LKL’s Blog

During our three days in Vegas, we didn’t do any gambling - other than, apparently, with our lives each time we left our car in a parking garage. According to the B+B owner, there have been some robberies and you should *never* park in a garage. We found them well-lit and full of people, so we “risked” it anyway.

Our next stop was Zion National Park where it was, unfortunately, cold and drizzly. We took the scenic bus and watched the movie at one of the stops, but we weren’t able to take any pictures or walk around at all. Then we drove to Page, AZ, where, the next day, we took the Rainbow Bridge Cruise on Lake Powell. It’s a scenic 7-hour trip, but I still think it was too expensive (well over $100 each).

With another picnic lunch in hand, we set off to Red Rock Canyon, located a mere 17 miles west of Las Vegas. We hiked about 2 miles, had a picnic, and played Scrabble.
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Around 9am, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to Valley of Fire, which is less than an hour’s drive from Vegas. Just before entrance to the park, we came upon a car parked haphazardly in the middle of the road. I admit that for a second I thought it might be some sort of a scam, but in fact the couple had spotted several bighorn sheep. We watched these rare creatures for a while before continuing into the park.
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Check out this amazing creature - it looks like something you’d find in the jungle, but apparently it’s a harmless giant caterpillar, known as a hickory horned devil, that is looking for a place to burrow so that it can re-emerge as a royal moth. Be sure to click on the photo to see the full-size image.

Incredibly, it only took me about 10 minutes to find out what it was called on the internet, using such search terms as light green, spikes, and giant insect. How did people ever find out stuff like this before? I guess I would have had to go to the library and look through reference books - it would have taken days!