President's Day in Red Rock Canyon

This President's Day, I had a few options. I could either stay at home, reflecting upon the impact, dedication and visions of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, or I could take kidd-o hiking in Red Rock canyon.

Yeah, it wasn't all that difficult a decision.

...
The drive in was auspicious. The clouds parted just enough to send glorious rays of light down on my destination. I'm still getting the hang of my digital camera, so this was the sixth or seventh shot I took, and the first one to actually show any definition in the clouds.



The mountain we climbed is a tangled, jumbled mess that looks like God, when he finished creating the earth, dropped a bunch of extra materials in an unceremonious heap in southern Nevada. Here you can see kidd-o carefully picking his way charging like a madman up the side of the mountain, scarcely pausing to notice the rainbow-colored stones all around him.



You have no idea how naturally gifted this kid is at climbing rocks. I've been telling his mother for three years now that he's part monkey, and I'm more convinced than ever. He's absolutely fearless (not to mention, cute as a button), and instinctively knows how to pick out a suitable route, how to distribute his weight, and how to use his legs properly (the trick with climbing is to use your arms for grip and balance, and your legs to move your body up a wall).



One tricky problem is that when he zoomed through narrow little holes like this one -- that were too small for me to negotiate -- I had to find some way around just to keep up with him.



As you can see, the mountain is full of little nooks and crannies that I could spend weeks, even months, exploring.



The rocks we climbed were colored like rainbows, but right next to us was a huge mound of impossibly red rocks (hence the name, of course). The whole place was so beautiful.



Another shot, from higher up the mountain.

Right about this time, it got too hard for me to take pictures and stay close enough to kidd-o, so I put the camera away. I had only planned on climbing a short distance, and then heading back down to look for more easy routes. But once kidd-o got going, he kept going, and we came pretty close to the top before he finally decided to turn around. I look forward to going back when we have more time. Nevada is the most beautiful place, and I'm glad kidd-o and I have years to spend discovering it together.