Las Vegas Inspiring Connections Outdoors (LVICO) is “getting out there” with the youth of Las Vegas once again. We recently trained a group of new leaders, and we are connecting with our partner agencies to find groups of young people who have not had much opportunity to access the outdoors so they can enjoy all of the beauty the greater Las Vegas area has to offer. We thought you would enjoy this report from our LVICO Outings Chair, Cynthia Regidor, on a recent trip to Valley of Fire taken with staff and participants from the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. We hope you will consider joining us; please visit our webpage to learn more!

LVICO hosted their first outing of 2023 with Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.  Saturday, January 28th was met with blue sunny skies and warm temps, perfect conditions for our outing to Valley of Fire State Park.

Four young adults, ranging from 18 to 20 years of age, introduced themselves with varying low levels of enthusiasm for outdoor activities. The LVICO volunteers knew they were in for a challenge.  We certainly weren't deterred, after all, we have "Inspiring" in our name!

So what better way to inspire our young participants with than to be welcomed into the park with Big Horn sheep grazing in the distance? Some "ooo-ing and ahh-ing" ensued, then Ashley, from Pennsylvania gasped, "I never thought in a million years I'd see the state animal".

It was a great start to our adventure, and we drove on, arriving shortly at the Beehives, where sand formations resembled just that. After our safety chat, Ronnie, the artist, nervously asked, "Are there actual beehives here?"  Our four young participants timidly approached the structures, not sure what they were going to encounter. Upon discovering the wonderful nooks and crannies within them, we witnessed happy faces snapping selfie after selfie.

Next stop, Mouse's Tank, a trail well known for ancient petroglyphs found along the sandstone walls. Nick Saines, LVICO volunteer and our geological guru, gave us many teachable moments as we paused along the hike to get a closer look at this ancient art.

Meandering through the rocks, our young participants were now exploring and climbing with gusto. Mariama, a young lady who initially frowned upon outdoor activities, proclaimed, "Ya know, this might have changed my perspective on being outside".

Our beautiful day outdoors with these lovely young participants could not have been more inspiring.