Greetings from Las Veags

May 17

Greetings from Las Vegas! We are taking a break from camping and spending 3 days here at the Palms just off the strip. Since my last post we have visited Natural Bridges National Monument in southern Utah with a side trip to Monument Valley in the Navajo Indian Nation in northern Arizona, Capital Reef National Park in south central Utah, Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada and Death Valley National Park in eastern California. We have been out of touch and quite remote for the majority of those 12 days and have rarely had cell service and have camped in awesome spots and not always in a group type campsite. There is lots of BLM land out here to camp on. We have had to use calling cards and pay phones to keep in touch with the kids and others. The scenery has been incredible with each day bringing new WOWS.  All this time out of touch was something I anticipated and I knew we would have to have some method of communication especially when I am alone. About 4 years ago I read about a product that would help close that communications gap.

 SPOT is a personal satellite communications device and this last Christmas Santa brought or should I say bought me one. It has multiple functions and services you can purchase but the basic operation is that it’s a one-way satellite communicator that allows us to send an “I’m ok” message usually on a daily basis and the service provider then sends an email to a predefined list of folks showing our locations and linking it to a map. It also has a Help message in case we were to have a vehicle breakdown in the boonies that our Son and Daughter would get a text message with instructions to call the Allstate RV motorclub on our behalf and give them our GPS location and an SOS function that would trigger a Search and Rescue operation on our behalf in case of an injury so we carry it when we hike and always have it in the truck. It’s affordable and the peace of mind it provides is enormous. I’ll start attaching some of the message links so you’ll be able to see where we are. I’ve put a few videos on Picasa but I won’t be doing more since it uses up my free space and I’m not going to buy more so it looks like it will be photos only.

So to catch-up let’s backup.

May 4^th

We are on the road to Natural Bridges National Monument and have said goodbye to Dead Horse State Park, Canyonlands and Arches NP’s. Upon our arrival in Natural Bridges we found their campground full since they have only 13 sites and few if any would have accommodated our trailer even though it’s not that big. But that was good since we found a pretty little spot on BLM land a few miles outside the park off a dirt road and are all by ourselves with a nice view. 

Natural Bridges is considered a World Class Dark Sky location and our timing was BADDDDDD. We arrived one day short of a full moon and it turned out to be reported as the brightest full moon of the year. To top it off the moon was rising as the sun was setting and setting as dawn was breaking so we didn’t get to see the stars the way we had hoped. But the nights were amazing with such a bright moon, you could walk around without a flashlight and the shadows were as crisp as a noonday sun. Natural Bridges refers to an area where a creek has carved a canyon through various types of rock and as the creek encountered harder rock it would seek the path of least resistance and in many cases create a U bend around the hard rock. But as Eons passed the water would erode the harder rock at the beginning of the U bend and erode it on the backside as the water swirled around it and eventually the water won out and eroded through the harder rock creating a tunnel or Natural Bridge in the hard rock. The creek bed of the U was then abandoned and the bridge opening would grow. It was an amazing example of what water and time can accomplish. We took a side trip to Monument Valley in Arizona on the Navajo reservation. We visited a hotel that has been in the Valley since the 30’s and was a favorite of the famous movie director John Ford. Many Westerns were filmed in Monument Valley and the crew and cast would stay there. They have a little museum with movie items that is interesting and have a cabin that was depicted as John Wayne’s in a few of the movies. Casts and crew for Back to the Future III and Forrest Gump also stayed there. The Forrest Gump scene where he decides to stop running and go home was filmed in Monument Valley. We had dinner at the Navajo resort and witnessed the changing light of sundown on the rock formations. It was a wondrous day.

May 7

We left Natural Bridges behind and headed for Capital Reef National Park in south central Utah and passed over the Colorado River at the very northern beginnings of Lake Powell. The drive went through some beautiful areas but we were out in the Netherlands and saw very few cars and only a handful of towns that were very small. We were fortunate to get a campsite in Capital Reef as it fills almost every day by early afternoon. It’s a beautiful campground and the rock formations in the Park are incredible.

