Category: USTravel

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Grand Canyon West, Arizona and Boulder City, Nevada

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Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon? If you have, chances are that you’ve been to the South Rim of the National Park. Grand Canyon National Park also includes the North Rim, which not as many people visit. It doesn’t usually open until mid-May and it’s harder to get to.

There is also Grand Canyon West, which is a commercial enterprise run by the Havasupai Indian Tribe on their reservation land. About fifteen years ago, they constructed a skywalk out over the Grand Canyon. We’ve been to the South Rim several times, so I thought this might be a different way to go. The distance from our RV at Nellis AFB to Grand Canyon West was 125 miles. Thinking that we might appreciate a little overnight road trip after spending so many weeks in Las Vegas, I booked us into one of their cabins for a night. It was to be our last night in Arizona for the 2024 winter and spring.

Driving out to Grand Canyon West, we drove though Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The lake shimmered in the sun. The lake level is still a little low, although not as bad as it had been.

A surprise treat was in store for us as we drove through Arizona. Joshua trees! Miles upon miles of them. We thought their height and sheer beauty rivaled what we had seen weeks earlier at Joshua Tree National Park. Some were in the desert or tucked into sloping mountain canyons. Some looked to be at least thirty to forty feet tall with trunks as large as regular trees.

As we drew closer to Grand Canyon West, the Joshua trees began to intersperse with juniper trees and pinon pines until, finally, they were gone. The juniper and pines, too, eventually gave way to a prairie-style desert with cacti and beautiful orange-blooming flowers.

When we arrived, we first stopped into the visitors center to pick up our tickets. A shuttle takes visitors to the first stop, Eagle Point. All of these places are very important to Hualapai culture.

Do you see the eagle in the rock with its wings in flight? It was spectacular to receive not only the first glimpse of the Grand Canyon here, but also to see the eagle.

The views of the canyon are no less grand for being on the west side.

Looking to our left from here, we could see the Skywalk.

When the Skywalk was completed in 2007, it was the world’s biggest glass cantilever bridge. It extends 70 feet over the Grand Canyon, has a glass bottom, and can hold 800 people at once. By now the length has been superseded by a bridge in China.

Here’s the thing: you have to pay, of course, to step out on the bridge. (The whole day is not a cheap proposition. We supported the Hualapai quite well.) But you cannot take any possessions out onto the bridge. That includes phones and cameras. The reason given is to protect the canyon from things dropped or intentionally thrown from above. There are folks right there on the bridge to take your picture, of course. It costs $50 to purchase the photo package.

Our photographer arranged us in several cheesy poses. Afterwards, I noticed people could ask their photographer to take pictures in poses of their choosing, and I wish we had done that. I would have liked a photo of our feet down through the glass floor.

After our photoshoot, there was plenty of time to look at the canyon below our feet and all around.

I purchased the photo package because it came with the scenic photos that I was not able to get from the bridge. When I first went out to the website for the photos, I glanced at them and figured I’d download them later. I did download the photos of us. But then as the days after our visit went on, we were busy and traveling, and I never quite got around to downloading the scenic photos. When I did, they were gone: they are only out there for 30 days. Live and learn. If you visit, and spring for the package, don’t be Julia: download your pictures immediately! Better yet, just enjoy the view and have a passing tourist take your picture in front of Eagle Point for free.

Outside of the bridge, we walked to the Native American Village. Here, we could see various types of Native housing and sweat lodges.

This “wikiup” is made of the juniper trees that are plentiful here and can come in many different sizes. There must be a native person (or many) skilled in making these here because I saw at least three of them like this in various places. They can be bare of the greenery or have animal skins on the ground, and can be large enough to house an entire family.

After a good lunch at Sky View Restaurant, we walked over to the shuttle stop for the ride to to Guano Point. As we waited, we listened to this gentleman chant. I was intrigued with his combination of native and current day dress. He has next to him on the bench burnt sage in a shell. For the people, the rising smoke has spiritual meaning, and the shell that the sage sits on does as well.

The Hualapai have always lived here and a small piece of their land includes the Grand Canyon. They are not subsidized by the US Government. Years ago, they started trying to generate revenue with a casino, but realized that what people really wanted was to see their land. They make a fine living off the tourism offered here.

Guano Point is so named for an enterprise that operated in the mid-century to extract what was supposed to be 100,000 tons of bat guano from a cave. The guano was used in that time for fertilizer, dynamite and (yikes!) makeup. A tramway was built over the canyon to ferry the workers over and bring the guano back. But there was actually only 1,000 tons to be mined and it played out quickly. A US Air Force jet crashed into the cable, damaging it, and it was never repaired.

Remains of the bat doo-doo cable system and extraction enterprise

More interestingly to me, this is also a sacred site for the Hualapai. There was a time when the US Government tried to round them up and place them in a central camp in La Paz. The Hualapai call this the “Long Walk”. Many Hualapai jumped off the canyon to escape, and the people call them “the lost souls”.

Just below the bat guano operation, the Grand Canyon offers an extraordinary view of the Colorado River far below. All around Grand Canyon West, there are no fences to keep anyone from going over the edge.

The day was getting on, so we rode back to the truck and drove to another GCW area where the Hualapai operate cabins, and checked in. It’s set up like a Western town, which is really weird considering this is reservation land. There’s not much here that’s open, save for a tourist shop and a place to purchase tickets for the zip-line. There is a restaurant, but we opted to save that for breakfast. Instead, we drove back down the road off-reservation, enjoying the view at “golden hour” with the canyons and hills bathed in a warm glow from the setting sun.

Grand Canyon Western Ranch has a variety of acommodations and also a restaurant. It’s small with less than a handful of tables, but the tables are large and different groups are expected to share it. Many evenings they have a guitar player singing songs. The restaurant closes at 8 PM and the resort does a campfire with s’mores, to which we were invited. We were fairly early and didn’t stay as we had other plans, but we ordered their barbeque ribs and the food was good. It would have been a great alternative to staying with the Hualapai on the reservation.

Returning to the reservation and cabin area, there are two trails that lead out onto the prairie. I wanted to do a sunset walk on the shorter, 1/2 mile trail. Arriving at the edge of the canyon, we had the view all to ourselves for a very long time, and it was magnificent. Like Red Rocks outside of Las Vegas that I wrote about in my previous blog, it was totally quiet. All was still except for some birds soaring over the canyon.

Off in the distance you can see the cabins at Grand Canyon West, strung out like a wagon train

We rose early the next morning to hike on the longer, 1.75 mile trail. Needing to get on with our day, we only walked about a mile through the prairie before turning around. At our turnaround point we finally reached the start of the canyon, but this part of it was green with hills folded into hills.

