Valley of Fire SP

The other day we headed north on Northshore Rd., through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, with Valley of Fire State Park as our destination.    We've never taken this road all the way so we spent lots of time stopping at various overlooks along the way.  

Warning - if you're tired of seeing pictures of rocks you may want to skip this post

We even stopped a beautiful hot spring oasis (Rogers Spring) in the middle of the desert.    Of course, Dave had to put his finger in it to see if it was really warm.....it was.

Out of Lake Mead National Recreation Area and into the Nevada's Valley of Fire State Park.    The landscape changed.   Huge outcroppings of fire red rocks came into view as we headed into the park.

We stopped at the Visitor's Center and got a map but soon realized we didn't allow enough time in this fabulous park.      We could only do one hike so we picked the White Domes, at the far end of the park.

It started out by going down a "natural" staircase from the parking lot down into a narrow wash.

it's a long way down

It was further down and steeper than I'd expected and my knee was singing by the time I got to the bottom.

Knee was soon forgotten, the landscape along this hike was fabulous.   Shapes and colors of rocks we'd never seen.   Rocks are rocks, right?    Not here.

pink stripe honeycomb

About halfway along the trail we came to a short slot canyon.    We welcomed the shade it provided.     The weather here has been beautiful, but by the afternoon a bit hot to hike along in the sun.

Once through he slot we discovered a number of holes, niches and small arches along the trail.

he's quietly hiding from me

The path back to the Jeep was much more humane, the slope up to the top was long and gentile.    I was glad of that, I was tired by then and the thought of a climb up and out like the one we took to get down was making me start to complain.    Phew!

Before we left the park we took a quick swing through the campground loops and decided to make a point of staying there the next time we were through the area.   The sites were scattered around among the huge red boulders and we could just imagine the silence and starlit skies that would greet us when we stepped out of Beluga in the evening.      Besides, there is so much more to this park than we had time for.   Staying inside would allow us to roam free and explore it carefully.

We opted to drive back through the Lake Mead National Recreational Area on our way home instead of picking up I-15 which was fairly close to the entrance station.   The peaceful landscape and lack of traffic along that route would allow us to talk about our experience and relive the lovely hike we'd just had.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about our cool Jeep ride and hike on NP61, Crane's Nest Road.    Perhaps I'll show you pictures of today's Jeep tour and hike to the river on NP62, Old Ranger Station Rd.     Lewis has been having a ball these past few days.    He's turning into a real mountain goat!

Lew is through in a flash....Dave and I, not so fast

Around Boulder City

We've been out doing things every day, I haven't blogged about them and now I'm afraid I'll forget something.    Bear with me.

One afternoon we went to the Hoover Dam.  Dave expressed interest in taking the tour and we wanted to check the area out first.

We encountered huge crowds of people, speaking many languages.  We drove over the dam, dodging tourists stepping blindly out into the lanes of traffic to get the perfect photo, and found a parking place high above the dam.   Closer lots charge $10 for the privilege.

I was content to view the dam from the back, Dave walked down and over it for a birds eye view.

Since I had the camera and the phone, we have no pictures from the top or over the side.    You'll have to read someone's blog who is braver than I am to see those kinds of shots.

After walking through the crowds on the dam, Dave decided he wasn't all that interested in taking the tour after all so we continued with our day.

The small historic area of Boulder City is a charming place.   Lovely little bungalows and well tended green community parks.

One of the grassy parks is right up against the mountains and a pretty large herd of bighorn sheep come down in the afternoon to enjoy the beautiful clover lawns.

 
Some doze in the shade, some graze and some come seeking companionship.

watch out young lady, he's spotted you.....

oh baby baby

Most of the commercial buildings in the "downtown" area are geared toward tourists, as you would expect.   The ones that aren't are filled with "memorabilia",  antiques and other junque.    There is a very new and complete airport on the south part of the city.    We noticed a large fleet of sightseeing planes and helicopters.

Whenever we find ourselves in a new area we inevitably end up at their airport and the nearest body of water.

In our wanderings we came across what looked like a very new park, or at least a new section of the Clark County Wetland's Park.    The sound of water running in the middle of the desert is always a magnet for us.

We saw a number of ducks, the always present coots,  a great blue heron, cormorants, yellow rumped warblers, swallows and more as we drove and walked along the waterway.   Beautiful, and just minutes from the glitz of the Las Vegas strip.

