Ed's Travelogue Today: Lake Mead, Boulder City, Nevada, Hemenway Park and Bighorn Sheep - Again

One of our favorite get-the-heck-out-of-town getaways is Boulder City, approximately 30 miles from Vegas. There are several routes we can take to get there but one of our favorites is the road leading from North Las Vegas, into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (which by the way was America's first National Recreation Area as designated by Congress in 1964) entrance and then the scenice drive into Boulder City. Bettina always brings the camera and she gets a ton of photos along the way and while the drive is rugged and beautiful, and seemingly remote, in reality there's quite a lot of vehicular traffic. We often like to stop at Hemenway Park where Big Horn Sheep like to hang out so Bettina ends up with a lot of good shots from them. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Here's Lake Las Vegas from the back side

The light colored bands you may see in the distant hills are the former water levels in Lake Mead. The drought which has hit the West during the past years has taken a toll of the water levels and some of the businesses that used to thrive along the lake front.

Hemenway Park, Boulder City flora and fauna

Ed's Travelogue Today: Boulder City, Nevada and Bighorn Sheep

We drove up to Boulder City yesterday. We like walking the Historic District and have several shops we tend to favor - one of those being "Boulder City Co Store" - and while in there the cashier asked if we were going to check out the Bighorn Sheep?

Huh? What Bighorn Sheep? Here in Boulder City?

He gave us directions and when we got to the car it only took us about 5-minutes to get there. There's a small park - Heneway Park - just off the main road that leads to Lake Mead and we could already see the sheep as we pulled up. The park itself looks quite ordinary: baseball diamond, gazebos, playground...

...and Bighorn Sheep! A whole gaggle of them :-) The people who were there were all well behaved and simply sat down and admired these beautiful creatures as they roamed freely among the people, ate, lay down. Having been here since '91 we knew about the wild burros which roam freely around the Red Rock Canyon area and have plenty of pictures of those, but we had never heard of there being Bighorn Sheep roaming freely. It was a nice time - a little warm at 109°F/42.77°C - but we were in the shade and there was a nice breeze blowing so it was comfortable. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Lake Mead is clearly visible from the park