RAILWAY CROSSING

Week 2: I wish I knew about this walk while my family were here visiting us; I think my Dad, especially, would have really enjoyed it. I read about a Railroad Tunnel Trail near Lake Mead and was excited to make it our next outing. Now abandoned, it was originally built to assist the huge construction project that became the Hoover Dam. Obsolete by 1961, the tracks were removed and sold as scrap leaving behind the wide gravel bed now inherited by hikers.

Our plan to complete a weekly hike didn't exactly come at an opportune time. The heat of early summer is already upon us, and with a scorcher of a day forecast, we left early in hopes to avoid the heat of the day. We arrived at the Lake Mead Recreation area by 7:45 pretty impressed with how early we'd been able to get going, so we were amazed to find the car park already full. Not only that, but as we made our way to the trailhead we passed people who were already finished with the walk and on their way back home. Apparently in the hiking world an eight o' clock start is just not hard core enough.

The trail starts with a slow incline up into the volcanic cliffs that line the lake. We occasionally heard small rocks tumbling to the ground, which alerted us to the desert wildlife. The animals were smaller in scale than those we had seen on our last trip, but the lizards and chipmunks brought out the little boy in Ryan and we stalked along quietly in an attempt not to scare them away. On one side of us the volcanic rocks reached up towards the cloudless sky and the lizards hid in their shade. On our other side they plunged downward into the lake and it was around these severe drop-offs that the chipmunks made their play ground.

About a mile into the hike we arrived at the first tunnel of five tunnels, which provided us with some welcome shade. We were amazed by the size of the tunnels; they towered above us. We could hear the chirps of birds echoing through the tunnels but they were hidden somewhere in the jagged crevices of the rock. It was fun to watch Charlotte as she turned her head towards the sounds; she is so keen to see what is going on around her.

Ryan and I both really enjoyed the walk. The fact that it was a relatively flat made it nice and easy but the loop is almost five miles so we still covered a good distance. I carried the Charlotte back-pack for most of the way to get in some extra calorie burning and it's definitely one we'll keep in mind for when she's a little older and can start to do some of the walking for herself.