Sunday, March 18, 2018 (Big Bend of the Colorado State Recreation Area, Laughlin, NV)

We were really looking forward to today...Steve and Debbie have invited us on a hike! When Ruth and Dale found out Steve and Debbie were in Laughlin, they recommended a hike on the Grapevine Canyon Trail. It sounded like a great idea to us...I was just hoping my knees would co-operate.

So I rubbed both knees with Volteren, put both knee braces on, and took Aleve...and with lunch packed, along with plenty of bottled water, we were ready to go when Steve and Debbie picked us up at 10:00. It was a beautiful day for a hike...lots of blue sky but not too hot. The trail-head was a short 20 minute drive from here. We turned onto Christmas Tree Pass Road which veered to the left ahead.

Grapevine Canyon, located in Spirit Mountain, is one of the earliest and largest petroglyph sites in Southern Nevada. This remote canyon is sacred to the Yuman speaking tribes of the lower Colorado River. They believe the mountain is the spiritual birthplace of the tribes.

We hit the trail at about 10:30...(with Steve bringing up the "rear" for most of the hike so, he could take plenty of pictures, you're going to see a lot of "butt" pictures! LOL!)

 You start the hike with a workout. A 1/4 mile walk in a sandy, dry river bed.  The petroglyphs start on both sides of the canyon as you enter...

 The real pleasure and sense of history starts at the mouth of the canyon. 1000 year old Native American Indian Petroglyphs start at eye level and continue up several hundred feet up the canyon wall.

 Most of the petroglyphs are not translated, and only a few of the more common ones have been understood. There are many books on the interpretation of rock art writing. Hopefully, someday we may be able to learn more about the Indians of the past and their rock art.

The petroglyhs behind us are weathered and hard to see...

Let the climbing begin!

We finally made it to the first waterfall, if you could call it that...

Okay...this looks a little challenging! The stream continues ahead in the narrow canyon below that boulder and didn't appear to be the way to go...

Debbie and Hurley decided to climb the rocks on the right-hand side, while the rest of us thought a path to the left looked a little easier. See Deb in the picture below?

Great view looking back towards the Colorado River basin as we climbed the left side of the canyon...Debbie and Hurley are barely visible on the far left...

 We found our way through...the trails are visible but not marked...

Steve (M) doing his yoga pose...too funny!

Debbie and Hurley made it up and over safely, but had taken a more challenging route...

Not sure which way to go so we took a trail to the left...

But first Steve (M) had to move this boulder out of the way so we could pass...LOL!

At this point we decided we were probably going the wrong way and turned around...

 You will find why the canyon was named what it was. A gigantic patch of wild grapevines running over a 100 feet long and stretching from canyon wall to canyon wall.

 More climbing...

Steep slick rock with a ridge running from the bottom to the top. I'm pointing to the interesting pattern in the rock to the right...

 More grapevines to get through! Glad Steve and I wore our pants :)

Prickly Pear in bloom with a Barrel Cactus above. The only flowering cactus we've seen this season...

A small forest that must receive more moisture from below...

The large dry washes remind us of when we were in Tanzania watching the Elephants dig in the dry riverbeds until they found water just just below the surface...

Hmmmm....where does the trail go from here? Looks like there might be a slot canyon over that way...

Poor Hurley stepped on another thorn...

This is cool!

Peek-a-boo!

HELLLLP!!

This was basically the end of the line for us in this slot canyon...(we decided not to climb up out of it)...

So we turned around...

 And found another way around, up and over...

 To the end of the slot canyon...

We continued further into the canyon...

We must be getting close to the end...

Yep...end of the line!

The trail ended at the other waterfall. Would have been a good spot for lunch but another couple had our spot :) Not much water here either but there were bees, so we don't think Debbie would have enjoyed sitting here anyway...

We turned around and started searching for a shady spot to stop for lunch...

A little tricky getting to it but his will do....

Time to head back...

Back over the slick rock...

From this position you can see how steep it really is... note the ridge...

This part was not fun...

We had to crawl under a couple of branches...

This is the spot where Debbie came over the mountain on the left and the rest of us took the right. When we came through we talked to a guy that went straight along the creek and under that big boulder ahead...

So we thought we would give it a try...

We made a unanimous decision that the 6' drop was too iffy so we turned around...

...and took the route up and over to the right...

I didn't much care for this off camber spot...thanks for the reassuring hand, Steve (M)...

It was a lot harder going back down than it was going up!

We made it! Hurley enjoying a pool of water, even laying in it! He had really been dragging his butt coming back but this seemed to rejuvenate him...

A fellow hiker offered to take a group photo...

Arriving back at the petroglyhs...

And we're almost back!

What a fabulous hike! It only took us about an hour to hike back. We were gone just over 4 hours and I estimate we hiked around 5 miles...I was mad that I had forgotten to start my 'tracker' when we started!! I remembered to turn it on when we headed off after stopping for lunch and it registered 2 miles when we got back...so with all of the side trips we made on the way in, I think our total hike was roughly 5 miles.

Beautiful view on our way back to the highway...

We were back home shortly after 3:00. Thanks for including us on your hike today, Debbie  and Steve! It was great and I was so happy that my knees held out!

I sat and relaxed while Steve showered...and then it was my turn....and at 4:30, we carried our chairs and bevies over to Craig and Jo's. While the rest of us were out hiking, Jo was busy at home preparing dinner for us...how sweet is that?! We sat enjoying a pre-dinner drink and then were called in to 'fill our plates'...

Pork roast, amazing (and unique) potatoes and asparagus...delicious!!

 Dinner...followed by a campfire...and then dessert...
The end to an awesome day! Can't get much better than this...