GET AWAY

I’m writing this on the three-year anniversary of the COVID pandemic lockdown’s official start. No one wants to think about that horrible time, and yet ... it’s worth remembering the promises we made ourselves during those months when we languished in uncertainty over our health, jobs, and toilet paper supply. “I’ll eat takeout off the good China, just for fun.” “I’ll tell my parents I love them every time we talk.” “I’ll use all my vacation time this year.” Etcetera.

How’s that working out for you?

We can’t help you dance like no one’s watching (other than suggesting you do it at one of the events in The Guide, pp. 35-37), but we can definitely help you use up those vacation days. For our annual travel guide, we focus on mountain towns within a day’s drive of the Vegas Valley, a no-brainer for a region filled with people who not only love to hike, hunt, camp, fish, and otherwise recreate outdoors, but also are always looking for new destinations to escape the summer heat (p. 62).

And speaking of the heat, it’s rising globally on average due to humans spewing stupid amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, in case you hadn’t heard. I’m not a fan of “holidays” allowing people to pretend for one day that they care about something they should care about all the time, but Earth Day is as good a time as any to note that we have to do something about climate change, like, now. Less sarcastic and cynical than I, the writers reflecting on the environment for this issue take a personal, pragmatic approach to their stories. Northern Nevada reporter Paul Boger rounds up eco-bills making their way through the legislature (p. 16). From a boat floating down the Colorado River, writer in residence Meg Bernhard ponders what’s at stake in the drought (p. 42). And guest contributor Stefan Lovgren shares an adaptation of a chapter from his forthcoming book about a megafish that used to inhabit the Colorado — and why it doesn’t anymore (p. 54).

These useful and beautiful reads are best enjoyed on the deck of a lodge in the warm spring sun. You promised yourself more of that, so get to it.

Happy trails, Heidi

Lille Allen is a Latinx designer and writer based in Las Vegas. Currently the in-house designer at Eater, Lille was previously associate art director at The Believer. Her writing can be found in Hyperallergic, McSweeney’s, and little pieces of trash across America.

Stefan Lovgren is a journalist and filmmaker based in Las Vegas. He has been a regular contributor to National Geographic’s numerous media platforms since 2003 and writes about a wide variety of environmental issues. He’s coauthor of Chasing Giants: In Search of the World’s Largest Freshwater Fish, as well as several soccer-related books.

Eric Duran-Valle is a writer from and based in Las Vegas. His writing has appeared in TheList.Vegas, In Parentheses, The Colored Lens, and Las Vegas Writes anthology. The most valuable thing he owns is a red Fender Jaguar.

PRESIDENT & CEO Mark Vogelzang

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EDITOR Heidi Kyser

ART DIRECTOR Scott Lien

ASSISTANT EDITOR Anne Davis

DESIGN INTERNS Alyssa Noji, Ryan Vellinga

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Lille Allen, Nicholas Barnette, Josh Bell, Meg Bernhard, Paul Boger, Soni Brown, Sarah Bun, Scott Dickensheets, Eric Duran-Valle, Michael Hanson, Jason Harris, Heidi Knapp Rinella, Stefan Lovgren, Nicole Minton, Mike Prevatt, Gab Rodriguez, Lissa Townsend Rodgers, Lourdes Trimidal, Ryan Vellinga

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