The last few days we've been sightseeing a little more aggressively.   Yesterday we drove north to the Valley of Fire State Park.   I have too many pictures for this post so I'll tease you with one and do another blog later.

And, today we took a great Jeep drive along the Crane's Nest wash (NP61) and then a beautiful hike down to Lake Mohave (aka the Colorado River) with Lewis.   Here is a picture to hold you til I get another blog post out.

not much

We've been busy doing not much of anything.   It's been decided we'll stay put for a couple weeks so the urgency to get out and see everything has lessened.

As a result we've been living lazily, enjoying second cup and happy hour in our large "yard", playing ball with you know who....

Behind our wall is the Boulder City Fire House and sometimes the guys use the dead-end street for training and testing of their equipment.   Dave finds it quite interesting to watch.

We've done a bit of exploring our area for groceries, dog food and supplies, etc. and took a short drive down to the Lake, always to the water first.

crossing the river

We made a few plans for the rest of the month, read outside in the warm sun, and took Lewis for runs on the abandoned runway behind the Elks Lodge.

Dave spent some time this afternoon figuring out how and where to install the new engine fire suppression system he just ordered.

 I told you there isn't much to tell!       There are lots of things to do in this area, however, so we'll get started soon.

Williams wrap up

Our last few day in Williams were spent wandering the plentiful Forest Service roads both north and south of our campgrounds.

One day we unfolded our HUGE Forest Service (Williams section) paper map and used it to find Dogtown Reservoir.

The nicely wooded campground was closed and there were only 2 or 3 people fishing on the lake.   We watched an Osprey work one end of the reservoir, I think it was the same one that Jodee saw here!     We walked along the shore a bit then got back in the jeep to see if we could find White Horse Lake.    It didn't seem like it wouldn't be too hard to find,  we had our ginormouse crinkly map after all.....

Unfortunately the mammoth map and the markers on the diverging trails bore little resemblance to one another.  On the map, FS 741 - on the marker, FS 3295.    On the map 140C, on the marker 140SL.    Finally we found one road where the marker and the map agreed AND was going in the correct direction.   We took it and drove about 15 minutes until it abruptly ended.    Alrighty then, back we go!

We passed many lovely private campsites on forest service land, spots that I would love to camp at some time if we could ever find them again.  

We passed a nicely signed lake that wasn't a lake and ended up in an area choked with smoke from another prescribed burn.    Enough, we went home.


Another day we packed up sweet Lewis and drove back to the closed campground area at Dogtown Lake.....we knew how to find it.

It was an absolutely beautiful day, sunny and just warm enough.   No one around.
Lewis so enjoyed his long walk in the woods with his ball (us too, he enjoyed walking with us, too).    The pine needles were soft on his feet and there were no scary bikes zooming up from behind.

Nuthatches yammered and flitted along with us from tree to tree as if they were bored by this empty campground and trail, happy to have people to talk at again.

clump of mushrooms pushing up through the trail

Lewis happily climbed up and over every new thing he encountered, a log bench, a huge rustic stone fireplace in the group camping area, downed logs, he enjoyed them all.

up and over!

King of the Forest
(pay no attention to the pine needles in the King's ears)

After walking all the loops (almost 2 miles!) we piled back in the jeep, determined to find White Horse Lake.   We found it, after a long washboardy drive, we found it.     The road in was closed.    I hate when that happens!

We were all tired so we gave up and headed home just in time for happy hour.


Another day Dave and I drove into the historic district of Flagstaff.   We were going to park and walk the streets, but it was Sunday and the area was just too crowded.   We looked around a bit, found a neat old church beginning to kneel from neglect, and then took the road out of town,  leading to the Snow Bowl.

It was a beautiful ride through groves of aspen, mostly bare of their spectacular fall foliage, but every bit as picturesque.

not all choose the same path......

At the top people were lining up for lift rides up to the near 12,000 ft summit.   We watched for awhile before heading down to continue our ride.

We were scheduled to leave Williams on Sunday, but we opted to extend our stay by one day to avoid driving Beluga on another very windy day.   We've learned our lesson!    It was a good choice because it blew and rained and thundered most of  the afternoon and through the night.

We had a great drive west today and tonight we're settled into a nice large site at the Boulder City, Nevada Elk's Lodge.    We'll be here for a week or two before turning south for Thanksgiving in San Diego.