The prior evening we noted that there was a whole warren of rabbits running around. This morning, we watched a coyote unsuccessfully on the hunt for one of them. Those are wily rabbits.

Returning toward Las Vegas, we stopped just below the Lake Mead Visitors Center in Boulder, Nevada to ride our bikes on the Historic Rails to Trails. As the title implies, this is an old rail line which leads 3.7 miles to Hoover Dam. Many people were hiking it but they seemed mostly to be going the other way. It was a good thing they started early because the day was getting hot. It wasn’t too bad on e-bikes.

There are five old train tunnels on this trail. Each one is very exciting to ride through.

Looking ahead to one train tunnel while inside another

When the trail ended, we jumped on the state route for just a bit and stopped at a turnoff to view Hoover Dam.

This was a novel view for us. We have been on this road many times in years past; it used to be the only way to get from Arizona to Nevada. Cal remembers us touring Hoover Dam for $1.00. Having visited the dam in earlier times, we did not feel the need to go any closer.

From here, we could turn around and see the new bridge that bypasses this whole area. It was built between 2005 and 2010. When we drove on the bridge, we would have never have known that Hoover Dam was below. It’s not possible to see anything with the concrete barriers. I really think it’s too bad they’ve “lost the view” in the construction of the bridge, as wonderful as it may be for safety and bypassing a congested area.

With our added little side trip to Hoover Dam, we logged in 11 miles on this ride, plus had a great chat with a young German couple at a rest stop.

This trip completed our time in Las Vegas; we left just a few days later with a whole lot of great memories.

Next time: on the road and back in to California

USTravel

Red Rock Canyon, Springs Preserve, and other Las Vegas Sights

twosnatravels5 Comments

One of the things that made for a good stay at the Nellis AFB RV Park, Desert Eagle, was that there is actually an event coordinator here by the name of Lori. She and her husband, Troy, who also works at the park, were an awesome team who headed up the events Lori planned. We went to a chili cookoff, and then the next event was a hike at Red Rock Canyon National Preserve.

This park requires entrance tickets, which Lori took care of. It receives local visitors and tourists from the Strip alike, since it isn’t all that far from the city, so it can get busy. It was nice not having to drive, as Lori has a large van at her disposal.

The Willow Spring Trail at Red Rocks is rated moderate and is 1.5 miles one way. There were some tight spots–

— and a bit of rock scrambling —

— but we enjoyed the trail and meeting our fellow RV’ing hikers in the group. Coincidentally, several were from Alaska. Military folks get sent, and put down roots, in a lot of varied places.

The trail took us to a pretty waterfall.

An unexpected treat near the end of our hike was a native American agave roasting pit. It is to the right of this picture, and you can see the soot marks on the hollowed limestone rock. Underneath, rocks were placed and heated, and the heated rocks formed an oven. These seasonal roasts were a time of feasting and gathering for dances and religious ceremonies.

If you can zoom in, and you would like a little “seek and find”, you can look for the ancient hand prints to the left of the top of the crack that rises up from the ground, near left center of the picture.

After our hike, we had the picnic lunch that we’d brought along at a shelter. There was a spontaneous second walk on a boardwalk loop trail nearby before returning to Nellis.

We returned to Red Rocks another day with our ebikes. The park road goes one way in a loop for 13 miles, and is recommended for biking. We arrived at 8:15 AM, with park entrances in hand. We saw no other bikes and only a handful of cars, so it was perfect timing. In a natural park like Red Rocks, the uphills are steeper but easily tackled by ebikes. And the downhills – wheee! I had my bike up to 25 mph, which would normally be too scary for me. The road was empty of traffic, though, and the surface smooth.

Seeing the park at our normal biking speed of 10 mph gave us a slower view of the scenery, including those red rocks for which the park is famous.

Sitting to take a break, the silence was profound.

We took another of Lori’s excursions to Springs Preserve. This park is much closer in to the city. It is on the site where a spring with water was originally found and the city of Las Vegas was born. There is a whole exhibit here about water, and the Charleston Heights pump station is here. Most of Las Vegas’s water comes from Lake Mead.

That’s not all there is to Springs Preserve, though. There is a botanical garden, a butterfly house, a train that goes to a recreated Western boomtown, the Nevada Museum, the Origens Museum, and a tasty cafe overlooking the park where we had lunch. I’m sure I’m forgetting something. It is not hard to fill up a day here.

This is the Western Town, from the train station. It was still early in the day and not many people were about.

At the train station, I found the old photos of Las Vegas to be fascinating.

In the Western Town, there were period homes to visit:

And things I never heard of were here, too:

This is a solar chimney, which is used to cool a room. The sun heats the air in the chimney, causing a draft, which draws warm air up and out of a room. Native plants (that you don’t see in the picture) cool and dampen the air, which is also pulled into the chimney.

The Origen Museum here was great for several short movies in various rooms as you walked through. The flash flood exhibit is everyone’s favorite. There is a video on the screen with two rangers walking around in the desert, talking about the dangers of the heat and other desert-related information. Then, all of a sudden, 5,000 gallons of water are coming at you! The water goes right under a bridge under your feet and does a great job of informing the visitor about just how fast a flash flood can come up.

The last thing we saw here was the Liberace Room in the Nevada Museum, with Liberace’s piano, chandelier, and other assorted items on display. Liberace was a flamboyant pianist and singer who had concert residency in Las Vegas. Besides Liberace, you can see a dinosaur fossil, listen to stories of Nevada miners, and hear about Nevada’s part in atomic history in this museum.

We did a fair amount of bike riding while in Vegas, besides Red Rock Canyon. Nellis Air Base was interesting in and of itself. The Thunderbird flying team is here, and we saw them lined up on the airfield.

They did zoom over us at the RV park a couple of times, but mostly they were out of town doing shows. We were delighted to discover a small museum dedicated to the Thunderbirds near their parking spot.

The Las Vegas Upper and Lower Wash Trails provided a chance for a longer ride. What the trails lacked in beauty, they made up for in urban interest. Going from east to west, it was all suburbia, starting at the prettily landscaped Centennial Park. As we got more into the city, it became more industrialized and gritty.

We rode on what seemed like the longest pedestrian bridge ever, over the rail yard and the highway with a view of the Strip. The end of the bridge can be seen on the left center above.

The only thing about this trail is that their trail maps are miniscule and not well placed. Peering down to see where we were was always a challenge!

Another day, we drove out to artwork in the desert south of the Strip called Seven Magic Mountains. The artwork is by Ugo Rondinone, and has something to do about the continuity and solidarity between man and nature. I captured six of the seven “mountains” in this photo.

