Explore Nevada || Vegas Baby, Vegas!
This trip was the perfect amount of glam and grit, and perfectly planned and guided by none other than Explorer Chick travel company. My second trip with this group, and I have yet to be even SOMEWHAT disappointed. As a result, however, I cannot take credit for any of the planning that went into this trip, but I can share my experience, and hope that some of you will be encouraged to take your own trips out to beautiful Nevada, or book a different trip with Explorer Chick (sorry boys, gals only). They’re all very well coordinated, planned, accommodated, AND hella affordable; to the point where I’ve got to stare in disbelief before I book sometimes. I’ll go into more detail later on in this post about their dynamic, but I promise you, it’s worth every. single. penny.
ANYWHO, I figure the best and easiest way to write this is to just simply break this trip down day by day. So here we go.
Day One: Check-Ins, Meet & Greet, Dinner
Day one was alllll about the glamour. We stayed in The Golden Nugget hotel in the old strip of Downtown Las Vegas. We shared two to a room, so I was paired with my lovely roommate Laura. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she was a respectful person to share my personal space with for our two nights in the hotel, so I was very happy. (Thanks, Laura!)
Once we had a chance to drop off our things, change out of airport attire, and get ready for dinner, we met in the lobby to get acquainted with one another. One Explorer Chick trips I am always blown away by the variation in age range, and personalities of the women that I meet, and this trip was no exception. There were real estate agents, police officers, engineers, and these women were of all ages, personalities ranging from crazy outgoing to a little more reserved and laid back. We were all from different locations all over the United States, and regardless of all of these differences in each of us, we clicked instantly.
Dinner was at Binion’s Steakhouse, located on the 24th floor, where I had one of the most tender and seasoned prime rib cuts I’ve ever had in my life while taking in some of the best views of Vegas. We laughed, we drank, we demolished the shit out of like 6 or 7 different desserts without any guilt or shame, and were fast friends by the end of the evening.
After dinner, we parted ways. Many went off to go to sleep, a few of the girls went ziplining over Fremont street, and others went out for a nightcap before resting up for our big day of rock climbing the following day.
Day Two: Red Rock Canyon and La Comida
So our day started at 7:30 am, bright and early, breakfast buffet upstairs in the hotel, and of course I’m nursing a hangover, chugging water, and turning my nose up to every item of food pushed in my direction. Long story short: if you know you have to rock climb early in the morning, the only nightcap you should be having is the sleeping mask pulled over your face in the comfort of your hotel room bed. The good news, is that if you decide to do the opposite (like me) you’ll sweat it all out in the first half hour up on the rocks.
We were greeted at the hotel by our mountain guide for the day, Joel and met up with the rest of his team at the canyon. They provided all of our gear (harness, shoes, helmets, chalk, anything else I’m leaving out), and Explorer Chick provided Panera for mid climb munchies. Our guides taught us basic climbing techniques such as top roping and belaying, and within the first hour at least half of our group had successfully conquered at least one of the rope courses they’d set up for us.
I’ve never climbed outdoor rocks, I’ve always stuck to indoor walls. Some of the courses were cake, and others were incredibly challenging or just simply nervewracking. Out of all the things that I learned during this experience, my ability to climb to the top of each course whether it was 100-250 feet off the ground, was one of the most empowering and confidence boosting feelings I’ve had. I learned that I’m probably going to keep climbing in the future, sought out a climbing gym near home, and have a rappel planned for a hike in Northern Alabama this summer. So my point being, KEEP TRYING NEW THINGS, you never know what kind of impression new experiences will make on you. Bonus: the view from the top of a difficult climb is worth all the bumps and bruises you will find on your legs the next morning. Even bigger bonus: Watching all of the women (even those who were a little weary of heights) climb to the top of these courses as well, despite the difficulty, and despite minor slips and trips, made me proud as hell to have had the chance to get to know them that much more.
Once we returned to the hotel, sweaty, sunburned, and burnt out from our adventure of the day, I went to the pool to unwind. When I say unwind, I mean freeze to death because it was like 63 degrees outside. However, if you ever have the opportunity to go down a water slide that passes through a live shark tank, you F****NG TAKE IT. Plus, the pool was heated, so the worst part really was walking back to my hotel room, in my bathing suit (because apparently you’re not allowed to take the pool towels back to your room) while everyone I walked past was staring like I had a third eye.
Dinner this evening was at a mexican restaurant just off of Fremont St. called La Comida. Very authentic mexican vibe, but also really odd (the sink in the girls bathroom was made out of a urinal, which is really fun and confusing when you walk in and think you’re in the wrong place at first). I had carne asada tacos, and a passionfruit margarita, and was not very impressed (to be fair I’m not the biggest fan of mexican), but NONE OF THIS MATTERS, because their churros were heaven on earth. If i’d known, I’d literally have had like 4 plates of those and called it a night.
No hangovers for me tomorrow, because I went straight to bed after stuffing my face with the churros, but also because we had to be up by 5:30 the next morning to head out for the desert. (Dessert and desert in the same paragraph, typo central).
Day Three: Black Canyon of the Colorado River
5:30 comes really fast when you’re exhausted. I’m traditionally not a morning person, and vacation doesn’t ever change that. So naturally, Laura and I were the ones holding our group back from leaving. Whoops. Regardless, we made it, we loaded our kayaks UNDERNEATH THE HOOVER DAM in a river-crazed frenzy, and by 9:30 am we were out on the water, kayaking our first 4 out of 12 miles down the river to camp. Our guides for this trip were from the company Desert Adventures Las Vegas (Reg and Maggie) and fit right in with our group. I’m telling you, there’s some sort of outer realm magic vibes Explorer Chick sets off and it just works.
