After Death Valley - March 2022
Beatty, NV has resident donkeys. Someone had put out some food for them. When we were checking out of the hotel, I believe that we had the car loaded, but Travis was trying to get in the car and I heading to the office to check out and then went back to the room for something. I was worried for both us.
On the way out, we headed south past Amargosa Opera House; the tall part on the right was the opera house and to the left is now the motel. Though it did not look open as a motel now either.
Then we went on to Mt. Charleston. A co-worker recommended this park. It was very pretty, though we were completely unprepared for the cold after visiting Death Valley. We climbed higher in elevation, and it got colder and colder. A light snow began to fall. We've got snow.
This area had a few small trails that we walked around.
Then we went to the visitor center to ask about a hike that I had read about and planned to a waterfall (Mary Jane Falls). It was not open, still closed for its winter maintenance. The Visitor Center had an interesting Cold War display. The area was used for Cold War preparations, all done in secret. So, if someone passed away during training, their death was classified or not publicized. Behind the Visitor Center were some nice (non-snowy) trails that we explored with good views of the Visitor Center and a hotel.
In Vegas, we visited Pinball Hall of Fame. It was close to the airport. I brought a lot of quarters from home to use up some collected change. The older pinball machines were a quarter or two, but newer games were up to $1.50. They were fun to see the many different designs and technologies.
We stayed at The Orleans. It had free parking in a garage. We walked around the casino a little. The room was nice, but like the last hotel did not come with enough pillows. I called to request more and tipped, even though they should have come with the room. I liked the bathroom layout; however, the sliding door to the bathroom was very loud. Not good for the middle of the night restroom breaks.
The next day, we went to Red Rock Canyon. Someone that we talked to mentioned that we needed the $2 recreation.gov timed entry pass. I did not catch that before. We bought it the night before. They asked when we arrived, but it did not sound like they were being very strict about it.
This hike required a lot of rock scrambling, which we were warned on the sign. Although I did not really know what rock scrambling was. We did hit a very small section in the Death Valley Ranger lead hike too but nothing like this.
In the evening, we had a reservation for Din Tai Fung in Aria. We parked free at Tropicana and walked to Aria. The strip was hopping! The restaurant had a viewing window to watch them make dumplings. You filled out on the menu what you wanted to order, and they brought it by courses. Dumplings and the chocolate dumpling for dessert.
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