This little boy laboriously building his own Seven Mountains was more inspiring to me.

Last, but certainly not least: we have family everywhere, it seems. Cal found a distant cousin a few years ago who lives in Las Vegas. He had met Andy on an earlier trip to Vegas, but it was my first time meeting him, his wife Iris, and their son Daniel. We went out for dinner one night and got to know one another better. Daniel took this picture of us. I could for sure see the family resemblance between Cal, Andy, and others in his family.

I’ve covered a lot of ground here, and haven’t even noted everything we did while staying in Las Vegas. The city surprised us with all that it had to offer, and the RV park at Nellis, Desert Eagle, certainly lived up to its reputation as a great place to sojourn for a little while.

Something different…a highway view from the Upper Wash pedestrian bridge

Next time – back to Arizona and the Grand Canyon

USTravel

Valley of Fire State Park, and a County Fair

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Valley of Fire State Park lies about 45 miles from where our RV was parked in north Las Vegas. It’s considered to be a geologic park. The additional thing that drew me to it was the promise of seeing petroglyphs. These messages left from ancient peoples are fascinating and I like to think about the people who drew them. So, we packed a picnic and headed out.

A hint of sights to come is the bright red rocks that greet you as you enter the park.

The first stop just after entering Valley of Fire is Atlatl Rock. Here, the petroglyphs are high up on the boulders. The stairs up to them presented the first challenge, but the reward is great for those who make the climb.

Petroglyphs offer a window into the lives of the people who lived here long ago. An atlatl is a primitive spear. Here, near the top, the artist drew a picture of one as well as a person with an atlatl in his hand. There are also some big- horn sheep scattered around. It’s interesting to speculate what else the artist, or artists, may have been thinking of when creating these.

The artwork covered much of the tall rock slab. We marveled at how they might have gotten up there to accomplish it.

At the Visitors Center, there are descriptions of the rocks. Valley of Fire’s rocks come in many colors. They are mostly sedimentary, meaning they come from liquid rock that is deep within the earth, compressed and formed into new rock. They then metamorphose into new forms such as dolomite (from limestone) or quartzite (from sandstone).

This formation of rocks can be seen just after leaving the Visitor’s Center.

What is intriguing about the rocks is that just by moving your perspective, you receive a whole different view. After driving around a corner of the road, the above formation is also pictured below. The small rock perched on another looks like it might fall right off in a good windstorm!

We hiked Mouse’s Tank Trail, which starts out with sand for the feet and orange boulders rising up on the side. There are petroglyphs here, too, and it was like an Easter egg hunt to find them as we walked.

Another thing I learned in the Visitor’s Center is that a dark staining of some of the exposed sandstone walls is called “desert varnish”. Valley of Fire has a lot of desert varnish, and this is what the natives preferred for their petroglyphs.

Still another definition for you – a “tank” is a pool of water formed when rocks form a sort of bowl which holds rainwater. The early peoples and later travelers greatly benefited from these water pockets. We learned about these when we unsuccessfully tried to find a tank on a trail at Capitol Reef National Park a while ago. I was happy to see this one.

Supposedly, Mouse is the name of the Indian fellow who found it. I’d venture to say he wasn’t the first.

Our other trail for this day was White Dome Trail, with two huge white domes of rock as the entrance portals. On this trail there is a piece of a movie set.

What looks like an old ruin was actually built in 1965 for the movie “The Professionals”.

Still on this same trail, and shortly after the movie set, we entered a slot canyon.

After walking in to it, the air was suddenly cool and we were shaded from the sun.

Coming out of the slot canyon, the walk was level and the rocks were so pretty. I saw what looked to me like a giant tortoise head in this formation:

And, the colorful striated rocks for which the park is known, in pinks and reds and whites, along with some spring flowers blooming:

We found a picnic area for our lunch. It turned out to be a stage for a nest of chipmunks who were all vying for a piece of our lunch. I don’t feed the critters anymore, and no one should, but people do. They were very entertaining as they scampered about.

Here’s more photo of Valley of Fire, showing a deep contrast between the colors of weathered rock and desert varnish:

Coincidentally, the morning news on the same day as our visit here did a feature on the Clark County Fair. I looked up the location and found it was only a little distance from Valley of Fire.

We had come into the state park on the west side. To get to the fair, we needed to go through the park – which we were doing anyway – go out the east side, and turn north for a little while. We enjoyed the different view along the way. The east side emerges just north of the northernmost reach of Lake Mead. The landscape was other-worldly. There were dry mesas with lofty tables miles long, yet the valley was green with trees.

Inside the fair gates, I was ready for a treat and our mission was to find funnel cakes and lemonade to share. I couldn’t remember when I’d last had one, although we’d had plenty of opportunity. There was a grove of trees with a large patch of grass and we soon joined everyone else taking a break from the sun. It beat hard on this day and felt hot, even though the temperature was barely eighty degrees.

Only small animals were being judged at this fair. There were no cows or horses here, although there were one or two on display. There was a mama sow with her piglets and other animals such as this group of llamas:

We watched the goat judging. These kids work so hard taking care of their goat all year long, and then making sure they and their goat are looking their best for the big day. The judge had a lot to say as he checked them all out. The goats and their owners are evaluated in groups of six. All of the goats are then in their pens for the duration of the fair, and ribbons proudly displayed.

When the judging was done, the kids could enjoy the carnival at the fair to provide some stress relief. There was also a handful of buildings to walk through. I always enjoy the fine arts building at fairs in order to view the needlework, paintings, and other creativity on display. This is an embroidered piece with a multitude of French knots that form the background and the tablecloth for the vase of flowers. I’m sure it was a lot of work!

From here, it was an easy drive a little further north to hop on the interstate for the drive back to Vegas. I counted this day as one of the highlights of our time here.

Next time – Everything else in Las Vegas

USTravel

Downtown Las Vegas

twosnatravels3 Comments

“Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city, linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty, how can you lose? –Petula Clark

The place that used to be hopping with the main casino activity in Vegas is downtown on Fremont Street. After our fine hotel stay on the Strip that I wrote about in my last post, we came here after checkout. Since it was morning, things were pretty quiet. Change was immediately evident since the last time I was here. The street has been permanently blocked off and made into a pedestrian zone. Something called a Viva Vision canopy now covers the whole thing. It is the largest LED canopy screen in the world. Free light shows happen on the hour. There is even a zip line that goes from one end to another. It has been dubbed “the Fremont Street Experience.”

