A Little Hike in Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada

 On the way back from a family reunion, we stopped at Cathedral Gorge State Park to stretch our legs. This is one of my favorite places to stop on the drive along Highway 93 to/from Las Vegas. We parked at Miller Point and enjoyed a nice view of the gazebo.

A new trail map with lots of info is now available.

We took off down the stairs into the badlands.

Along the way are some gaping holes. You wouldn't want to fall in one of these, as getting out it would be very difficult.

The trail is so much fun to follow.

I have to admit, I took a lot of photos!

It had rained the night before (we had been planning to camp, but wussed out and got a motel room in Caliente so we didn't have to pitch a tent in the thunderstorm), and remnants of the water were present in the form of mud. We all took off our shoes and enjoyed walking barefoot.

Usually I turn around here, but we had some extra time, so we kept going and came across this sign about the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and Cathedral Gorge State Park. They made several structures that still stand.

One is this covered picnic area.

Then we came up to more badlands, and narrow passages beckoned.

Desert Girl was so excited to lead the way and have choices.

We found a board high up one. We don't know what that's for.

Then we exited and checked out the old wellhouse.

Then it was time to visit more badlands.

The kids spotted a narrow crack and headed that way.

It was tight on them, so I didn't get too far!

Fortunately other passages were bigger. We had a fun game of hide-n-seek.

The walls have interesting textures depending on how the water flows down them.

On the way back we paused to watch some foxes play. They were such a neat sight!

To keep things interesting on the hike back, I told the kids that the person with the muddiest feet won. Here they are trying to get muddy.

It was a nice hike back up.

And winner of the muddiest feet? That would be Desert Boy. And that probably wasn't the greatest idea for a contest given that those muddy feet then had to get in the van and ride for another couple hours.

I am hoping to camp at Cathedral Gorge soon. They have a campground with hot showers and it would be so cool to see some of the badlands at night. To learn more (I've totally skipped geology, geography, and more in this post), check out Cathedral Gorge's website.