see the trunk and front leg.
But I think the view from the other side is nicer.
Back in our Jeeps, we stared to work our way across the park to see what else we could see.
Landscape starting to change quite a bit.
So many pretty colors!
Back on foot, we hiked our way out to the Fire Wave (not to be confused with The Wave out near Page).
Kind of a bummer there were so many people out and about but then, what would you expect to see out in a park.
Well, in spite of the crowds, it still was pretty.
After another short drive, we stopped again to do a hike up Mouse's Canyon.
Tons of amazing petroglyphs can be found here.
There literally are petroglyphs anywhere and everywhere and even in places that are hard to imagine how anyone could have climbed up to make them.
After another short drive, we found ourselves over at a set of old cabins that were built by the CCC way back in the early 20th century.
With the sun starting to hang low in the sky, we decided to head out of the park and to our home for the night.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN to CINDY!
I know it wasn't much but I hope you enjoyed seeing the few highlight pics that we took from our weekend of fun celebrating Cindy's birthday.
Oh how we love the wide open Nevada desert!
The long drive down to Vegas is always a beautiful one.
WooHoo!! Hooking up with Steph and Tony at Jack's down in Boulder City and celebrating a fun filled weekend ahead - CHEERS!
I knew we should have taken an Uber instead of a Lyfffffffffffffttttttttt......
DAY 1
Looking like it's gonna be a beautiful day.
Being that this was Cindy's Birthday Run, she got to pick the Jeep we would take and of course, she chose her favorite - Moby!
Being that we were planning on covering well over 100 miles and all on dirt, we decided it might be good to let a little air out of the tires to soften things up.
So... If I'm reading this right, this confusing set of signs are saying that only cars are allowed beyond this point. I guess that explains the "TRAVEL AT YOUR OWN RISK" :crazyeyes:
Just for emphasis... LOL (Clearly, they are referring to the kind of climbing that you do with your hands and feet)
And we're off on another adventure!
Making a stop to see the beauty of the desert.
Don't know if you can see it or not but there's an enormous cave up in the mountains.
View looking out across a massive Joshua Tree and Yucca forest.
On the move again and with lots of ground to cover.
Wiggling our way through a really cool canyon - temperature wise as well!
Moby hiding out and keeping an eye out while we do a little exploring on foot.
Looks like people used to live in this one.
View from the cave looking back down at Moby.
After a long climb out up the canyon and to the top of the pass, we found ourselves in a bit of snow.
Heading back down the other side.
Back down in another valley.
Blasting down a Nevada Superhighway.
And working our way up another canyon.
On the other side of yet another mountain range and down in a kinda dry lake bed.
It's a little hard to see but out on a rocky point at the edge of the lake bed were these cool petroglyphs.
Soaking in the setting sun out in the middle of nowhere.
Examining some really interesting patterns on the lake bed surface.
Back in town after a long day of fun on the trail - HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY!
DAY 2
Good morning from our home the night before - this historic Boulder Dam Hotel.
For our second day, we decided to do something we rarely do and that's to visit some tourist attractions. Specifically, we decided to make our way out to Valley of Fire and take the route that goes along the shorts of Lake Mead. As you can see, the water level is still quite a bit down.
As soon as we crossed into Valley of Fire, we got out of our Jeeps and hoofed it on foot over to Elephant Rock.
Sure is beautiful out here.
And there it is - Elephant Rock! Do you see it?
Here's a closer shot to help you see the trunk and front leg.
But I think the view from the other side is nicer.
Back in our Jeeps, we stared to work our way across the park to see what else we could see.
Landscape starting to change quite a bit.
So many pretty colors!
Back on foot, we hiked our way out to the Fire Wave (not to be confused with The Wave out near Page).
Kind of a bummer there were so many people out and about but then, what would you expect to see out in a park.
Well, in spite of the crowds, it still was pretty.
After another short drive, we stopped again to do a hike up Mouse's Canyon.
Tons of amazing petroglyphs can be found here.
There literally are petroglyphs anywhere and everywhere and even in places that are hard to imagine how anyone could have climbed up to make them.
After another short drive, we found ourselves over at a set of old cabins that were built by the CCC way back in the early 20th century.
With the sun starting to hang low in the sky, we decided to head out of the park and to our home for the night.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN to CINDY!
I know it wasn't much but I hope you enjoyed seeing the few highlight pics that we took from our weekend of fun celebrating Cindy's birthday.