As I first stepped on what was formerly known as the Strip, a wave of nostalgia washed over me. I was here, days before my 19th birthday, with my best friend who has since passed. She had purchased a car from her uncle who lived here, and I flew to Vegas to meet her and help her drive it back to Texas. Of course, we dressed up to the nines to go out on the town. We played the slots, but I’m sure we didn’t spend more than some of our quarters. A decade later, Cal and I also visited here a couple of times when we had family living in town.

On a side street, I could almost feel the old Vegas.

Cal and I remember when people would stand outside the casinos handing out coupons for free sodas, a room, a low-cost meal. Breakfast was especially cheap. Anything to get you inside. If you played, they gave you free drinks. What I didn’t know then, I know now: in those days, the Mafia ran Vegas with a tight fist. They are credited with developing the city into what it is today, both good and bad. People with money ran hand in hand with those who had no money but had expertise.

Two things happened to change things: law enforcement cracked down on traditional organized crime, and new Nevada laws were passed to ease the way for corporations to own and operate casinos. Add to that, all of the newer casinos out on the Strip are not in the city of Las Vegas. They are in an unincorporated township named Paradise.

Here in downtown Las Vegas, on Fremont Street, no one passes out coupons anymore. It seems smaller to me, but someone I talked to said it really is not. Some of the smaller casinos have been swallowed up by bigger ones, though, so there are less of them.

If you are interested, you can get more of the history by visiting the Mob Museum in downtown Vegas. We didn’t visit it this time.

There is a show on TV called Pawn Stars. Occasionally, when Cal is flipping channels, he stops on this show to watch something that catches his interest. On the show, people bring in things they want to sell. Many times they are antiques or oddities and the owners then consult experts to check the value. It is interesting to see what the experts tell about the history of the item and to find out how much they think it is worth, and then see how much the pawn shop owners give the seller for it. Sometimes a deal is struck, sometimes not. Usually the seller receives much less than they said they originally wanted.

The shop that the Pawn Stars own is Gold and Silver Pawn. We walked down to it from Fremont Street.

It was strange to be in a place we’d only seen on TV. The counter is familiar as the place where people set their treasures for evaluation and sale. There was nothing we would have been interested in buying, though, and some of the collectibles were very expensive. I’d call this “Upscale Pawn”. Do they have good luck selling this stuff? Well, there are buyers for everything, and the store is also on-line so you don’t need to come to Vegas to shop.

After digging around, I discovered the shows we’d watched are reruns. The show has been off the air for two years. The shop is owned and run by three generations of men and one of their friends, but scandal and legal issues surrounded them. The store is still a popular place to visit, judging from all the people coming and going.

Walking from Fremont Street to the shop, we passed a pretty wedding chapel:

We made one more visit downtown. I wanted to see the Neon Museum. We took an Uber back downtown for an excellent dinner at Nacho Daddy’s. From there it is a 3/4 mile walk to museum. It wasn’t the nicest walk. I suppose walking isn’t the main way people get there, and I think it’s too bad that the city can’t do something to clean this up just a little bit.

The Neon Museum is a graveyard for many of Las Vegas’s old signs. There is a lot of history to be seen just by looking at them.

The Stardust Casino opened in 1958 and the hotel was the world’s largest at the time. As a child, I remember it being one of the iconic scenes of Las Vegas that you would see on TV or movies. The design of the sign is a nod to the beginning of the space age that was happening at the time. The resort closed in 2006.

I was surprised to see the Hard Rock Cafe sign behind it. How can a Hard Rock be out of business? It was here for only five years before being purchased by Richard Branson and rebranded as Virgin Hotels. Word is that a new Hard Rock will be opening in 2027.

Argon makes the light in this sign, which dates back to the early 1950’s. The light that argon produces is blue, but the colored glass used for the words changes it to green. This was a motel sign.

Neon, however, is what put Vegas on the map. The museum’s oldest operating sign is the Chief Motel Court which dates to 1940.

The Golden Nugget, built in 1946, is one of the oldest casinos. Today there are six Golden Nugget resorts in five states. I suppose this sign doesn’t work any more.

The Neon Museum has placed some of the old motel signs in the median on some streets downtown. Of course, the Normandie Motel is long gone.

I’d want to sleep here if I could. Maybe I’d get the same room Elvis had?

Walking back to Fremont Street, we noticed that we could have happy hour at the Gold Spike at 4 AM. That’s handy.

The Strip in Las Vegas today uses LED lighting, but the neon lights (and light bulbs) are all still aglow on Fremont Street. When we arrived back after visiting the Neon Museum, the place was hopping. It was a drastically different scene than we’d encountered on our morning visit.

The East side of Fremont street doesn’t have the covering over it and traffic is allowed on the street.

Visiting the city of Las Vegas was a whole lot of fun but it didn’t take many visits for us to decide we were done. We talked to many locals while here, and every one of them said that they only go down into the city when they have company. What else could there possibly be to see and do? I’ll be exploring that in the next couple of posts.

Next time – Valley of Fire

USTravel

On the Strip in Las Vegas

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Why would an outdoor loving, RV’ing couple that doesn’t gamble and isn’t particularly into night life opt for a six week stay in Las Vegas?

There were two reasons: mainly, we wanted to wait a few weeks for the Sierra Mountains in east California to warm up before we headed in that direction. The second was that Nellis Air Force Base has an RV park there that a lot of folks in the military RV’ing world talk about as being one of the best. And, a bonus reason: it was an easy flight to Denver for some time with our family there. So really, only our RV was there six weeks. We were in Denver for ten days out of that time.

At our gate at the Denver airport and waiting for our flight back to Las Vegas, we watched this gentleman counting his cash before boarding. It was quite an involved process.

Ready to hit the casinos?

We’ve both been to Vegas, together or with others. Our memories are centered around the old Strip, or what is now called “Downtown”. I’d heard a lot over the years about all the changes in the city, and was curious to see them.

Someone flying into Vegas for a few days of fun might have a hotel in one of the casinos on the Strip or near it. There’s no need to rent a car, since one can simply walk out the door from one casino right next door to another one. And so on down the street. For anywhere further, there’s always Uber. We weren’t dropped right onto the Strip, so where to start?

Nellis Air Force Base, and our RV, were a fair distance north from the Strip. We did not know where to park our massive truck, and there was also the question of security. We opted to Uber whenever we went there. I loaded an on-line walking guide onto my phone, and we had our Uber driver drop us off at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino for a daytime stroll on the Strip.

New York-New York tries to hit all the highlights of the Big Apple: inside, there is a street that looks like Broadway and Times Square. There is a New York-style deli that looked great but we were too early for lunch. Outside were the Brooklyn Bridge and even the Statue of Liberty:

New York? No, this lady’s on the Strip in Las Vegas

Outside, the colorful turrets and towers of Excalibur beckoned.

