Hiking up Little Virgin Peak in Gold Butte National Monument

[@NationalParkDiaries]

Gorgeous country out there! That shot of you at the end was spectacular and it's great to see you for the first time in 2023! How far is this from Vegas?

[@AbouttheJourney]

Yes it is. It was great to finally get out for some adventure! This winter has been busy, long and cold. I desperately needed some sunshine! The next time you're in the Vegas area, let me know and we'll go check it out! It's a large monument and full of all sorts of really cool rock formations, old mining areas, native rock art, wilderness and more. It's about 2 hours or so from Vegas. You have to drive up to Mesquite, then take the back roads down into the monument. I'll be posting some more videos in the coming weeks about the NM. It's a fantastic place! Thanks for watching!

[@ervinslens]

Brilliant place my friend, shots are simply majestic here. Love it!

[@AbouttheJourney]

Thanks! This was a really nice hike. Great weather (a bit on the cool side for the Mojave desert though), really silent, and nice camping spots all over. I'd highly recommend checking it out sometime. I'll be posting a few more videos on Gold Butte National Monument in the coming weeks. This place has a lot of varied terrain to explore! Thanks for watching! ~ Mike

[@LernenundFahren]

That closing shot at 12:40 is beautiful. It almost looks like a view you could find here in the Alberta Rockies, if not for the bizarre vegetation you passed by on the way up! We don't get a lot of cactus plants here :) Nice video!

[@AbouttheJourney]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. The view in the closing shot was my favorite. We sat up there for more than an hour and took in the view. There were quite a few of these small yellow and black butterflies (kind of like a tiger swallowtail, but much smaller) flying around us too. The Mojave has some really interesting vegetation for sure, but wait until the video of the KofA National Wildlife Refuge comes out (two weeks). The KofA is in south-western Arizona, and is a transition zone between the Mojave, Colorado and Sonoran deserts, so there will be a lot of similar vegetation found in the Mojave, but it will also contain Saguaro cactus, Ocotillo, Agave, and more. There were some really nice Cholla gardens too (sooo many thorns!). On one of my trips down from AK, I was camping along the Frasier River just south of William's Lake and Benjamin, one of my dogs, came running up to me with a look of terror on his face, and I noticed that he had a small cactus frond stuck to his paw. I was surprised that there were cactus in Canada but then I learned about BC's pocket deserts. Cool stuff.