Mt. Charleston Loop, Nevada from desert to mountain top and back
The Spring Mountains rise majestically out of the Mojave Desert just a few minutes drive North West of Las Vegas Nevada. Mt. Charleston is the highest peak in the area rising to an elevation of approximately 7,500 feet
Mt. Charleston Loop (roads) is an easy morning or full day road trip just beyond the Red Rock National Park most tourist visit. From valley to peak is a gentle sloping roadway climbing 2 miles in elevation, that diverts across the summit, and back down to the desert . The beautiful scenery inspires hiking, picnicking, and exploration throughout the mountain range. Photographers will find it a target rich environment. The vegetation is diverse and varies greatly at differing elevations. Temperature at the upper elevations is 20-25 degrees cooler than the desert below.
Directions: from Las Vegas take I-95 North to State Road 157, right at SR 158, then right at SR 156 to I-95.
September 29, 1990 was a gorgeous day in North Atlanta, GA for a wedding. I had merely only met the beautiful woman I would spend the next 25 years with only nine months before. Over the course of those 25 years my wife has inspired us to travel to places near and far. She has provided me a life rich in experiences, good food, and a life filled with love and wonderful memories. For our 25th anniversary she had wanted to travel to Italy. But financial priorities prevented such a trip at the time. So we settled for a long weekend in Las Vegas staying at the Venetian with its Italian inspired themes including gondolas and singing gondoliers.
September 29 2015. We awoke on the morning of our anniversary and walked to the nearby LINQ hotel and devoured an oversized breakfast at Hash House A Go Go whose portions are more than a mere human should consume in one sitting. We waddled back to our hotel, picked up our tourist maps , then hopped into the car and headed out toward the Spring Mountains. It was a sweltering 90 + degrees around 9:00 A.M. in Las Vegas, so a drive in the mountains offered an escape from the heat. Within 45 minutes in the middle of nowhere on I-95 was a left turn lane for Mt Charleston Lodge with only a small sign to indicate it was there.
The first few miles of the roadway passed through a sparsely populated residential area with not much to look at besides desert and a few Joshua trees. Then suddenly the landscape began changing. It became much more rich in plant life and the distant mountains were much closer and clearer. The yucca plants were now much larger, plentiful, and more diverse in shape. The photographer in me wanted to stop and explore each one, but we continued our assent toward the top of the mountain, marveling at the scenery before us. The temperature had dropped to a mere mid 70 degrees and was much more comfortable.
Near the summit we found some places to pull over to take some photographs. The variety of trees was now a mix of mahogany and pines. The rocks had changed in color from reddish tones in the valley to almost white. We continued our drive and found a trail head to Mary Jane Falls.
My photographic theme for 2015 is Rocks, Water, and Trees so I was delighted to have found such a place. There was almost no information at the base of the trail to inform us of the trail distance or other information so we inquired of a hiker on her way back. She informed us it was a somewhat strenuous 2 mile hike up the mountain on switchback rocky paths.
We were not properly attired for such an adventure so we merely hiked a half mile or so and enjoyed the scenery around us.
The trees at this higher elevation were a mix of conifers and the lovely white barked Aspens with yellow leaves I had only seen in photographs by Ansel Adams. So I took several shots of these but found most had been vandalized by visitors carving their names into the bark. The sky was a bright blue filled with wisps of clouds.
THE POETRY OF PEAKS – HIKING WITH GARY SNYDER (excerpt)
The higher you push into Charleston’s wilderness, the more the topography opens: you leave behind smaller brush and trees and move into hardier areas where the vegetation has to be stronger to survive harsh winds and low levels of moisture, though some seasons can be wetter than others. There are no streams up here, no real springs like what Snyder walks through in his part journal/part poetic illustrated The High Sierra of California.
The limestone of Mt. Charleston resists all but the ever-present wind. On those wind-swept ridges, pushing above 10,000’, stand some of the longest-living beings on our planet: the bristlecone pine, gnarled and twisted, sometimes only a piece of green on one burnished limb, some of them in this area well over 3,000 years old. They live all across the basin and range at higher elevations. You have to wonder what stories they could tell.