We walked through a casino floor, although I’m not sure now which one this was.

The slot machines don’t look like ones we remembered. This is what we remember:

This beauty is at the Clark County Museum, Las Vegas

Oh well, I guess I’m showing my age!

We thought we might do some shopping, but these stores weren’t really my style.

There is a feast for the senses out on the street, even though Vegas hadn’t quite woken up yet when I took this photo.

All of a sudden, we were transported to Paris in the spring:

I’ve been to the real thing for most of the sights in Vegas. I was prepared to not be impressed, but I was. They’ve copied the world’s treasures, jammed them into the Strip, and it seems crazy but it works. It’s all a facade, but it brings in the crowds and the revenue and I’m sure that’s the general idea.

We lunched at the Flamingo. Outside, there were real flamingos.

I wanted to see the canals of “Venice”, since we were actually in Venice less than two years ago. This is a reimagined Bridge of Sighs from that city in the Venetian, with everything not quite where it would be in reality:

When you are inside, it feels like you are still outside. I didn’t get a picture of the gondolas going down the canal, but the gondoliers are in their traditional costumes, and they are singing. They don’t even do that in Venice any more! The canals and Venice-style buildings cloak what is really just a shopping mall.

We walked by the new Sphere, but I wished it was night time so we could see it lit up. The design changes frequently.

I wanted to see a show, but couldn’t decide what I wanted to see. There were many big-name performers in town, but none that either of us wanted to spend a lot of money on. Going down the highway one day, I saw a billboard for Penn and Teller. That’s it! Their nightly show starts at 9 PM. Whew, I didn’t know what time we’d get back to North Las Vegas afterwards. We found a $99 special at the Rio Hotel and Casino, where they perform, and a couple of days later we checked in.

We wandered around the casino floor and hotel. If you wanted to, you could get married here, as there is a chapel. Since we are already married, we stopped for a pre-dinner glass of wine. As we sat, the animated lady in this slot machine beckoned us over to play. It wasn’t all that hard to resist her charms.

Rio Hotel is not right on the Strip. Although it’s not far, it’s not walkable either. Since our show didn’t start till later, we Uber’d down to the Bellagio. I wanted to see Bellagio and the city lights.

Entering the Bellagio, there is Chihuly glass on the lobby ceiling. That is another thing I wanted to see here, and Mr. Chihuly didn’t disappoint. He never does. It is spectacular.

The Bellagio has a free-to-all conservatory and botanical gardens with installations that change five times a year – one for each season and Lunar New Year. The exhibit for spring was “Tea and Tulips”.

I wish I could put the smell of all the spring flowers on display in this blog for you. It was intoxicating.

While I’m wishing for things, I also wish I could be transported right here every time the exhibit changes.

We walked for a bit on the gaming floor. There were blackjack, craps, roulette, and other games I’m not familiar with going on, with some large stacks of chips being exchanged. Even for a Sunday night, everything was rolling.

Outside of the Bellagio, I had one wish fulfilled: to see the lights on the Strip. Just a little. The Sphere peeked out from around the corner of the Flamingo.

It is said that the fountains at the Bellagio are not to be missed. We didn’t realize that they are on a timed show, and had to wait a while for it to start. It was windy and cold, but we waited. Behind me, I watched limos pull up to the Bellagio in a steady stream. Finally music began to play – Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” – and the water danced to the music.

This doesn’t capture the whole thing, but the “Eiffel Tower” in the background sure was beautiful. The water soars 460 feet in the air and the fountain spans a distance of 1,000 feet. Funny thing, though, Cal and I both later agreed that we were a little disappointed in the fountain show. I don’t know what either of us expected.

By now, we needed to hurry back to the Rio for our show. Penn and Teller were excellent. They do a comedy and magic routine. Teller never speaks, but his actions do all the talking for him – he is very funny and they both made us laugh. They are the longest-running show at the same hotel in Las Vegas history. We really enjoyed seeing it. And what a treat, afterwards, to just ride the elevator up to our room for bedtime!

Next time – Downtown Las Vegas

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Amargosa Valley and Longstreet RV

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Anywhere that we put our slides, awning and lawn chairs out is home – for a few days, anyway

By the words and pictures of my blog, it may look like Cal and I are always running around from here to there and seeing everything there is to see. That’s not exactly true. There are stretches of time where we are just living life, same as everyone.

It’s not often that I write about one single RV stay, but that will be what this post is about. And the question is, what makes a perfect place to park our RV?

When we started out RV’ing, the answer was simple. A state park or Corps of Engineers park, out in nature, with full hookups, or at least with water and electricity is a must. Then, a nice level spot with lots of shade, and preferably not in close sight of our neighbors. Places to walk are also important. These sorts of places weren’t hard to find where we lived in Missouri. But we’ve only been in Missouri once in the past three years of full time RVing.

The RV park for Death Valley was full before I could even blink. Of course there weren’t any state parks nearby, and not even many commercial parks to choose from within spitting distance of the park. That led me to “Longstreet Hotel Casino and RV Resort”. This was a novel idea. The pictures looked good, reviews okay. I’ve long ago learned to take the “Resort” part of an RV park with a grain of salt. We would be in Death Valley for a good part of the time, anyway.

The building only has two stories, and the RV “resort” was around back. The gentleman at the desk assigned us a site and said we could move if we didn’t like it. That is a rare offer.

The casino is out in the middle of nowhere, and this was the view out our window. For our first two days, there were RV’s in these sites with ATV’s parked next to each. If I had my druthers, we would have moved, preferring instead to have been in the first row facing the mountains. Cal was happy with the site, though, so we stayed. It was interesting watching the ATV’ers head out for jaunts into the desert; after two days, they were gone. No one ever moved into these sites again, leaving us with a perfect view.

We thought maybe the green space might have been a golf course at one time, and the pond a part of it.

On our first evening we took a long walk down a narrow gravel road leading straight into the desert and alongside the mountain. There is no cacti here, just sagebrush and scrub.

We put a rest day in between each of our visits to the park. Those days had long miles in them, both for the truck and on our feet. At home, we caught up on chores, all the stuff one normally does in life. Here, Cal is attending to something on the roof. All we had here was a gravel spot in a parking lot. It was nice that the park was always less than half full.

Someone was in that site next to us only one or two nights. On the other side, there was another 5th wheel with a gentleman who left for work early every morning and went inside his RV when he came home.

Cal was really impressed with his ATV.

On our “off days”, when I needed to stretch my legs, I could walk out to California. And then, back again to Nevada.

The wildflowers were just starting to come out. How can they grow in the harsh desert terrain?

