Random Photos From My Trip to Las Vegas

I was just going through some photos from my drive down to Las Vegas. This photo seemed worth posting. This was shot about 100 miles north of Las Vegas while driving through the Great Basin.
I can't wait till the cactus start to flower. Looks like it might be another week before we see the desert bloom. This photo was all I could come up with until then.
There are a ton of ticks in Red Rocks right now. Here is one I found on my arm.
In most of Red Rocks canyons there are small frogs. Here is a photo of one of them. I tried to find the species of frog by looking on the web, but there is very little info available. Unfortunately the BLM finds it more important to build a fancy new visitor center with next to no interesting information in it, than compile a list of the species that are located within the boundary of Red Rocks National Conservation Area and make it available to the public. Oh well, its nice seeing the frogs.

Red Rock Rendezvous

Every year for the last four I have come down to Las Vegas for an extended period of time to hide from the Pacific Northwests spring weather and climb as much as possible. One of my excuses for the trip is the Red Rock Rendezvous. This climbing festival, mostly geared for beginners is the largest climbing festival in the country and usually makes for three best days of work every year. This year was no exception. Friday is the beginners day and for me is the best day of the festival. We teach the clinics which may be the cheapest and best way for a true beginning climber to get a day out with a professional guide. The next two days are stacked full of additional clinics with professional athletes from the climbing world. In my opinion if you come to this festival skip the climbing technique clinics and sign up for the technical skills clinics. The self rescue and rock rescue clinics involve skills that every climber needs to know but many don't learn until way too late. Of course the New Belgium beer truck that pours free beer all weekend certainly helps increase my love of the festival. Here are a few photos from the friday uclimb clinic.




These photos are from one of the outdoor clinics the following day that I helped rig the ropes for.







The festival is organized by Mountain Gear. If you are interested in the Red Rock Rendezvous for next year there is more info here.

I have a bunch more photos from this day, but sorting though them and posting them will require another rest day. Lets hope that does not come too soon.

Red Rocks Big Horn Sheep.

A forced rest day due to rain is not always a bad thing. I took the time to hunt down one of the herds of big horn sheep that roam the canyons here at Red Rocks National Conservation Area. I managed to find them in less than an hour and spent the next couple hours sitting still on a rock as they slowly grazed their way closer. They are usually a fairly difficult animal to get close to, but the heard here is fairly tame. These photos were shot with the 70-200 2.8 lens.








I have been down here at Red Rocks for 2.5 weeks now, and have shot a lot of photos. In the next week or so I will be sorting thought them and posting the best here on the blog.