Sunday Drive - 3 States in an Afternoon

We took a stunning Sunday drive today.  We headed out on Scenic Hwy 91 from our RV park in Mesquite NV toward Littlefield AZ. 


We hunted down 4 desert geocaches in the first few miles.  A couple of them required a short hike in the desert.  We're still a little nervous about just walking out into the desert...not sure what we might discover.  My favorite cache was the shotgun shell casing stuck in a crack of a utility pole. 

Randy Found the "Avon Calling" Cache

The geocache site

We decided to check out a place named "Historic Beaver Dam Lodge RV Park/Golf Course in Beaver Dam AZ.  I had seen an ad in a brochure and the rates to golf were pretty cheap and the pictures were nice. 

Beaver Dam Golf Course

It turned out to be a really nice par 3 executive golf course - just right for me to golf and for  Randy to practice his short game.  It was like a true oasis in the desert.  Lots of trees and shade.  Saw a heron stalking something in the water. 

This property is historic.  According to their website:

Even before the 1849 gold rush when prospectors and Mormon colonizers passed through the “California Corridor” enroute to the Southwest, the Beaver Dam Wash was an oasis for the traveler.  Located near the trail established by John C. Freemont it provided a watering hole for man and beast.

 During the “Roaring Twenties” the Beaver Dam Lodge was built (1929) in the oasis as a halfway stop to provide lodging for the traveler between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.
It soon became a popular resort for movie stars - even before Las Vegas. Luminaries such as Errol Flynn, Jack Benny, Wallace Berry, Tyrone Power and his Annabel found respite here at the Beaver Dam Lodge, away from the frenetic Hollywood life.

During the depression of the 1930s the center room was lined with slot machines. Through the hard times when nickels and dimes were scarce, the penny machines were able to provide wages for the hired help.

The lodge, now restored and modernized, has maintained the historic atmosphere which made it famous. The rooms on the north wing are the same rooms that the stars of old occupied – even some of the bathtubs are the same!  Clark Gable slept here!

Gunlock Resevoir

After golf we decided to head to St George UT.  Randy asked about continuing on Hwy 91 and was told some vague directions...we headed that way not knowing exactly where we were going.  It was a very scenic interesting route to take...even if it was the long way. 


Along the way we came across Gunlock Resevoir and State Park.  It was popular place on a holiday weekend.  We passed right through Veyo UT.  I wished we would've stopped when I saw the sign for Veyo Pies - I guess that is their claim to fame. http://www.veyopies.com/     
...except for the intriguing sign for the "Veyo Pool and Crawdad Canyon Climbing Park http://www.crawdadcanyon.com/camping.html


Leaving St George and heading back to Mesquite was some of the most stunning rock formations we have seen.  The highway was winding and you never knew what was around the next corner.







 All in all, this was a very good day.

Leaving Las Vegas...in the Dust

May 25, 2012

It's time to leave Vegas and it's not a nice time to pack and go.  The winds are very strong today...probably 35-40 mph.  As we travel north east to Mesquite, we are in a haze of dust.

The last 25 miles or so were not fun.  The winds were even stronger near Mesquite.  Getting out of the truck meant you had to hang on to the door handle with both hands hope for the best.

Las Vegas is More Than Just Gambling....

Sunday, May 20, 2012

45 miles NE of Vegas off I-15 is a place called "The Valley of Fire", Nevada's First State Park.   Man, I'm glad we drove up there, it is awesome!! Really cool geological formations similar to Zion and Arches National Parks.  We took a short walk on the Petroglyph Canyon Trail.  It's about 1 mile round trip.  In addition to lots of petroglyphs, we saw lizards and intersting desert plants.  walking on the red beach sand was challenging.

Petroglyph - I'm sure it says "Damn, it's hot here"

Randy on Petroglyph Canyon Trail

Hoover Dam

Saturday, May 19, 2012

4 years to Build

Woke up had breakfast and decided to go see Hoover Dam and the New Walking Bridge. Nice drive from Las Vegas through Boulder City to the Dam.  We took the drive across the dam and into the State of Arizona and turned around and came back.