The inside of the casino is typical of many casinos. Longstreet has a gaming floor, an area with couches, a restaurant, a convenience store, and a bar. With the exception of the store, everything is in one big room. A country band played on the weekends. I thought I’d be tempted to eat in the restaurant more than we did but we only had one lunch there. It was a rare treat to just walk over from the RV.

Walking around the building, there were many things to see. I could admire the old conveyances out front.

The old with the new

There is a petting zoo, with animals that mostly didn’t want to be petted. The zoo also includes a bull, a goat and a sheep.

The back rooms to the hotel had patios and balconies which looked out onto another pond. This one is nicely landscaped and there are sculptures and many interesting artifacts set out to look at. This pair of geese would fly from one pond to the other daily, honking along the way for good measure.

I’m not sure what this is, but I liked that it said “Denver”.

When the sun started to set, we would put our lawn chairs out on the (not) golf course, and watch the mountains turn red. We would puzzle over why the owner thought he needed the enormous cow out front, and where it may have come from. And, of course, we could ponder the meaning of life and let ourselves be swallowed up into the silence.

So, back to what makes a perfect RV spot?

The road has shown us that there is no one simple answer. The spot that we are initially disappointed in may reveal its secrets to us later. It could be the friendly folks at the park or some fun events that they held, a great trail to walk on, an interesting neighbor to hang out with, or a resident cat. We don’t tend to use a lot of the amenities that parks like to advertise.

A concrete pad here might have been nice, but gravel is the way of the desert. No, Longstreet wasn’t perfect. Only a select few sites have ever won that title for us. Longstreet did, however, score points with both of us for 1) the view into the desert, 2) lots of delightful places for me to walk and get my steps in, 3) a slight quirkiness with all the various little things to see, and 4) being quiet and peaceful.

In the end, we can’t ask for too much more.

When we passed our first night in San Diego, I was very excited to put a California sticker on my map. And then, in Boulder City, I could add the one for Nevada. It had been almost two years since we’d been able to add new stickers. You can see that we have covered the Southwest. Which state will be next? Even we, the Twosna Travelers, don’t have the answer to that question at present.

Next time – It’s Vegas, baby!

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More Visits to Death Valley National Park

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After our first visit to Death Valley I could not wait to come back. We returned to Death Valley for an early morning hike on the Golden Canyon and Red Cathedral trails with abundant sunshine. The canyon lives up to its name; in morning light it holds a golden glow.

The golden rocks on our canyon trail and the red rocks in the “cathedral” above

It was a bit of a scramble up to the pinnacles of Red Cathedral. At one point I looked up, saw Cal, and could not figure out how he got up to where he was. He was scaling the rocks like a mountain goat.

“How did you get up there??”

Meanwhile, he took a picture of me from his perch.

The heights at the top were a bit dizzying, especially since the rock pinnacles are so tall here.

The view at the end of the trail is nothing short of spectacular.

We sat here by ourselves for a good long time just resting and enjoying the view. Another couple from Massachusetts came up from a different trail and we chatted for awhile. We discovered many things in common, particularly once we started discussing international travel. It’s funny who you meet in the wilderness and how easily conversations can start.

For a different angle on this magnificent park, we visited the Harmony Borax Works. I remember my mother always having a box of 20 Mule Team Borax on hand, but I never gave a thought as to where the product came from. Turns out that in the late 1800’s, borax was mined right here in Death Valley. You can see the white borax on the ground in this view, along with ruins of the housing for the Chinese workers in the distance.

Borates, or salt minerals, were deposited in ancient lakebeds long ago and eroded into the Furnace Creek Badlands of Death Valley. Water mixed with the borates and carried the borax ore here. Borax has many uses around the home. My mother used it in the laundry as a whitener and stain remover before “Shout” was available, but borax can also kill weeds, unclog drains, and remove rust. In the late 1800’s miners, blacksmiths, and morticians also used borax. It is a multi-purpose product, and even more so in the days before many chemical alternatives were invented.

It was cheaper in those times to refine the borax ore right on the spot, and it is the ruins of the processing center that you can still see at Death Valley today.

Here, the borax was separated from mud and salts. I won’t get in the weeds about how it was done, but if you are interested, I’ve included a picture of the signboard here that details the process.

It took ten days for a team of twenty mules to pull the wagons of borax 165 miles out of the desert to Mojave, where there was a railroad. The round tank that you see here held the water supply needed to make the trip out of the desert. This is one set of only two remaining original wagons. I could only imagine the mule team hitched up and on their way!

An actual photo of the mule team; the picture hangs at Death Valley Inn

The mine wasn’t profitable, and only had a six year run. Borax was discovered elsewhere in California where the processing costs weren’t so high. In 1889 the Harmony Borax Works closed for good. But the logo of the twenty-mule team still graces boxes of Borax sold today.

Mesquite Sand Dunes was our furthest-north stop on this day. By now it was afternoon, and was getting hot. Death Valley is the hottest place on earth. In 2020 and in 2021, the temperature reached 130 degrees, the 5th and 6th hottest days ever recorded anywhere. Of course, that would have been summer time, but even on this late winter day it still felt very warm and the temperature was hovering around the 90’s.

Although it doesn’t look like it from this picture, there were a lot of people here. The dunes seemed to swallow them all up.

We made one more stop on this day, to the Inn at Death Valley where I took a picture of the mule team. My driver was sorely in need of a rest. I had seen these ruins and wanted to explore while Cal took a break in the hotel lobby before the drive back home.

I couldn’t find much out about this building. I do know that the original adobe inn was constructed in 1927 with natural materials onsite. This building is across the street from the inn. As I walked inside, I noticed several partitions that looked like horse stalls. A stable for the inn, maybe? Well, who knows. It’s shabby on the outside. Perhaps it has purposefully been left that way.

Once you go inside, though, it is a different and beautiful story. Past the horse stall ruins that may not be horse stalls, there is an inner courtyard. And perhaps the “horse stalls” were actually small inn rooms back in the day which led into this main area. In current day, it looks like it is being used as a venue for special events.

Of course, this is Death Valley, so right next door to this is are some interesting rock formations.

From here, I walked down to the spot that is considered to be the entrance to the valley. A small marker memorialized a group of one hundred emigrants who in 1849 tried to cross Death Valley as a shortcut and instead met thirst and starvation. We forget about how difficult this terrain is for those who weren’t Shoshone natives and didn’t have speedy vehicles equipped with air conditioning, heat, or comfortable seating. Nor did they have plastic water bottles.

We had time for one more morning hike, and chose the closest one from home. This was the Badlands Loop at Zabriske Point. It was more open and even more desolate than anything we’d encountered earlier.

I marveled that anything at all could grow here.

