aNewDomain.net — A Las Vegas friend asked me what I was going to do after I hit the annual Consumer Electronics Show — CES 2013 starts up in just a few days, after all. “I go to the desert,” I told her. And she laughed.
“In Old Vegas,” she said, “going to the desert was a one-way trip.”
But go to the desert I do — before, after and sometimes even during the Consumer Electronics Show. It is a welcome spiritual uplift after marching up and down endless aisles of iPhone cases, blasted by blue light from electronic displays and breathing the canned, overly oxygenated air at hotels, casinos and restaurants. There are 101 things to do in Vegas, at least, but I choose the desert.
My favorite desert retreat is the Valley of Fire State Park. It is 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas and just a hop from Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. Its rock formations scream with color. A short climb will take you to the some 3,000 year old Native American petroglyphs. Unfortunately, some are victims of modern graffiti terrorists. It’s still an incredible thing to see. Here is a video I shot at the Valley of Fire last year.
Video credit: Russ Johnson
Image Credit: Russ Johnson
