The scenery was beautiful. I have a thing for Joshua trees. The elevation helped me to get off to a fast start without feeling that I was expending much effort, but it didn't feel like it was too much of an elevation change.
It seemed a bit tight with respect to the amount of road space that we were given at the start of the race coming down Mt. Charleston, especially in the vicinity of the aid stations as people were stopping. The Elkhorn overpass was BRUTAL, but I think that may be because I wasn't expecting it and I have a huge fear of bridges / heights.
I had a bit of a safety concern where there were cops intermittently letting traffic through (I think at Elkhorn and Cimarron). One of the fast marathoners was speeding by us (we were running the half marathon), and it looked dangerously close as to whether traffic was going to be stopped as he was running through that intersection.
This why I gave this race a 4/5 instead of a 5/5.