I will leave you with a public service announcement. Days after our Death Valley visit, we were watching the evening news when there was a segment about a couple of people lifting the largest boulders that they could and tossing them off of a cliff while visiting a national monument. It was caught on camera, thankfully, and the perpetrators were arrested. The news station then posted the contact numbers and web addresses for the organizations that you can notify if you ever see some one desecrating our national parks and monuments like this.

Next time – Almorgosa Valley living

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Death Valley Days

twosnatravels5 Comments

For the present, our brief Arizona foray was finished. In mid-March we traveled northward.

From Lake Havasu City in Arizona, we crossed into Nevada and spent a night in Boulder City. I navigated Cal through south Las Vegas to avoid the worst of morning rush hour traffic. It was not spring yet in the Spring Mountains; we encountered snow and salt trucks going through the pass there, topping our elevation out at 5,490 feet. Dropping down, we were in the Mojave Desert again. And then, we arrived in beautiful Amargosa Valley, our headquarters for a few days.

I tried to obtain reservations for the campground that has full hookups in Death Valley National Park, but others were quicker than I. We drove from Nevada to California every day that we traveled to the park. Our RV was situated about 33 miles from the first main viewpoint of Death Valley, Zabriskie Point. There was a lot of driving to do every day we were here. Our first day was cloudy, rainy, and cool.

At Zabriskie Point the ancient rocks show the results of underground upheaval, wind, sun and rain. The black in the rocks are evidence of volcanic activity.

From this place, we received our first look at Manly Lake and the Salt Flats at Badwater. On a day such as this, the water is the same color as the sky.

We took some time out to see Furnace Creek Visitors Center; they had a movie that I enjoyed seeing. It focused on the people who have always lived here, the Timbisha Shoshones. “Why do they call this Death Valley?” one elder mused. “It is our home. It gives us life. Not death.” These people were once put on display for the tourists. On the road to the Visitors Center, there is a turnoff to the Timbisha Shoshone village. The tribe numbers around 1,770 members today but only around 50 live in the village.

One of the first things I wanted to see in the park were the salt flats and the lake. This area has been in the news this winter. Normally Death Valley receives about two inches of rain per year, but two things happened: Hurricane Hillary in August 2023, and then an atmospheric river in February of this year dumped more rain. A lake formed here for the first time since 2005. In February we heard that people were actually bringing kayaks to go boating on the lake. At its peak, it measured about three feet deep.

By the time we arrived, the lake level had subsided. We were able to walk far out onto the flats. The salt deposits gave us places to put our feet.

Salt crystals in Badwater Basin

Knowing we were coming here, I was following events at Lake Manly this winter. There were some strong winds at the end of February, and since the lake is so shallow, the wind actually moved the lake two miles! And then moved it (mostly) back where it was!

Badwater Basin lies 282 feet below sea level. It’s hard to fathom when you are standing in a place that is that low.

The lake, the salt and desert dirt, and the clouds formed ribbons of color.

More colors were to be seen at Artist’s Palette, a scenic drive containing viewpoints and a trail.

According to the park signboard, volcanic eruptions created this tapestry made of iron, magnesium, aluminum, titanium, and other elements.

Cal drove us from the lowest part of the park at Badwater Basin up to one of the highest points at Dante’s View. The elevation here is 5,575 feet. He was happy to just enjoy the view. But I saw a trail, so I took off.

Looking at the next peak, I said “Why not?” and climbed it. And then the next. Looking down from such a height on an overcast day, one almost loses perspective. Which are the clouds, the water, the salt flats, or merely a reflection?

I was feeling very accomplished after this little jaunt, which had been a bit precarious.

What else is there to see in Death Valley? So much that I could not fit everything we experienced here into one post. Stay tuned!

Next time – Salt Minerals, Sand and a Cathedral in Death Valley

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Burro-ing Around in Oatman, Arizona

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The old mining town of Oatman lies in the northwest corner of Arizona and is around fifty miles from Lake Havasu City. With that distance, it’s a little far for a day trip, but after a few days around Lake Havasu we were ready for something different to do.

An unexpected bonus to the trip to Oatman is that it is on old Route 66, and the desert vistas are gorgeous.

Oatman began, as many Southwest towns did, by the discovery of gold in 1915. It is named after a little Illinois girl named Olive Oatman who was captured by Indians. It was a big story that everyone knew about at the time.

Millions of dollars in gold were mined here, and the remains of those mines dot the hillsides.

A sign on a board in Oatman stated that the town furnished gold for World War I, and copper for World War II.

There was a bit of a renaissance as a destination with a Western theme for tourists when the Mother Road, Route 66, was built.

Abandoned homes tell the story of Oatman’s booms and busts.

Route 66 was bypassed after Interstate 40 was constructed. The town may have died but for the thing that keeps it on the map: the burros that wander around town. When the mines closed, the workers turned their hardworking burros into the hills. The burros became feral, and burros did what burros do – they multiplied. They were used to being fed, so they wandered through town looking for handouts. Now, of course, everyone wants to feed them, and the shops sell mule food.

We came into Oatman in the morning, and nary a burro was to be seen. It was a cool morning, and I was told that they like to laze about when it’s cool and come into town when it warms up. So we walked through the craft and trinket shops, and looked at all the varied items that an antique store had sitting outside.

The town had a huge fire in 1921 which burned down many of the buildings in existence at the time. This wall is the site of one of the hotels, and the doorway is the entrance to a mine that was constructed later.

Nearby, there is a jail cell that was used for temporary incarceration of prisoners.

The Oatman Hotel survived the fire of 1912. Built in 1902, it is the county’s oldest two-story adobe structure. We went in for lunch. The walls were plastered with dollar bills and, as I waited for my food, I gazed at a large picture of Willie (in his younger days) on the stage.

I enjoyed a most delicious lunch here. It was the special of the day and called “Greek Shepherd’s Pie”. I can’t pass up anything with “Greek” in the name. After taking a few bites, I realized it was moussaka, but I’d never had moussaka like this before. Maybe it was the melted cheese in it, warm and tasty. I’m still thinking about that lunch. Cal had his usual burger and fries.

After that extremely satisfying meal, we went into what I think was formerly the lobby but now has a soda counter selling ice cream. Despite all that moussaka, there was room for ice cream. A precocious little girl sat on one of the stools, swinging her legs as she chatted us up. She told us that it’s not possible to stay overnight in the hotel any longer. But we could go upstairs and look in the room where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon night after being married in Kingman. Of course we had to take a look after receiving her excellent tourist information.

