further adventures of Lewis M. Goat

NP94, aka Callville Wash Road North, took the 3 of us north off Northshore Drive in Lake Mead National Recreation Area.   Most people use the first few miles of this road to access trails into the Bowl of Fire area so we decided to see how far we could go on it.....and what was at the end.

The scenery was breathtaking in a rocky, mountainous, blue sky, desert sort of way.

Once again, we had the road (think, wash) to ourselves.   The conditions ran the gamut from a wide, open. sandy wash (sometimes deep sand, sometimes bedrock) to a narrow curvy track running very close to (sometimes under) the walls (sometimes stable, sometimes not very.....).

niche nest

We made our way slowly, stopping to climb up on (Lewis) or photograph interesting areas.   In one area we got out to explore a large, smooth, hump of blue/green mudstone along the wash.

We stopped for lunch in the shade of a fantastic chocolate brown cliff that was crisscrossed with spiderwebs of gypsum and wide bands of the same blue/green mudstone.

The wash road came to an end about 6 miles from the paved NorthShore Drive.
We had room to park the Jeep in a wide sandy area in front of a narrowed slot in the rocks.

We parked and set off to see where the little slot would take us....led, of course, by Lewis M. Goat.   He loves to race into slots and up onto the rock walls.

Unfortunately most of my "racing" pictures are blurred....he's just too fast for me.

There were a few beautiful pour overs, a couple with a small pool of water at the bottom.

Lew doesn't possess the grace of a Mountain Goat, but he has the drive to get the job done, what ever it takes.    We won't have to trim his nails for months!    Up and over....

mom, mom, come on up mom!

Once on top he roared around, coming to a rather ungraceful, but just in time, stop on the edge of a pretty high drop off.   The brakes were definitely on.....

The walls of the narrows were interesting, filled with layers of colored rocks worn smooth by the tremendous force of flowing water.   Above the water level, the the walls were embedded with small rocks and flakes of blue/green mudstone.

We didn't explore much beyond the end of the slot....the shadows were getting long and now that it gets dark so very early we didn't want to be in the back country when we couldn't see our way.   Who decided on this "turn your clock" back nonsense!

Even a Mountain Goat needs help getting down from the little pour overs on the way home.   Don't laugh at him, he's very sensitive.

He only plopped in the water once.....