We braved the wind, rain, cold and snow (yes, Vegas got a light dusting in the mountains last night) to go out letterboxing again today. This picture looks like a painting doesn’t it? This one shows the snow a little better. Notice the signature desert pink sky. Sometimes I am in such awe of the desert beauty. Because I have grown up in the desert my whole life (minus a few years on the East Coast that I don’t remember well), I often neglect to look at just how marvelous it can be.

We picked Red Rock Canyon because there a several boxes out there and it was a far enough drive to be considered an “adventure”. We first looked for one at Calico Basin which is just outside of Red Rock. As we did on Thursday, Carter stayed in the car with me. Bob is much tougher than me so he took Connor up to look for it. After more than an hour I was about to send the rangers up after them. I was scared to death that something happened to them. Of course, they find it hilarious that I thought something terrible could happen to them on this ‘bunny hill’, WHATEVER! Here they are hiking up for the first box.

The second box was not successful either. This one we are pretty sure is ‘missing’. I contacted the owner of the box so that they can check on it. There was snow patches all over the ground on this trail. Sorry, no picture of that one.

Thankfully our last box was a success and what was great about this one was that 95% of the trail was accessible so Carter got to hike on this one with us. The wind had let up and we had a great little family hike.

Bob is hooked on this which was a big surprise to us all. He even suggested that we buy a hiking backpack with a compass and more supplies so that we can hunt for harder ones.

There are 4-5 boxes out at Calico Basin so we plan to go back there in a few weeks and hunt for all the ones in the area. There is a nice little picnic area right at the bottom of the mountain. If any of our friends are up for joining us, let me know. It would be more fun with some friends. We can grill at the bottom and have another fantastic family day.

We went today to find our first letterbox today. We went to the Hoover Dam to find Stephanie’s box. Letter boxing is a little like treasure hunting. Think National Treasure meets boy scouting project and you will have the gist of it. It is an English tradition that began in the 1800′s. Carter was able to stay in the car with my mom while Connor and I went hunting for it. We had an absolute blast and found it after a little while. We brought it back to the car for Carter to stamp.

After we found the box, Connor saw a big “lizard”.I thought it was a gila monster. But when we got home Connor researched it and found out that it is actually a chuckwalla . So, we watched him (her?) for awhile before heading back home. It was HUGE!

The weather was beautiful and it was a perfect day.