It was one of the first cool days in Vegas but still to warm to just have the windows down while driving around. The good thing was we were on our way up to Mt. Charleston. A place where the average temps are 20 to 30 degrees below what they are in the valley. About a 40 minute drive to Karl Canyon, you are taken to totally different landscape of huge boulders and pine trees where you can actually feel it getting cooler as you wind up the mountain roads. There are camping and picnic areas, cabins and skiing (snowball fights and sledding in the winter!), and many many miles of hiking trails with caves and waterfalls. Not your typical Vegas scenery that’s for sure. We did a little research and found that Mary Jane Falls in Karl Canyon was a kid friendly trail about two miles long with a cave and waterfall at the end. This was definitely our trail. J’s little brother was in town so we wanted to take him somewhere cool (no pun intended). J and I hadn’t been to Mt. Charleston since we first moved to Vegas seven years ago, before Z was born. I can’t believe it as this place is so beautiful, we’ve been missing out big time. Give us more nature please!
Mary Jane Falls was at end of the main road leading into Karl Canyon. We took a short gravel road to the parking area. There were about 10 cars there already and it was overcast with a chill to the air. We bundled up with extra sweaters we luckily had in the van, I grabbed the camera and we were off. Then it started, about 100 feet into the trail the rain started coming down. We ran back to the car and decided to drive around and explore the area from the road. About 10 minutes later the rain broke and didn’t come back for the rest of the afternoon. We headed right back to Mary Jane Falls trailhead.
The first thing we saw were a bunch of white birch-like trees that were scared from all the folks carving in their love for one another or for great years like ’94 into their trunks. It actually looked pretty cool and was like a cleaner, more natural sort of vandalism. The smell of the woods after a fresh rain was lovely.
Alec found a walking stick right off the bat.
Rain drops from minutes before.
There was a trail of large rocks that divided the trail into two side for the first part of the hike. It was great fun for Z even with a couple spills. “I’m OK!”
The foresters were cutting down and removing old dead trees and cutting them up for fire wood and to just use as mulch in the forest so there were a ton of fresh wood chips all over the place. Did I mention the smells were amazing?
A little pool of rain water. A miniature world.
I love this picture. It has a spooky, horror film feel to me. Like those roots are gonna reach out and pull you into hell.
Beautiful.
I scaled this high side wall just for the fun of it. It was pure excitement of being this close to nature that gave me that extra boost of energy to just run up the side of a mountain. Alec decided to join.
The view from up there was nice as the girls played on humongous fallen logs.
What a wonderful day! We didn’t make it to the end because we had to get Alec to the airport but we did have an awesome time and got to walk and talk with lots of other hikers on the trail. We will be back soon to actually reach the falls.
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