Circling back to my final 24 hours spent in Las Vegas Land in the fall of 2018, it’s hard to believe how much happened. Waking at a remote campground, hiking back into city sprawl, bizarre yoga in a strip mall, the saddest city culture tour ever, finding a surprisingly wholesome food scene pocket of town, and finally a late night bus escape to California.

It all begins with daybreak and signs of airplanes crisscrossing non-stop above Las Vegas Bay Campground, roughly 20 miles due east from The Strip:

Morning check-in with travel partner Tim. Turns out we both woke with a fright at 3am from “some lizard taking a long, hot piss right outside the tent!” Damn, what’s out here?!

Well the clue was obvious: a huge tree in the middle of a desert. Noting some still wet spots at VERY even intervals all around us….we quickly realized it was drip irrigation at play. Nothing to do with exotic desert wildlife at all. Midwest boyz, out of their element:

After shaking off the cobwebs, I got to walking around the grounds in the quickly brightening daylight. Sweet little camper:

Time to hike out. Found the road back to civilization:

This is heading due west back towards the Vegas sprawl. Signs of civilization cropping up, along with some brutally ugly hills. A dusty land of large gravel piles:

I feel like this trail gets more use in the dark judging by the total lack of shade and the frequent lights (plus being in the middle of a desert):

Danger all around if you don’t stay on the trail:

Some legitimate company out here finally:

We were coming up quickly on signs of suburbia in the desert:

We ended up stumbling to a stop at a suburban staple, CVS. Tim had blisters that needed attention and we needed a break in the shade. Sitting on the cool concrete in the shade of the building, a car pulled up and a friendly local bounced out. Turns out she was oversupplied with birthday cupcakes and offered us as many yellow cake with chocolate frosting goodies as we could handle!

We took 2 (or 4 it’s all a blur), decided that we needed to give Tim’s feet a break and still wanted to make a yoga class nearby. The nearest bus stop was too far to make on time, so we ride shared an Uber. Down wide, fast roads we looped with beige housing all around us:

Dropped off in plenty of time for yoga. Back in strip mall land in Henderson, Nevada:

Outfit shopping before class:

And ohhh what a class it was. Those aerial silks were still moist with Febreeze as we saddled up for the adventure. A BO stench gradually made it back out of the synthetic fabric as class went on. Mirrors all around, loud mall music blasting and the peppy teacher took several pics:

The studio had deluxe locker rooms. We pampered ourselves with long showers before heading back out into the sundrenched strangeness:

Caught a city bus and 30 minutes later we hopped off in downtown Vegas:

I wanted to explore the Vegas culture beyond The Strip. Specifically the older city streets just to the north. Quickly found a handy map:

The strawberry on the farmer’s market sign had been faded into oblivion by the desert sun:

The facades of the fire rescue and American Legion were in much better shape:

Then came some real sadness. This northern section has been severed from the historic downtown by the Las Vegas Expressway. Per usual in America, the cut of a busy highway has bled money from the area. We came upon a public library overrun with the homeless:

Another slightly better maintained, but still very ironic, map of the supposed “culture corridor” we were exploring:

OK that is a legitimately unique and well-maintained building. Part of the Neon Museum:

Quickly back to the norm for the area though. Chain link fences, gravel, empty space and the most basic of buildings:

There was real culture once we passed back under the highway. Behold Las Vegas Boulevard:

Yeah Vegas isn’t one of those cerebral university towns:

Ah yes this is what Vegas does best!

As the autumn sun dipped low, I had us on course to explore the Vegas Arts District in hopes of finding a quality local coffee shop we could hang out in:

Things were finally getting artsy as sunset approached:

Surprisingly we overachieved in finding a comfortable, stylish and relaxing spot for us and our backpacks to exist in for a few hours:

Excellent coffee and kind service had us relaxed enough to jot down our true feelings on the last few days:

Dinner time came and there happened to be a highly rated local Mexican spot just down the block:

Stuffed with delicious food, we set back out on the street. The trick to our final night in Vegas….was that we didn’t have a place to stay. This was intentional, as we had hit weekend hotel price levels in the city. The plan was stay up till 2 am and catch a bus to sweet San Diego. Random night wandering commenced:

Everything was a total blur once finally on the bus that arrived an hour late. We had another pickup stop along the strip before hitting the highway to San Diego. I recall being just with it enough to shout up to the driver that he still had the cargo door open for luggage as the bus tried to manuever around the circle drive at The Mirage:

Finally, by 3 something in the morning, Vegas was just a memory:

That’s finally a wrap for my Las Vegas walking adventure. So grateful to Tim Eaton for being with me every step. Las Vegas is beyond strange, so can’t imagine how things would have been solo.

So how does Vegas rate for someone without a car you ask?

Berndog City Score: Las Vegas, Nevada

Weird to be Walking Score(1=everyone thinks I’m homeless to 5=part of a pedestrian parade):

3 Vegas is very walkable and plenty of others on the sidewalks, but not everywhere is safe and almost nowhere sane

Public Spaces and Places(parks and buildings where anyone can hang out 1=none to 5=lots):

1 What are parks? Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort was just a drop in a bucket

Screwed Without a Car Factor(1=no bus or train & wide busy roads to 5=I’m in Manhattan):

3 Just enough bus options and routes stretched impressively far in all directions, but roads wide and busy making crossings dangerous

Food Scene(1=fast food, bad chains & gas station groceries to 5=local farm to table all over):

2 It’s in a desert. Found a few character places that last night though. Where were the buffets?!

Access to Nature(1=endless concrete prairie to 5=in the shadow of mountains):

2 Will just go with exactly what I put for Phoenix: There are some mountains close by…but so much pavement and cars. Plus Lake Mead is just plain drying up

Cityscape(1=strip malls & boring new buildings to 5=locally distinct style with historic districts):

4 It’s Vegas so buildings are awe-worthy, but nothing is built to last and historical properties barely exist

Total Score: 15 out of a possible 30. Not a great score, but no surprise that Vegas and a nature loving walker don’t make a great match