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Mount Charleston: thirty degrees cooler, forty minutes away
An alpine escape from the valley floor, and how to drive the climb comfortably.
The road deskJune 30, 20264 min read
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · resized and converted to WebP
Kyle Canyon Road climbs from desert scrub to ponderosa pine in under an hour. The temperature drop is genuinely dramatic — often twenty-five to thirty degrees Fahrenheit.
Use a lower gear on the descent rather than riding the brakes. Long continuous braking on a sustained grade is how rental brakes start to fade and smell.
Cell coverage thins out above the visitor centre. Download the route before you leave the valley.
Bring a layer. People arrive from a 105-degree afternoon in shorts and last about ten minutes at the overlook.
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