Major renovations will be made to Mount Charleston beginning Monday. (Les Krifaton/FOX5)It's a $90 million project and when it's completed, Mount Charleston's campgrounds and picnic areas will look a whole lot different.
"We're really excited to have all this construction going on," said Clarisse Mack, an engineer with the U.S. Forest Service.
By the time the work is completed in 2015, three campgrounds, four picnic areas and three trailheads will undergo renovation and a new visitor's center will be built.
The first phase started Friday with the closing of the Kyle Canyon Campground. When it reopens in September 2013, it will be a picnic area only.
"There's been new legislation that came out that prohibits renovations in a known 100-year flood plain. We can't rebuild this as a campground so we have to convert it," said Mike Balen with the U.S. Forest Service.
Other campgrounds will be expanded to make up for the lost space that's being eliminated at the Kyle Canyon Campground.
The construction project already caught some prospective campers off guard. "We came up here looking for a campsite, didn't find one," said Tonya Carroll, a Las Vegas resident who came up to Mount Charleston with her children. "We come up here in the summertime. It's a nice place to get away," she added.
The project is being funded through the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.
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