After hiking Griffith Peak (noted in Part 1) we rested about 17 minutes, ate some snacks and continued on to Charleston Peak. The meadows that followed on the other side of the fork were beautiful! Wildflowers and tall grasses were on either side of us. Like an ominous foreboding of the final climb to come, the meadows gave way to an area that had been ravaged by wildfire. There were some wildflowers and grasses, but the landscape for a few miles before the foot of Charleston were largely burnt and dead trees. When we final reached the base of Charleston we saw the 20% grade we were going to have to climb and momentarily questioned why we did both peaks in one day. It was worth it in the end though. After making up Charleston at a snail’s pace, the peak gave way to amazing views of all the peaks nearby, Las Vegas, Pahrump, and even Death Valley off in the horizon. We sat for about 30 minutes and took in the beauty around us… and cracked open a celebratory beer. Charleston Peak was roughly a 4.8 mile hike from Griffith Peak and took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes from Griffith. From the summit, we hiked back to the lot in about 3 hours in 17 minutes over 8.63 miles. The total time for our trip was 8 hours and 57 minutes and the total distance clocked in at 18.87 miles with a total elevation gain of 5,723 feet. While we were very tired and sore, we walked away with incredible memories and pictures that will last a lifetime.