Bridge Facts

The Mike O'Callaghn-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge was completed in 2010. There is a small parking lot at the base of the bridge.  You have to climb about 8 sets of stairs to get to the top.  The bridge is part of the highway, but has a pedestrian walkway to view Hoover Dam.  It is 280 ft above the dam, 880 ft above the river.  It's 1905 feet long.

Lake Mead in the Background
Low Water

Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
We were right up there in the center.
 We think they should have built another walkway on the other side of the bridge so we could see the Colorado River down through the canyon.

Traveling to Las Vegas

May 18, 2012

Today we finished our trip to Las Vegas.  We will park the trailer here for a week.   Originally, we didn’t plan on coming to Las Vegas, but I will be flying to Wisconsin on Monday for my Grandmother’s funeral.  Randy will be here until I return on Thursday.  He said he isn’t going to gamble;-) 

We had decided to find at least one geochcache in each state we visit.

Blackjack!!

The Cache - we added Beer Mug

Our Nevada cache was pretty easy – near the road.  Blackjack is at the site of an old Casino named Blackjack.  As we took the short walk from the parking lot around the back of the building, I wondered if we should add a snake bite kit to our caching supplies.  It was a sort of creepy place.

We had picked up Hwy 93 in Idaho and planned on heading all the way to Las Vegas on it.  Mom told Randy about a road that made a loop off Hwy 93.  She and Dad had driven it before and said it is scenic.  We decided to give it a try.  At first it didn’t seem much different than Hwy 93, but then we realized we were closer to the mountains and then it was distinctly different.  Hwy 6 goes thru the town of Lund which is the starting point of the Silver State Road Rally.  The rally will be held in just a couple of days – May 20^th.  We drove the 93 mile route that the rally cars will on Mon. 

The Town of Lund, Don't blink.

Nice Rocks

When the scenery changed we couldn’t quite figure out why it was different, then we realized that we were seeing a dry river bed.  Even though there was no water and hadn’t been for a long time, we could tell that it had been a river – the White River.  By checking the map, I found that it showed several dry lakes also.

The White River, Dry

More of the White river Dry Bed

Further down the road on Hwy 93, we saw the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge – it almost seemed out of place compared to the dry sagebrush we had been seeing for hundreds of miles.  It's located about 90 miles north of Las Vegas.  The 5380 acres refuge was established to provide habitat for migratory birds, especially waterfowl.  Surprisingly, it gets about 32,000 visitors a year.

Pahranagat National Wild Life refuge near Alamo, NV

The rock formations are also stunning.  What a great road to take.  Thanks. Mom.

Finally Sin City!!!

Inside of the Ventian

From Ventian looking to the Mirage

On the Road...

May 17, 2012

Early in the morning before we left the Meridian KOA near Boise ID, we went for a quick caching adventure.  We managed to find a Travel Bug Hotel geocache right there in the RV park. We dropped off a travel bug that we had been carrying around too long. That was our Idaho cache.  It was nice to find it right away since we wouldn’t actually be in Idaho very long.

We made a quick stop at Cactus Pete’s Casino in Jackpot NV.  A few dollars lost at the machines and "free" Diet Coke and we were on our way.

We found Valley View RV park in Ely NV, filled up the truck with fuel, picked up ice and a few groceries before a big windstorm hit town.  We were safe and sound in the trailer, but I was glad we left the truck hooked up to the trailer…it gave us some extra weight to keep us from getting blown away.

Starting the Journey...

May 16, 2012

We finally got started on our journey.  We left Yakima  WA today and headed toward Boise ID.   Most of what we saw we had seen before, but it was still nice to be out on the road.

We had decided that we were going to get at least one geocache in every state we visit.  We found one at a rest area in Oregon to satisfy that requirement.

It seemed like a long day and we made it as far as Meridian ID – just outside of Boise.  We stayed at a nice KOA that we stayed at a couple of years ago.  We had trouble remembering the name of the KOA - we need to write these things down!