Reg stopped us a few times along the river for some short day hikes. Stops included a man-made sauna cave. This one fed my science nerve considering there was a giant sign outside of the cave warning explorers of the brain eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri that potentially dwells within the waters. This was one of my favorites from micro so I was beaming. The cave itself I didn’t find very relaxing as it was incredibly narrow throughout the path, and the more narrow it got, the hotter it got, and the hotter it got the harder it was to breathe. Sitting in the entrance would have been sufficient for me. It was incredible to see that naturally formed calcite crystals on the wall towards the hotter portions of the cave, and had my phone not fogged I would be posting them to you today, but I guess you’ll just have to go see for yourself!
Our second stop was one of the more popular day hike springs, as this canyon is accessible from the highway in Arizona. It was a bit crowded, but getting to see all of the natural springs created along the hike was great. Fun fact: if you ever see a natural pool of water with fluorescent or black algae, just sit down in it and stay forever, because it’s like a heavenly natural hot tub that you’ll never want to leave.
After we left this hike, we stopped at our last portion of hiking for the day to have lunch, and explore some more natural springs. This trail was a bit more moderate in activity level as there were many portions of the trail in which you had to climb waterfalls over slippery rock. Challenging, but worth it. Towards the end of the trail, we were shown a wall veiled with algae of all colors green, brown, and black, and like I’d mentioned before the darker the algae, the hotter the water, so the wall was varied temperatures throughout. Incredible.
After kayaking a little bit further down the river to our 4 mile mark, we stopped for the day to set up camp, eat dinner, and hike up to the popular Arizona hot springs. The trail leads through 4 individual hot spring pools, each approaching higher temperatures as you hike through. We spent a decent amount of time here resting and relaxing in the pools, tired and sore from the day’s prior activity before finally retiring to camp to sit around the fire and eat some s’mores.
I’ve discussed some of the dynamic behind this Explorer Chick group throughout this post, but I want to spend a little bit more time talking about this here. We sat around the campfire for the rest of the evening just talking, getting to know each other, sharing our stories, and this was the most inspiring portion of the trip for me. Throughout life we meet so many people, we pass them by in stores, on the sidewalk, sit next to them at bars but never acknowledge one another. We don’t allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough with people we don’t know in order to get to know these people, and to understand their stories, and to understand the struggles they are facing in their lives.
The evening that we talked around the campfire, we all opened ourselves up to new levels of vulnerability that hadn’t been present in the beginning of the trip, a day prior, hours prior, etc. Here, we really spilled. We talked about our past relationships, our families, divorce, mental and emotional struggles, we asked deep questions, we discussed truly valuable topics, and truly important topics. Within all of this, we bonded even closer. We understood why one person does this and why one person does that.
My favorite conversation that evening was led by our Explorer Chick guide Jaimie. She brought up the question “Have you found what you’re looking for?” as someone had asked her earlier that day. When she dove into this question in front of us that night, her answer was “No, I don’t think I have, but I truly know that I am on the right path to finding it”. The answer gave me chills, because it just resonated so well with me. It made me think about all of the struggles, and bad experiences I’ve had over the last few years or so, it made me think about the ways in which I’ve fallen, but gotten back up, the ways that I have grown, the strength that I have gained, and the happiness that I find in meeting these people, discovering new parts of the world I haven’t seen, and spending weekends doing things more memorable than blacking out on a bar stool.
So hell yeah Jaimie, I don’t think I’ve found what I’m looking for either. But each decision I make makes me feel one of two ways: Yes, this was a good move, or No, I need to remember not to do that again, not to be upset with myself because it happened, and to learn from this mistake. When I’m headed in the direction that my life is meant to be, there is a sense of ease in my mind, a calming peacefulness, a sense of complacency that I can’t describe, a reason in which I completely understand the answer that was given to such a difficult question.
Day Four: The final 8 miles and Goodbyes
Me: “8 miles down a river doesn’t seem so bad”
Mother Nature: “Hold up”
8 miles, 7 kayaks, 25 mph headwinds = one badass kayak down the river, add in a stop for lunch at the location of the river gauger who once resided along the same canyons we just kayaked through, some super hungry ducks, a pair of husky puppies, and 6 hours later and our journey through the canyon was complete. We reached the take-out site, loaded up the vans, and headed over to the marina for some adult beverages, and conversation to recount and reminisce our trip together.
We were picked up by our driver shortly after and taken back to our hotel to pack our bags, shower (lucky you, I forgot to go into detail about our bathroom/showering situation), and have one last drink and meal together before saying our goodbyes. Over dinner we drank and laughed some more, bringing up our favorite moments of the trip, grumbling about some of our least favorite parts, and most importantly, anxiously planning our future trips and hoping to collaborate on one together again in the future.
I arrived at the airport worn out, but completely rejuvenated. My experience in Nevada is one that I will never forget. The people that I met during my journey are individuals that I grew to respect and enjoy deeply, and hope to keep in touch with in days to come. With every trip that I take, and every new place I venture off to, I learn new things about the world, the people who live in it, and most importantly myself. I am more sure than ever before that I am on the path and following the proper direction my life is supposed to lead me.
Thank you for taking the time to read this really lengthy and somewhat sappy post. I truly hope that you were able to take something from this and have it resonate with you in the way that portions of this trip did for me. There was a lot I didn’t touch on, and things I didn’t quite cover in full detail, and for that I apologize, but comments are open and if you have any questions at all, feel free to ask! I will answer I swear.
I’ve got another post that is coming within the next week and a half or so, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled. Subscribe to my page for e-mail updates when a post goes live, and follow my instagram @unfriendlyadvice to see live updates with photos that don’t always make it to the blog!
Until next time
-C