We returned to the car and explored the lodge near cathedral rock and a visitor center we had passed on the way up. We then took the north-westward highway (SR 158) near the ridge across the mountains and saw even more diverse terrain than we had encountered before. We stopped at a scenic overlook from which you could see for many miles the surrounding desert and mountain ranges in the distance. In the image below highway I-95 near the center is in about 15 miles away. The ranges on the top half of the image were about 30 to 50 miles away to give you an idea of the scale.
After this stop it was time to head back down the mountain. At about the halfway mark I began seeing the plethora of Joshua trees once again. I spotted a couple I wanted to investigate further so I pulled over.
Yucca brevifolia - Joshua Tree
The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer. — wikipedia
Midway SR156 Looking back at Mt. Charleston's peaks.
Looking down into the valley and Sheep Peak
I snapped a couple of exposures but soon realized the light was fairly harsh by this time of day (noon-ish) . The clouds and haze were adding somewhat interesting layers of color but with the sun now overhead, the dull brown and off white desert was no longer offering the richness of tones I had seen earlier in the day.
I crossed back to the car and spotted the tips of a burned bush in a ravine heading into a valley. So I walked a few yards towards the bush and saw an interesting composition. I fired off a couple more frames but knew my time was limited as my wife was waiting in the car. Out of all the images taken this day, the ones from this this last stop are my favorites. I felt as if the mountain had saved its best for last.
We left the mountain and headed back to our hotel where we spent the afternoon resting. In the late afternoon, we dressed up and set out for the gondolas at the front of the Venetian. Gio the gondolier sang That’s Amor’e and some other French/Italian ballads. While it may not have been the canals of Venice, it was a romantic experience as the gondolier's baritone voice echoed under the bridges.
A few moments later we dined at Delmonico Steakhouse by chef Emeril Legassi and had a memorable meal complete with champaign and the best banana cream pie one could ever imagine. After dinner we shopped and gambled a bit more, but mostly we enjoyed being together for another day that was almost as perfect as the one 25 years ago.
It had truly been a beautiful day.
This collection of images and text is dedicated to my lovely wife who puts up with me while I peer through glass at the world and try to capture it so I don’t forget where I have been.
COPYRIGHT The images and most of the writing contained in this electronic media are the property of Eric Searing ©2015. This electronic media is free for personal and educational use. Please do not use or distribute without permission. Text within this PDF owned by others is protected by their copyright, used with permission. Google Earth is used in accordance with terms and conditions. There are no images for sale or distribution at the time of this writing. You may contact me via email eric@esearing.com for any questions of use or to lavish any sort of praise or even critiques if you feel you must.
About me, gear, and processing of the images:
I have been a life long photography hobbyist and even sold some commercially and for commissioned client art. These days I can usually be found with a 4x5 field camera or a 35mm rangefinder shooting black and white film, but this was a quick trip so I chose to bring some of my digital gear. I had no idea we would find such a wonderful place and did not expect to have time for serious photography.
GEAR: Canon 10D (6MP) , Canon 24-70L (used mostly below 40mm) or Sigma 15mm, polarizer as needed, ISO 100-400, No tripod (but could have used one).
PROCESSING: The images were processed in Adobe Lightroom changed from Color to B&W then to a brown split tone. I chose the brown because it best fit the color tones in the rocks just above the desert. The monotone also allowed me to adjust some of the color so that the contrast between elements is more pronounced.
OUTPUT: This document was created in Adobe Slate. It was inspired by the works of Brooks Jensen who suggests PDF or other electronic media files as a way to share images in formats other than print.
Artist Statement
Is this art? Probably not. It is photography plus an expression of my thoughts, remembrances, and experiences. For me the art is being present in such a wonderful place. The compositional opportunities were limitless, but time was short, and there was much to explore. The grandeur of the mountains both excited me and distracted me from the noise of normal life. The newness of this place as well as being in Las Vegas for the first time added a level of stimulation not normally felt in the more familiar areas near home. The act of capturing the vastness and details around me provided a challenge to my technical skills and provided an opportunity to practice what I have learned throughout my life as an image maker. In many images my attempts failed to render all that was seen, heard, smelled, and felt. It cannot be effectively expressed in these few images and my mediocre story telling. These images and words will only be art for you if you can imagine yourself in this magnificent place and you derive pleasure from knowing someone else had an amazing experience. Thanks for looking.