Weekend in Vegas: Red Rock and Valley of Fire

A couple weekends ago, Jeremy and I went to Las Vegas to go hiking. I know, I know... who goes to Vegas to go HIKING? Well, we do :D Turns out that despite being in a desert, there are some BEAUTIFUL parks in the area and we had an awesome trip. We left Saturday morning and went hiking in Red Rock National Conservation Area. On Sunday we went to Valley of Fire. Next time you go to Vegas, you gotta check them out! 

Red Rock National Conservation Area

This is at the beginning of our hike. We climbed around the mountain (instead of up and over it). 

Multi-colored rocks

Great view up along the side of the mountain

We turn the corner and BAM! Awesome view into the valley

So we begin hiking down

And down some more

Down at the base (but still on the other side of the mountain) we can look across the other valley and see the different colored rocks

There are about a dozen goats up there but its impossible to see them in this tiny picture. 

We are in the desert and it wouldn't be complete without a picture of some cacti, right? 

VALLEY OF FIRE

This park was AMAZING! I had no idea that places like this existed, but I'm so glad they do! Be prepared, there are lots of pictures of rocks.... but you'll just have to trust me that they look much cooler in person. 

Elephant Rock

Check out the different colors! 

Certain parts of the rock walls erode away, leaving columns and small caves. 

Purple!

The only flowers that we saw. You don't want to pick those! 

Turtle rock :) 

Nice view of the valley

Fire "wave"

This part was super cool! The rocks are striped different colors and it looks like fire! 

This was our last hike at Valley of Fire and supposedly parts of this area had been used in Star Trek shows. It definitely looked alien! 

Costa Rica: The last few pictures

We have a few more pictures to share from our trip, but they are a bit random. 

This is the view directly out of our room from our balcony. We had a lovely hammock and would spend most of the latter part of the afternoons out here. 

Looking off to the right

This is what the entire coast looks like - wall of forest that is pure green and lush, a little sand but mostly rocks on the short beach, then pure blue waters

A nice waterfall at the end of a hike

This is a cool bird. He has a bright blue crown on the top of his head

Some more cool birds! These are NOT through a scope, so we got to get a good look at these brightly colored scarlet macaws. 

I made this picture bigger so that (perhaps) you can see the birds in this one. This is a view from our balcony and you can see some green parrots in the tree on the left and 3 or 4 scarlet macaws in the tree toward the center/right. These birds are beautiful, but they make such a racket! You don't want to try and sleep without earplugs if you plan on sleeping anytime past dawn. 

Last day attempt to catch some waves... as you can see they weren't too successful. I stayed on the shore and read my book.

Maybe... maybe... I don't think this wave did anything interesting. I guess Drake Bay isn't the best place for surfing (especially around new moon) but it is awesome for everything else! Pura vida! 

Cost Rica: Night hikes with all the creepy crawlies

We went out on a night hike with a local guide from Drake Bay who walked with us for a couple hours on his property. His family has lived in the area for 40 years and he knows his land well! We saw all sorts of small creatures that only really come out at night. Some were super cute, and others.... not so much. Enjoy trying to find the camouflaged critters hidden in the pictures below (it was kinda like walking through a giant scavenger hunt - looking for these creatures when they are doing everything to remain hidden - LOVED it! - I think I am my father's daughter on this one). 

This one... not so hidden. Called the wolf spider. He is kinda dangerous because he is venomous. 

Can you see the stick bug?

So the camera did a little funky coloring on this one, but this is a glass frog because you can see through his skin. He is about the size of a dime.

Another frog - this one a máscara 

I think this guy was called a gladiator frog

One of the many fisherman spiders that we saw - he is about the size of my hand. Eventually we stopped taking pictures of this type because we saw so many of them

Glass frogs are so cute! 

Scorpion! 

This picture makes him look SO much creepier

Whip scorpion - I remember that people had to eat these one time on Fear Factor. It was disgusting. 

We saw a bunch of this cute little guy - about the size of a quarter. 

This is a basilisk. I thought it would look more like the creature from Harry Potter, but it definitely didn't. Rowling got that one a little off. 

Just the night sky from the beach. The small lights are little cabins on the hill. 

This is a poison dart frog that is native to the Osa Peninsula. It has a beautiful song and some crazy stripes down its back. The native people used to rub thorns along its back and use them for hunting to that the venom would kill their prey.

Daytime picture of a leaf frog. He is smaller than a dime. Can you see him?

Some more daytime pictures of the cute red frog. He kept jumping away and I had to take a bunch of pictures to try and capture him in a good shot. 

Back to night time again. Can you see the frog? 

Ending on a glass frog again. There is a kind of glass frog (not this one) that if you flip it over, you can see inside of its chest cavity to see its beating heart. Craziness! We left all the frogs alone though, so I'm not actually positive if this is one of those or not...