~12 hr. radius of Las Vegas

#1

I recently moved to Las Vegas and I’m not familiar with the outlying area. I am ordering an alpacka this morning as an upgrade to my patchwork coleman raft that has served me so willingly however horribly on some Denali NP and other trips. When I get this thing in the mail I am going to drive up to 12 hours to do some exploratory pack rafting.

I’ve canoed Black Canyon below the Hoover Dam and I am looking to get out of the immediate area, which isn’t hard since Black Canyon is about it.
Ideas so far are Yosemite area, Kings Canyon, Canyonlands, Zion. I am looking for some possibilities in Prescott National Forest or down by Tucson/Mt. Lemmon as well.

I’m looking for partners for weekend trips, whitewater runs (currently novice), bike rafting, rafti-canyon-climbineering caving, all sorts of anything and everything involving inflatable flotation.

Also seeking any trip ideas or leads, websites, Google Earth “this”, anything.

Thanks,
Tom

#2

Hey man. I too just purchased an alpackaraft, and i’m looking for some weekend adventure. I live in northern utah, but escalante, the green river, and the canyonlands are all doable for me on a weekend. If you are serious about finding partners, than you found one. My email is tskins@hotmail.com. I’m pretty flexible as far as dates go, so just drop me a line. My skill level could also be “novice” or more correctly “beginner”.

#3

I would use my Alpacka to walk down one side-canyon accessing Black Canyon, float a section of the river and walk out another of those fascinating side canyons/ semi-slots that are so obvious from the river. I have floated the BC many times when visiting the area from my home in Alaska and often thought ‘next time I’ll bring my packraft’. But alas, have not done it yet.

#4

I hiked into BC the first weekend I got my raft, it’s pretty neat back there. I parked on the Arizona side a few miles south of the dam, hiked down to the river, paddled up till the wind got bad and hiked a canyon out that angled back to my truck. It’s a really cool loop with plenty of side exploration and a lot of hot springs. The river is really nice to swim in the heat. I saw 3 different groups of bighorns when I did it. If you come down again bring your raft and I’ll show you around.