Daytrip – Gold Butte Petroglyph Sites

09/30/2014 Trip Notes: Ever since our first visit here back in February, I have been looking forward to a return visit. Research of the area since our last visit indicated that Gold Butte is one of the richest petroglyph sites in the state of Nevada. Because the area is so vast and the terrain is so rugged, it takes quite a while to reach some of the better sites. Our drive and hike to and find the Khota Circus Petroglyph site took us the majority of the day. As a result, we only had enough time to visit just one more site, the 21-Goats site, before we had to begin our return home. The good news is that these two petroglyphs sites are outstanding. Click here for pictures and information on these sites ... 21 Goats Petroglyph Site and Kohta Circus Petroglyph Site.

Butterfly Habitat at the Springs Preserve

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(Fig. 01)

Description: The new Butterfly Habitat opened on 18 September, and is now a permanent part of the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd. The habitat has metal screen walls and can be entered through a vestibule with an inner and outer door to keep the butterflies from escaping. Upon exiting the habitat, visitors are given a visual inspection by a docent to make sure there are no hitchhikers. It will be open each fall and spring, when the weather is ideal for their open-air habitat. The exhibit is located on the south side of the property next to its botanical garden. I have always felt that the botanical garden, with its many desert-adoptive plants, was one of the most beautiful parts of this property. The addition of this open air butterfly habitat only adds to this beautiful spot. The hundreds of butterflies on exhibit will include species such as painted ladies (Figs. 02 & 11), mourning cloaks, red admiral, American lady (Fig. 06), Blue Morpho (Figs. 01 & 05), monarch and queen. The habitat will offer different types of butterflies each season, in part because of the insects’ short lifespan. On average, because they only spend a few weeks as an adult, they will be bringing in a variety of different species, including native species and exotics from around the world and changing them up from week to week or month to month. The butterflies are farm-raised and packed individually for transport to the habitat. The habitat has metal screen walls and can be entered through a vestibule with an inner and outer door to keep the butterflies from escaping. Upon exiting the habitat, visitors are given a visual inspection by a docent to make sure there are no hitchhikers. There is a separate entrance fee of $2 for members and $3 for nonmembers. The habitat is open during Springs Preserve operating hours, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

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10/18/2014 Trip Notes: Unfortunately, the weather for today's visit turned out to be rather dismal. Not only did this limit good lighting for picture taking, but it caused many of the butterflies to remain “perched: on the habitat’s walls and ceiling, instead of flying around and landing on the many beautiful flowers (Figs. 04, 06, 07, 10 & 11) that were planted throughout the habitat. Luckily, we were able to capture a few good pictures before it started to rain. Probably the "star of the exhibit was the Blue Morpho (Figs. 01, 05, 07 & 08). Click here to learn more about this beautiful specimen ... Blue Morpho Butterfly (Morpho peleides). The last four pictures (Figs. 12 thru 15) were taken during our walk through the botanical gardens before it started to rain.

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Cold Creek – Trip Notes for 10/22/2014

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This page last updated on 04/12/2018

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(Fig. 02) 10/22/2014 Trip Notes: This week we got a visit from my cousin John from New York. Taking the northern route out allowed him to come by and spend several days visiting us before returning to his Winter roosting spot in New Mexico. Even though this was my third visit here with company this month, on this visit I was actually able to go to a new spot. This was the first time I had ever gone down to the lower pond. This is definitely the largest of the three spring fed ponds located here. If you get down low to the ground, it almost looks like an “infinity” pool (Figs. 01 & 02). Even though we had our normal spotting's of horses along the road side (Figs. 03-07)on the way up to the town, it was the pictures we got while watching several drinking from the large pond that we seemed to enjoy the most (Figs. 08-10). It was amazing to see how much water they consumed. The painted pony in (Fig. 09) must have stood there drinking for nearly ten minutes. It is estimated that in a warm climate a typical horse will drink 8 to 15 gallons of water a day when available; when it is really hot they can consume up to 25 gallons.

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Death Valley Trip Notes for 10/21/2014

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10/21/2014 Trip Notes: Once you reach the parking lot at the top of Dante's View (located at the end of the trail in (Fig. 01), there are two trails you can take to view the valley floor below. One leads downward from the parking area to a couple of small rocky outcrops (Fig. 02), the other leads up to an even higher viewpoint, seen in the top center of (Fig. 01). For today’s visit, my cousin and I decided to hike up the rather steep trail to the upper viewpoints (Figs. 03 & 04). A spot about 3/4’s of the way up provided some great northerly views of the valley below (Figs. 05 & 06). Climbing even higher provided some great views looking nearly straight down at Badwater Basin and across to the west side of the valley toward the California mountain range (Fig. 07). If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see some people standing at the spot we were at in the two previous pictures (Figs. 05 & 06) above. The last shot in (Fig. 08) was taken on the way back down the trail and shows the parking lot and the top of the lower viewing point in the very center of the picture. Even though we drove around the Death Valley area and visited Devil's Golf Course, Badwater Basin, Artist's Palette, and the old Harmony Borax Mill site, this was by far the most enjoyable stop of the day.

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Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve - Summary Page

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This page last updated on 03/08/2017

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Directions: The Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve is located on the southeast edge of the Las Vegas Valley, about 15 minutes from downtown, in the town of Henderson. The preserve is located at 350 E. Galleria Dr., near the intersection of Galleria Drive and Boulder Highway (look for signs in the medians). Refer to (Fig. 02) below.

