Fremont Street is for Zombies, Mary Jane Falls is Sweet

This weekend was pretty darn good. My buddy Liz and I went out to Fremont St for the Vegas Streets festival. There was food and free bands playing. The atmosphere was one of fun and excitement. In typical Fremont St fashion, it was like one big party.

However, last night, I noticed something that I found interesting. As many of you might know, a good portion of Fremont St is covered by a large canopy that is basically a giant screen. Every hour, the music starts bumping (it was the Doors last night - very cool) and a great show gets put on right above you. Not that the people zip lining down the street isn't a good show in itself.

From a local perspective, surprisingly (to me anyway) this light show is actually kind of annoying. If you've ever seen the movie Land of the Dead, you'll recall that the heroes would set off fireworks to distract the zombies (and if you haven't seen it, WTF?). I imagine that the hourly show on Fremont would work in much the same fashion.

As we were trying to make our way back to the car, the music pumped, the lights came up and damn near EVERYONE just STOPPED. Like the zombies in the movie, they stop and look up at all the pretty lights. Not a problem in itself, except that Fremont is PACKED with people which made it very difficult to get where you want to go.

SO...if you're ever in this neck of the woods and would like to enjoy Fremont St, please, try to stand off to the side or something. The locals, and anyone else who doesn't go completely retarded over pretty lights, will thank you.

I didn't get a lot of pictures while we were there, but we did cut through the Golden Nugget on our way back, which has this.

It's a shark tank. With a water slide that goes through it. Nuff said. There was also a "Super Hero Pub Crawl" last night, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them. Maybe I was distracted by the...nevermind.

ANYWAY, as much fun as THAT was, today was much more fun for me. This morning, we headed out at about 09:00 and drove north. Liz wanted to show me the Mary Jane Falls, and I'm SO glad that she did!

After about 30 or 40 minutes of driving, it's like we were in a completely different world. The mountains loomed all around us. The elevation change made me dizzy. The base of the trail starts at 7840 ft. and the top is 8880 ft. A 1040 ft ascent, no big deal. Add loose stone and steep drops and you have a recipe for fun!

It took me about 15 or 20 minutes to get used to the higher elevation. Once I did, it was no problem, but I was definitely huffing and puffing for awhile. The ironic thing is that I really wanted a cigarette. Yes. Sometimes I'm an idiot.

The scenery was beautiful and the weather was pristine. The trail zig-zags up the mountain for quite some time. The lower parts of the trail, as I mentioned above, are mostly loose gravel. However, once you get past all of the switchbacks, it's mostly sturdy, solid rock. Basically, the hard part is near the bottom of the trail. Go figure.

Once you're at the top, the falls await! The falls are actually the runoff of the snow melting from the tops of the mountains. Regardless of where it comes from, it's definitely a sight to see. Once you're up near the falls, the air is cool and the mist from the falls are very welcome after the long hike up.

That big "white rock" is actually a HUGE pile of snow!

Unfortunately, my pictures simply do not do the falls justice. Sorry, but once again, you'll just have to come out here and see them. I'll be happy to take you (actually, I plan to go there again on Tuesday and take the day to explore). Though from what I hear, the best time to come is mid-May when the thaw is first beginning.

To the West or North West of the falls is a big old cave. Of course, being that I am me and ever curious, I had to go check it out. It isn't very deep, but if were to start raining, it'd be a decent place to be.

Anyway, after hanging about the cave and the falls for a bit, we started making our way back down the trail. On the way, I felt the need to stop for just one more picture.

If you're in the pristine beauty of nature and feel the need to write "E=MC2" on a mountain wall, or write out Pi to a mere 4 decimal points, please take note. You are not clever. You're a pretentious ass and I hope you lose your footing on the way down the trail. Don't be a douche.

Speaking of losing your footing, through out the trail there are numerous shortcuts that skirt the main trail. These shortcuts are quite steep. While I only took one on the way up (to get around some folks and their dog), I took quite a few on the way down.

The experience of getting low and sliding down the side of a mountain is pretty cool, but I am definitely thankful for the large stones that DON'T move when you get to them. More than one of them saved me from tumbling down the face of the mountain (though they did NOT save me bumping my butt a few times). So did a large tree that had fallen. No harm done to me, but if you're going to do it, I suggest having someone else hold your camera and tripod (I almost lost them a few times).

That was it for the weekend. Maybe not quite as cool to some of you as the drive out here, but for me, it was like magic.

Anyway, I got job interviews coming up this week, but if I do get out again on Tuesday, I promise I'll make the next post more show and less tell. I know. I can ramble. :)