Las Vegas residents desperate to escape the desert heat flock in summer to the Spring Mountain Recreation Area . Thirty miles northwest of the city and forming part of the Toiyabe National Forest, it's more widely known as Mount Charleston , on account of its highest point, the 11,918-ft Charleston Peak. Ten thousand years ago, this isolated range formed a natural refuge for wildlife from the lakes that filled the Las Vegas Valley, and it retained its own unique ecosystem as the rest of the region dried out. Many of its plants and animals, including one species of chipmunk, are found nowhere else on earth.

The cool wooded slopes of Mount Charleston are much less of a novelty for most tourists, of course, but they do offer some great hiking , and in winter you can even drive out for a day of skiing or snowboarding . Higher elevations usually remain covered by snow between mid-October and mid-May each year, while the streams and waterfalls only carry substantial flows during the thaw in spring and early summer.

To reach Mount Charleston, follow US-95 six miles northwest of the intersection of Rancho Drive and I-515, making a total of fifteen miles from the Strip. At that point, head west along Hwy-157, Kyle Canyon Road , which for its first ten miles continues to cross flat, barren desert. Shortly after dipping through a jagged rocky "reef" that pokes from the valley floor, the highway enters Kyle Canyon

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