David Smith | Journalistic Legacy Websites | Las Vegas Area Trails | Las Vegas, Nevada

David Smith and Las Vegas Area Trails Overview

David Smith is theย creator of LasVegasAreaTrails.com, his Journalistic Legacy Website started in 2018.ย 

At least 3 unique, probably unrepeatable, factors have come together to bring about LasVegasAreaTrails.com:

  1. David Smith’s life-long love and experience of the wilderness.
  2. David’s profession as a web designer, writer, speaker, business consultant and internet marketer.
  3. Home base of Las Vegas, surrounded by wilderness areas.

David Smith’s Life-Long Love and Experience of the Wilderness

When David Smith was a child, his parents took him regularly to wilderness areas in the Pacific Northwestern U.S. They enjoyed car and trailer camping, driving to spectacular overlooks, browsing National and State Park visitor centers and short hiking excursions (usually within a few hundred feet of the car)!ย 

Death Valley, California is where things really came together. From around age 8, David’s parents spent Spring Break week in Death Valley, staying in the cabins at Furnace Creek Ranch. From that base we would drive to the various scenic areas David recently documented in the “Death Valley in a Day” page of this website. But the family spent a good part of the day relaxing at the Furnace Creek Ranch swimming pool. David used this opportunity to wander in the surrounding wilderness and later, when he became a runner and cycler, extended his wanderings to much longer excursions covering parts of the Funeral Mountains and the valley floor down to Badwater.

These wilderness wanderings at an early age helped grow David’s love of the wilderness. Curiously, to this day a typical adventure on Las Vegas Area Trails is basically the same type of exploration and discovery David experienced in Death Valley as a child.

Highschool Years

During these years David spent entire days cycling from Portland and later Lake Oswego to the Columbia Gorge, pulling his bike up trails to Larch Mountain then cycling down Larch Mountain Road back to Portland–a round trip of between 65 and 85 miles.

College and Young Family Years

David attended The University of Evansville in Indiana and took advantage of those years to explore the terrain in the Midwest. At one point he rode a bicycle from Indiana to Oregon, passing through the wilderness areas of Yellowstone Park and Northern Idaho along the way.

David received his M-Div degree at Fuller Theological Seminary in Southern California and during those years explored the Angeles Crest Mountains and the terrain of Southern California by bicycle and trail running.

The young family years were filled with family responsibilities and career responsibilities as a pastor, but there was still some time to explore the surrounding wilderness from his base in Portland.

Adult Years in Oregon and Connecticut

During these years David more extensively explored the Pacific Northwest and began a one-day weekly wilderness exploration practice. Later, when he moved to Connecticut he began to take his one-day weekly exploration routine into the wilderness areas of Connecticut (There are a few great wilderness areas in that small state!) and the Hudson Valley of New York with Minnewaska being a favorite.

During this time David began a business as web designer, marketing writer and business consultant with the hidden goal of one day using these skills to document the wilderness…somewhere!

2016 Move to Las Vegas

In 2016 David moved to Las Vegas, his son being a Physician’s Assistant there. He immediately noticed the city was surrounded by mountains! And, there were numerous State and National Parks within a day’s drive…Death Valley only 90 minutes away! So began David’s weekly Las Vegas area wilderness wanderings.

In 2018 everything came together as David launched LasVegasAreaTrails.com with the first weekly adventure being…you guessed it…Death Valley in a Day! He then continued doing what he’d done for years: Conducting one-day weekly excursions into the wilderness. Only, the new element was documenting and preserving these excursions on the web.

A Journalistic Legacy Website is Born!

Las Vegas Area Trails: A Journalistic Legacy Website

The mission of Las Vegas Area Trails quickly became “To Systematically Explore and Video Document Every Wilderness Area Within 150 Miles of Las Vegas“.

Over time David realized that what he was really creating here was a Journalistic Legacy Website – a website that would contain a journal of his accumulated wilderness wisdom and discovery, outliving him as his legacy.

Journalistic Legacy Website Creator

It’s only natural that David would realize that he was not the only person who had spent his life following, developing and refining a life-long passion. The world is filled with creative individuals who have been pursuing their own life-long passion and developing unique knowledge, skills and experience they dream of leaving as a legacy to the world beyond their lifetimes.

Create Your Own Journalistic Legacy Website

LasVegasAreaTrails.com as a Model Journalistic Legacy Website

Take another look at LasVegasAreaTrails.com as a model Journalistic Legacy Website. You can view it as a wilderness exploration website. But imagine how the same systematic journalistic documentation approach could guide a legacy website on any subject. You will see wilderness areas systematically explored on this website, but if you’ve been growing your own area of passion and knowledge, the same strategy could be used to organize and systematically document various aspects of the unique, valuable body of information you have discovered, learned and mastered as a:

  • Physician
  • Scientist
  • Politician
  • Business Coach or Consultant
  • Musician
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

The list goes on and on forever, only limited by the number of professions and areas of passion imaginable.

Turn Your Passion Into Your Legacy!

Begin asking yourself, “What is my life passion?” “Is there a legacy I could create to outlive me?”

If your answer is “yes”, view LasVegasAreaTrails.com as your possible template.

Need help with systematically organizing your vast, hard-won unique knowledge, skill and experience? David can offer coaching, guidance and even the technical help and tools to transform your passion from thoughts and experiences in your head and scattered documents and images into your own systematically organized Journalistic Legacy Website. How would that feel, to see your knowledge, skill and experience all documented and preserved. The process of putting this together can be a capstone to your life well lived and to your driving passion over the years.

Finally, Turn Your Passion Into Profit

And, here’s an additional thought: Imagine monetizing your knowledge, experience and skill. Chances are, it’s valuable, and monetizing that value is totally possible!

Here are some of the ways I can help you make that happen, turning your passion into products you can sell:

  • Kindle Books
  • Print on Demand Books
  • Membership Website
  • Online Learning Courses
  • Speaking Engagements

And the list continues…limited only by our infinite imagination!

Summary
About David Smith | Las Vegas Area Trails Journalistic Legacy Website
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About David Smith | Las Vegas Area Trails Journalistic Legacy Website
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Learn the background of David Smith, and how he turned his passion into his legacy with LasVegasAreaTrails.com, his Journalistic Legacy Website. Do you have a passion you would like to turn into your own legacy? Find out how.
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LasVegasAreaTrails.com
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