It’s not a great picture, and there is a bit of a glare with the plexiglass barring the entrance to the room. I thought I’d post the picture anyway because, interestingly, this story is rooted more in myth than in reality. I read later that they returned to Hollywood directly after the wedding. Their supposed room wasn’t the only one to see, though. Other rooms were open and set up to show us the things that early travelers might have brought with them when they stayed in the hotel.

When we emerged from upstairs, the little girl was gone, and there was a shootout on the street. A large crowd gathered. As if on cue, the burros arrived and were soon swamped with tourists. I didn’t buy any feed for them, but that didn’t stop them from checking to make sure.

Cal’s new pet burro

It was hard to get a picture of them without other tourists in the picture. We soon began work on an idea we’d gotten from the little post office here. We purchased cute burro postcards for our grandchildren and mailed them from Oatman. They were cancelled with a special stamp.

Our time in Oatman was over. On the way back to the truck, I wished I had enough energy to hike over to get a closer look at this gorgeous work of sandstone art by Mother Nature.

We had one last treat in store. As we began to drive out, a burro was standing all by itself in the road. No tourists were anywhere in sight so I had this burro all to myself.

You know everything there is to know about photographing wildlife. We’ve all seen the pictures of crazy tourists approaching buffalo in Yellowstone. These burros are wild but they are used to people. There are cautions, though, that they can bite and this one was not in town. I kept my distance and stepped out of the truck to take a picture from across the road. The burro, probably hoping for a handout, came over to me. I retreated and slowly walked back to the truck. It followed and clearly wanted a cuddle.

I made an exception for my wildlife rule. This burro was probably used to being in Oatman anyway.

The burro followed me over to the truck as I started to get in. I’m sure it was looking for a handout.

It finally gave up on me, and checked to see if maybe Cal had some treats in the truck.

If you visit Oatman, you may want to not miss the jail museum. The jail has been preserved from Oatman’s heyday and most of it is original. I didn’t even know about it until we came home and came across it when looking up information about Carol Lombard and Clark Gable’s wedding. If we are ever back in the area, that will be a good excuse to visit the burros again. Maybe the Oatman hotel will have “Greek Shepherd’s Pie” on the menu!

Next time – another national park

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London Bridge is Not Falling Down – Lake Havasu City, Arizona

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Here’s a fun bit of trivia for you. When you think of the London Bridge, what do you think of?

Is it this?

No, that’s Tower Bridge, in London, England.

Is it the bridge that you see to the left of this picture?

Wrong again! No, that’s Westminster Bridge, also in London.

London Bridge is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Like the two bridges above, it once spanned the River Thames in London, England.

In its original home, London Bridge was in bad shape. The city determined to sell it, and in 1968 an entrepreneur and developer named Robert P. McCulloch from Missouri placed the winning bid of $2.4 million dollars for reconstruction in Arizona. He had already built the planned community of Lake Havasu City in 1964, but this would really put it on the map.

He didn’t purchase the insides of the bridge, though. This bridge is reinforced concrete. He only purchased the exterior granite blocks of the original structure. It was completed in 1971.

The city of London, England rebuilt their London Bridge in the 1970’s, but it is built for function and not decoration. Hundreds of thousands of cars drive over that bridge over the Thames daily.

Robert Mccullough also built “English Village” next to the bridge, with British-themed shops and facades made to look like old London. Those are mostly gone now, replaced with shopping, dining, and entertainment venues. But we still got a little taste of the English Village as we walked in for a look. The bridge is behind it.

This London Bridge was not London’s first. The Visitor Center has a nice video which discusses the older London Bridges which go back in time to the 1200’s. In those days, London Bridge had multi-level houses, shops and pubs on it. The current bridge was built in 1729.

When tearing down the bridge in London, 10,276 pieces were numbered for shipment to Arizona. The latter part of the video details the preparation of the site for the bridge, and the reconstruction in putting those numbered pieces back together in Lake Havasu City.

Who besides Robert McCullough would think about putting a bridge in the desert? This bridge did go over nothing but desert land, so he built Bridgewater Channel to divert water from Lake Havasu.

Looking down at the Channel from London Bridge

There are paths along both sides of the channel which lead to Lake Havasu. On an early morning it was an enjoyable place for a walk.

The actual walking path is to the left of this picture

A fun thing about Lake Havasu is that there are 28 lighthouses all around the lake. They are working small replicas of lighthouses around the United States. A group of concerned citizens formed the Lake Havasu Lighthouse Club to improve night-time navigation for boaters on the lake. Besides being decorative, they serve an important function with their lights.

At the end of the canal path, we found our first one.

This is Currituck Beach Lighthouse. The original is on the Outer Banks in Corolla, North Carolina. This lighthouse is one eighth the size of that one, which stands at 168 feet.

The lighthouses on the east, or Arizona side, are replicas of East Coast lighthouses. The ones on the west side of the lake in California are replicas of West Coast lighthouses.

When the canal was built under the London Bridge, an island was created on what was formerly a peninsula. We had heard there is a bike trail around the island, so we rode it on one of our days here.

I was excited to see this lighthouse on the far west side of the island. The lighthouses on the island are Great Lakes lighthouses and this one is Split Rock. The beautiful original overlooks Lake Superior in Two Harbors, Minnesota, and it is one we have visited often.

From this viewpoint, we could see over to California.

There are RV parks on the island and I would have liked to have stayed at one of them, but they come with long waiting lists. We would have had to put our names on a list now in order to hope for someone to call us for a stay next year, or maybe the following year. We circled around one of the parks and down along to the beach to one of its corners to find this gem.

It is so close to the mainland here that I guess they figured they’d put an East Coast lighthouse in this spot. This is West Quoddy Lighthouse in Maine. I liked this one because it came with the little lightkeeper’s cabin. It’s the first lighthouse the club built.

You could make an expedition to find all the lighthouses. There are boat excursions on the lake designed to see most, or all of them. I thought it was fun just to find them at random.

Lake Havasu has beautiful sunsets.

Here’s something fun. These signs were all over this part of Arizona. We thought they were pretty humorous, although probably they weren’t meant to be. Whenever Cal had a momentary confusion about which way to go, I’d say “Just DRIVE!” and we would have a good chuckle all over again.

If you think this might be a nice place to visit, just know that it is very busy. We did both the channel stroll and the bike ride in the morning, and the large parking lot was almost empty. By the time we returned, it was full and traffic was clogged. This is headquarters for every outdoor and water activity you could think of. We wish there would have been easier access to the bridge to get up and around the traffic for bikes. While I’m assembling my dream list, a bike trail along the road to our RV park would also have been nice, because it goes right past a nature preserve on one side and dunes on the other. But maybe they just need to finish the bike trail on the island first, with paved bike access to the lighthouses.

Next time – burros!