Bootleg Canyon Park's Desert Critters

When we visited Boulder City a few weeks ago, I happened to pick up a local newspaper that touted nearby Bootleg Canyon's 35 mile biking trail, as well as the opening of a short, new, paved trail. Wheelchair accessible, the new trail was described as about a .5 miles long, meandering through desert landscape and dotted with desert wildlife sculptures. We figured this was a great opportunity to take David's 98-year-old mom, Rebecca, for a nature outing to check it out.

Though the day was cool and breezy, the sky was cobalt blue and cloudless. We bundled up Rebecca in a warm fleece and blanket and headed onto the trail. A larger-than-life black-tailed jackrabbit greeted us at the trailhead. Each sculpture provided some interesting facts about the animal represented. For instance, the black-tailed jackrabbit can achieve speeds up to 40 mph when escaping a predator.

In all, we encountered seven sculptures on our mini-hike …

Though spring has not yet sprung in the desert, I enjoyed learning about the native desert plants and thinking about which ones might be desirable and thrive well in our new xeroscape yard.

We were surprised and disappointed that we did not see a jackalope sculpture in the park, but we're pretty sure this was just an oversight on the part of the park administrators. We'll check into that further. Maybe there will be one in the future.

A little trivia: The word “bootleg” stems from the trick of concealing a flask of liquor down the leg of a high boot. Bootleg Canyon got its name from the illegal stills operated by bootleggers in these hills during the Great Depression.