Fort Piute and Christmas Tree Pass

Today is our last day in Boulder City.    We've had a great time exploring and visiting with dear friends.    Tomorrow we move on to Mesquite, Nevada (on the Utah border) for a few days to check out the Gold Butte National Monument area  before our stay in Kanab, Utah.

Happy Hour entertainment in the sky

always the teacher, John shows Lewis how to retrieve his ball from the pool

We spent today running a few errands, doing laundry and getting Beluga ready to move again.   She gets stiff when she sits around too long.   Dinner tonight was from my favorite Boulder City restaurant....

Yesterday we drove south on Rt. 95 past Searchlight and into the edge of California before turning off onto a long straight sand road.   Our destination was the ruins of Fort Piute.   

the long and winding (not!) road

The first half of the road was easy driving.   Recently graded and relatively smooth.   Cable Road (I think that was it's name) had many blooming Yucca in the desert both sides and Pam and I were fascinated by them, from barely open blossoms to fully opened panicles.

Four Yucca friends just beginning to flower

We finally found one that wasn't too far off the road so John dutifully stopped the Jeep so we could walk out and get a good look at a beautiful specimen. 

 blossom is beautiful - beware the spikes!

The flower clusters were simply fantastic, not fragrant but stunning.   Each individual flower looked like a waxy orchid.   

The plant's sword shaped leaves however, weren't so pleasant.  They stabbed me repeatedly as I took the above pictures.

We continued along to Pam's instructions, passing several groups of people (mostly guys) in their Jeeps, dusty pick ups and FJ Toyota Cruisers coming from the other direction.   One of the things I enjoy about Jeeping in the desert is the lack of other people but Friday it seemed everyone had the same idea.   At times it was hard to find a spot to pull off the rocky road.

Fortunately most of the vehicles were coming out of the Fort area so we had the place almost to ourselves, as we like it.

colorful crew

There wasn't much left of the small Fort, nature has been reclaiming it for many years, but the surrounding area was beautiful.

spring touches the Willows along Piute Creek

The ruins are situated along the perennially flowing Piute Creek.   We walked along it's reed and willow choked path and found several interesting petroglyphs nearly hidden on the hillside.

Pam continued to explore the remains of a small homestead further along the road while Dave, John and I decided that it's old dry cistern looked like a good place to sit and eat our lunch.    It's the first time I've had lunch in a cistern!

lunch in the hill top cistern

After we were done exploring the area we took the long rocky road back to Rt. 95 and headed back toward Boulder City.     We had one other stop to make....Christmas Pass Road.

This wide, well graded road through the Newberry Mountains is called Christmas Tree Pass because of the decorations people leave on trees.  Some we saw were decorated not just for Christmas, but for Easter and St. Patrick's Day also!   We understand the BLM people take the adornments down, but it seems a waste of time!

Nature does a pretty good job of adornment as well.   Many of the trees sport large balls of desert mistletoe.

distant carpet of brilliant California Poppies

We stopped at Grapevine Canyon to see a large area of Petroglyphs only about a 1/4 from the parking area. 

There were so many!   The huge boulders were covered with them, those people were very busy....

One small rock, high above and away from the others, depicted a beautiful herd of Big Horn sheep.   I would have missed it completely if Pam hadn't pointed me directly at it.

It was a long day, 8 solid hours of exploring and wandering.   Just my kind of day.

Colorado River waters

Yesterday we went out to breakfast with Pam and John and then set off to see a little of the Colorado River at Willow Beach and then at Temple Bar.    I use the term "waters of the Colorado River" because I can't figure out where the water is called Lake Mohave, Lake Mead or just the Colorado River so....I may use the terms improperly....bear with me.

view from an overlook on highway 93

We took the back way down (and by down I mean up over the top of several high hills - mountains, ridges, whatever - and down again a few times until we finally got to the river level) near Willow Cove.    I only got out and walked once on the drive.    The gravel, dirt road was washed out badly (my estimation) in one spot and it made me too nervous to think about staying in the Jeep as Dave directed and John negotiated around and over the deep crevice.    They did a fantastic job and I got back in at the bottom, after it was all over.    Call me a wimp.

The road took us past so many pretty wildflowers.   This desert is a bit behind some other areas and we really enjoyed seeing them come along.   John was very patient and stopped numerous times so Pam and I could leap out to inspect and photograph the colorful blossoms.

Sand Blazing Star

We noticed numerous mounds of bright orange spaghetti looking vegetation so we stopped to investigate. 

Dodder encasing some poor defenseless bush

We expected it to be dry and brittle, perhaps last year's foliage, but were surprised to find that it felt more like strands of rubber or cooked spaghetti. 

Most interesting!    I did a bit of research once we got back home and discovered that these orange, rubbery strings were a parasitic plant called Dodder and that it   completely envelops its hosts.

Field Mint with creeping Dodder

As we looked around the area we could see the strings creeping up other plants.  I wonder if it will be like the south's Kudzu.    I'll have to do more reading.
Luckily the Dodder didn't seem to be very wide spread, I'd hate to see it take over more of the sweet spring flowers.

Monkey Flower

wakes in Willow Cover

what do you think Eric and Laurel....an Ash-throated Flycatcher?

 After we enjoyed the views at Willow Cove we headed to our next stop at Temple Bar Marina.

