Mouse's Tank (Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada)
Nevada's first state park, dedicated in 1935, Valley of Fire is also its largest, encompassing more than 35,000 acres. It's chock-full of vibrant orange and pink sandstone cliffs, arches and other formations, making even a drive through the park a breathtaking experience. The vivid colors are traces of oxidized iron. The fantastical sandstone formations are the result of millions of years of uplifting, faulting and erosion.
Wind-hollowed holes on the trail to Mouse’s Tank
Courtesy of Imbrifex Books
Mouse's Tank is a 0.6-mile round-trip hike where you can see petroglyphs and look into the tinaja (natural water tank) where, legend has it, a renegade Paiute Indian named Mouse evaded the law back in the 1890s. Since the tank is about eight feet deep, it held water longer than other area tinajas, making it a reliable water source in this very dry region. It's said that Mouse never surrendered but was killed by a posse in 1897.
As you walk along the trail, look for the tracks of kit foxes, black-tailed jackrabbits, chuckwallas, zebra-tailed lizards or maybe one of the 15 species of snakes living here, a few of which are venomous.
China Ranch Date Farm
Danita Delimont / Alamy Stock Photo
China Ranch Date Farm (Tecopa, California)
A family-run business since the 1970s, this farm has roots in the early 1900s. Stroll the date palm groves and check out one of six trails that leave from the ranch. For an easy walk, try the Creek Trail, just 200 yards long, under a canopy of water-loving vegetation such as screwbean mesquite, seep willow, Goodding's willow and Fremont cottonwood trees. You might see a crayfish or two in the creek and evidence of gray foxes, kit foxes, bobcats, coyotes and jackrabbits. To get a bird's-eye view of the entire ranch, follow the moderately strenuous Mesa Trail. This is a 2.5-mile round-trip with an elevation gain of 500 feet.
Don't leave before visiting the gift shop to sample the dates and date bread or to have one of the ranch's world-famous date shakes.
Corn Creek (Desert National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada)
In the largest wildlife refuge outside of Alaska lies Corn Creek, a working ranch until 1939 and now home to a network of five easy trails, three of them ADA-accessible. These primarily interconnected loop trails, which total about a mile and a half, travel under the canopies of deciduous trees and past running streams. Along the way, you can visit a historic bridge built of railroad ties and peek through the windows of the refugium of the endangered Pahrump poolfish.
Corn Creek trails
Courtesy of Imbrifex Books
About 320 bird species have been seen at Corn Creek. Along the Birdsong Loop, look for desert mistletoe, a parasitic plant that thrives on mesquite trees. Here you might see the phainopepla, a crested black bird that favors the mistletoe's berries.
The Coyote Loop is highly vegetated, with mature cottonwood trees, cattails and other water-loving plants growing along the creek. You'll also see a grassy orchard with fruit and nut trees.
Kelso Dunes
donna Ikenberry / Art Directors / Alamy Stock Photo
Kelso Dunes (Mojave National Preserve, California)
The 45-square-mile Kelso Dune Complex is the third-tallest dune formation in North America. The sands, which rise about 600 feet, appear to beckon visitors to climb. Views from the peak are rewarding, but be aware it's a tiring 3-mile round-trip hike. Just exploring the base of the dunes can be extremely satisfying, and of course anyone is welcome to be a kid again by rolling down the sand slopes.
These are “booming,” or “singing,” dunes. Which means that when the conditions are right and a small sand avalanche occurs, they make odd noises. Some people hear a low musical note or rumbling vibration; others describe a sound like a far-off airplane. Look for evidence of animal life in the sand. You might see the tracks of lizards, snakes, kit foxes, kangaroo rats, coyotes and desert tortoises.
Any visit should begin at the Kelso Depot, the former Union Pacific train station built in 1924 in the attractive Mission Revival style. The station served its original purpose until 1985, and is now the preserve's main visitors center. It's also a museum offering fascinating information on the railroad, the Chemehuevi and Mojave Indian tribes, and early mining and ranching in the eastern Mojave Desert.