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Description: It is located within the Kurt R. Segler Water Reclamation Facility and encompasses nearly 100 acres of basins, lagoons and ponds that offer a superb environment for birding. The Preserve is home to thousands of migratory waterfowl as well as numerous resident desert birds. There are nine ponds available for birding, surrounded by both paved and soft dirt surfaces. The paved path is approximately 3/4 of a mile long and is accessible by wheelchair. The soft surfaces are mostly level and allow for easy walking. The walkways run on dikes that divide the area into eight brush and tree lined ponds and provide many vantage points, benches for sitting and several “blinds” for picture taking. There is even an elevated platform that provides good views over much of the area.

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03/16/2017 Visit Notes: On today's visit, I chose this location for our morning hike. It was a beautiful sunny morning in the mid 80's. By arriving early, before the most people even get up, we were able to spot a wide variety of birds and waterfowl. It was still a little too early in the season to get any pictures of blossoming trees or plants. Click the following link for pictures of today's hike ... Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve - 03/16/2017 Trip Notes                                 05/23/2015 Visit Notes: On today's visit, Blake Smith and I chose this location for our morning hike. It was a beautiful sunny morning in the mid 60's. By arriving early, before the most people even get up, we were able to spot a wide variety of birds and waterfowl. One of these days I'm going to try and get here in the late afternoon, just before sunset to see how the late day light affects picture taking. Click the following link for pictures of today's hike ... Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve.                                                       10/23/2014 Visit Notes: This past week I visited this area with my cousin that was in town visiting us from New York, before heading to New Mexico for his “Wintering”. This was only my second visit here, the last being nearly seven years ago. I must say that I was amazed at how much the area had improved. In addition to the trees, shrubs and grasses being much more mature (Figs. 01 & 03), they have created some “roosting” islands, added dozens of viewing benches, some photography blinds and a viewing platform. Unfortunately, I foolishly forgot to bring my tripod and only ended up with just a couple of relatively clear images *Figs. 04 thru 08). Because we are approaching the winter season, many of the flowering trees and shrubs were pretty much gone bye. In spite of this I did capture a couple of pictures of the few remaining blossoms (Figs. 09-11). Except for dragonflies, damselflies, and the occasional lizard, the only other wildlife we observed were a fairly good number of desert cottontail rabbits ( Figs. 12 & 13). Hopefully I can get back here soon with my tripod, spend some more time and try and get some better pictures.

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Pages Uploaded in October 2014

October 2014 Posts:
Daytrip - Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve
UPDATE/Cold Creek - Bonanza Trailhead at Cold Creek
Daytrip/Cold Creek - Cold Creek Trip Notes for 10/22/2014
UPDATE/Death Valley - Daytrip - Dante's View - Death Valley
Death Valley -  Death Valley Trip Notes for 10/21/2014.
Las Vegas Places of Interest - Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve
My Books - Nevada Rock Art - Petroglyph Sites in & Around Clark County
UPDATE/Las Vegas Places of Interest - Las Vegas Springs Preserve
Butterflies - Blue Morpho Butterfly (Morpho peleides)
Butterflies - Butterfly Habitat at Springs Preserve
UPDATE Bridge Canyon Wilderness Area - Bridge Canyon Wilderness Area
Daytrip/Bridge Canyon Wilderness Area - Trip Notes for 10162014 (Sacatone Canyon)
Daytrip/Cold Creek - Daytrip - Cold Creek Nevada
UPDATE/Crescent Peak Mine - Crescent Peak Mine

Cold Creek Trip Notes for 10/01/2014

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This page last updated on 04/12/2018

(Fig. 01)

10/01/2014 Trip Notes: Always a great place to take visitors, I took Jim Herring and his friend Ray Osborne to Cold Creek to find some of the wild horses at Cold Creek. This was my second visit here in two weeks (Cold Creek Trip Notes for 09/16/2014). In addition to seeing three groups with 8-10 horses in each group, we spotted nearly two dozen more in smaller groupings (Fig 01). It was probably the most sightings I've ever seen in any one day visit. Rather than provide individual pictures for this visit, I decided to create a collage of some of the better captures (Fig 01).

(Fig. 02) This area is part of the Wheeler Pass Herd  Management Area (HMA). Covering 273,260 acres, it is actually divided into two separate sections by the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area (SMNRA), the green area in the center of the map (Fig. 02). It has an estimated wild horse population of greater than 80 individuals. When the term “Wild Horses” is mentioned, most people envision running herds of wild mustang. However, most of the horses you see in the HMA are feral horses, horses living in the wild, but descended from from domesticated individuals. They generally appear to be calm, docile, and even tame as they forage for food and water in this wild and extreme desert environment. Probably the biggest attraction for the horses in this eastern section of the HMA are the three ponds, one of which is shown below in (Figs. 03 & 04), that lie just south of town and are fed by a year-round spring in the mountains just west of the town. Most of these horses are colored as pintos, blacks, cremellos, palominos, bays, browns, and sorrels.  Visitors to these areas need to remember that it is illegal to feed, water, pet, or otherwise harass a wild horse or burro and that any individuals found doing so can be subject to a minimum fine of $500.00.

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