We walked out to the end of the main dock to get a better view of the namesake formation....

temple bar

The area was pretty quiet this time of year but I imagine the docks and resort will be full in the summer.     We stopped to chat with a employee about the water levels, etc., and a number of huge carp rose to the surface near him and began to beg......he (John, I think) ducked into an employee only shack on the dock and came out with bread.   The fish went berserk, churning the water with their fat bodies and opening their ugly mouths as wide as they could to get the pieces he threw to them.    Brutus The Huge and Ugly got more than his share.   I had the feeling that John was their best friend and major source of entertainment at this slow time of year.     I tried to photograph them but they were moving too fast.

Delmar Butte

We had lunch at a picnic table above the marina and then called it a day.

Have you seen enough flower and water pictures?  Good timing, I have no more...

desert drive

Today we enjoyed an off road jaunt through this area's colorful desert.   We took lunch and Lew and turned off Lake Mead's Northshore Road onto the BLM's Bitter Spring Road at mm 25.

We had a pleasant day, stopping here and there to investigate something interesting, to eat lunch and take a little hike, to follow horse and big horn sheep tracks and just generally enjoy the journey.

Bitter Spring Road

cozy little home

our chosen lunch spot

Dave and Lew watch planes overhead

we hike into a canyon

tiny yellow face all by itself

footprints in the sand
(horse and big horn sheep)

we saw 2 bats in this little cave

dead end wash ringed with smooth pour overs

Easter Bunny?

Red Flag

F-22

Today Dave and I packed a lunch and set off for a most unusual lunch spot.  One that not everyone would find enjoyable, but we surely did.

our lunchtime view

other people joined us after awhile

We had quite a few people next to us but we didn't mind....we all evidently enjoyed the same things.

F-15

F-18

We ate lunch in the Jeep parked along Cheyenne Avenue across the street from the runways at Nellis Air Force Base.    Behind us were various businesses, a huge scrap yard, a septic tank company, a ready mix concrete business, and a tractor trailer driver training school.     We didn't mind one bit.    We were there to watch the flybys, the take offs and especially the landings of the awesomely powerful and incredibly loud Fighter planes that were taking part in Exercise Red Flag 19.2 at Nellis.

F-16
interesting camouflage colors...I wonder where it was from.

Exercise Red Flag is a two week, advanced aerial combat training exercise held  several times a year by the US Air Force.   Nellis AFB holds these sessions a couples times a year.  US and allied armed forces participate in realistic training exercises to improve their readiness and efficiency in combat situations.

 very bad photograph of a Eurofighter Typhoon
(a plane Dave had never heard of and one he had to do considerable research to identify)

No matter how you feel about wars and bombs and the need to be "ready and efficient", there is no denying the goosebumps these big guys produce as they roar so close over your head and land with a gentle touch on the tarmac in front of you.

F-16 from Belgium

do you see the crazy contrails left by these jets?

a couple more pictures and a slight change in plans

Shortly after the rain let up on Tuesday afternoon we drove along the Colorado north to the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge.   Its tantalizing spit of land near the mouth of the Bill Williams River has always interested me as we passed by on our way somewhere else.    We took a lovely mile or so walk along a partly paved nature trail to the end of the peninsula.

clouds reflected in the muddy trail

We saw lots of small birds and many ducks as we strolled along.

Common Goldeneye

 Dave's big sighting for the day was a Ruby Crowned Kinglet flitting around in a nearby mesquite tree.    No pictures, we were just happy to see and identify it and didn't manage to get the camera focused fast enough.

On our way home we made a quick turn off AZ95 on to Planet Ranch Road.   I had noticed it on our way down and thought it looked like it was headed up into the mountains, and didn't look too muddy after all the rains.    It followed the Bill Williams River course east. 

Beautiful drive, no one else around but the road became quite wet and muddy as we went along.    We turned around after a few miles as the road began to rise into the mountains.   No sense pushing our luck and getting stuck.    It's earmarked for a return trip next time.

Yesterday morning we left Parker and drove to Bullhead City.   We've never stopped in that area and had  a few places we wanted to see.   We pulled into the Mirage RV Resort on the edge of town and I went into check in.   Hmmmm.
The woman at the desk said that the folks in our site hadn't left yet....she didn't think.   Could we please drive back and check for her?    So, we did.   The fifth wheel in site 124 didn't look like it was even thinking about packing up it's things for a move....and no one was around.   I reported back to the office woman and she didn't know what to tell me.    I had called the day before to make sure the site would be open for our arrival (at her request) and she told me then "no problemo".....   She had no suggestions for me.   Beluga sat in front of the office in the tight but very nice park.    She looked at me, I looked at her.   Hmmm.

In the end we left Mirage with not so much as a "sorry" and moved on to our next destination, Boulder City, NV, where we are now.

Lewis didn't mind this change of plans one little bit because he knows "people" there....people he's crazy about.

waiting for someone to stop talking and notice him.....

flowing water always tastes better

When he has a chance to visit, they provide him a yard to run free in, a pool, shade, a special distilled water drinking fountain, all the treats he could want and plenty of hands on attention.   What more could a guy want?



Today Pam, John, Dave and I took a drive up into the desert above Lake Mead and it's bridge and dam.

see the tiny cars in the trail head parking lot below? (middle of photo)

see the tall casino below?

the three of them decided we weren't high enough...
they had to scramble to the top of this rocky hill
then they waved at me.....
   

We'll be in the area for more than a week so stay tuned for more stuff.....