 We stayed 3 days and would have stayed longer if not for reservations down the travel line. We hiked often and went from one WOW to another. I’m not ashamed to say I had tears in my eyes at the beauty and wonder of what nature has for us in this great country of ours. We are blessed and I am so thankful to be able to see and experience what I have read and dreamed about for so many years. When you view the photos I think you’ll understand.

May 10

On the road to Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. We drove west through central Utah through a few towns and numerous mountain ranges then picked up Route 50 heading west into Nevada. We heard it referred to as the loneliest highway and we concur. The last 100 miles out of Utah were crappy and we couldn’t wait to get out of there. The destination was worth it. Great Basin NP is well off the beaten path but is a jewel in its own right. A group of mountains rise from a high desert area and are an oasis in an otherwise barren looking area. We got into one of their campgrounds and were serenaded by a babbling stream as it raced down the mountain. There is also a beautiful cave that  we took a tour of. The main mountain of the park is Wheeler Peak and it tops out a little over 13000 feet. Our campsite was at about 7300 feet and they have a campground at 10000 feet just a little below treelike. We drove up there and discovered it had opened the day before and there was still snow in many spots. I got to chatting with the campground hosts who had just setup camp the day before and would be staying for 4 months. Turns out he is a fellow Amateur Radio operator so we talked shop for a while. It would have been nice to have had more time there. We took a hike to an Alpine Lake at 10400 feet that still had ice on about half of it. The temps at night got into the 30’s and at the higher campground they were in the 20’s.

May 11

We left Great Basin NP and headed for Death Valley NP. For awhile we continued on Route 50 in Nevada then picked up Route 6 and headed for Tonopah and that path took us through central Nevada. We now know the definition of the “middle of frickin nowhere”. There were times we drove for 45 minutes and didn’t see another car or any other sign of civilization. We were glad to get through there. When you see signs that warn of no services for 75 miles you say a little prayer. You also top of the gas tank at damn near every station you come across! Especially when you’re only getting 10 mpg. From Tonopah on we had some towns and lots of company on the road. We passed a field of cars and a bus that were buried and sticking up out of the sand and it looked familiar. Linda thinks it was Carhenge which we have seen on TV but I see that’s in Nebraska. But it was neat anyway.

May 12 & 13

Well it’s hot (forgive me) but it’s a dry heat! When it’s 109 that who cares, you still feel like your dinner and are on the rotisarie of your grill. Death Valley is not as I envisioned, it has a variety of geological features both low and high and has a fascinating background. The earth pulled apart here along a fault line and a dropping valley resulted as the two sides of the separating fault rose into an east and west mountain range. The range to the west has a peak over 11000 feet and with the Sierra Nevada range west of that the vast majority of moisture is dropped to the west resulting in Death Valley getting a average of less than 2 inches of rain a year. We visited the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level and it’s a huge salt flat and hot. There are many colorful rock formations in the park and as the light of day changes so do they.  On our second day we started very early, to beat the heat, with a walk in a sand dune field not far from our campground. After another short hike we noticed that a dust storm was picking up near the campsite and we returned to the camper with winds blowing a least 50 mph and gusting higher and the temp was up to 113. I had trouble walking in the wind and had to tie down some items. The best the air conditioner in the camper could manage was high 80’s until the sun went down. We were ready to leave. Been there done that didn’t want the damn tee shirt.

May 14

As I type we are stirring and preparing to pack up and leave Death Valley. I’m glad we experienced it but I have no desire to ever return. Have I mentioned that we have encountered a large number of European visitors in our travels? Here the number versus other tourists is very high. Most seem to be either in Motorhome rentals or on Harleys. We’ve encountered numerous motorcycle groups and they are usually French. The value of the Euro versus the Dollar must make us a bargin and lord knows our gas is cheap compared to theirs.

May 15 thru 17

Vegas is such overload compared to the areas we’ve been in. The traffic and hoards of people are overwhelming and I’m ready to be gone. Last night we went to old downtown Vegas where the original casinos are to see the Fremont Experience. They put a very large digital screen above the street and I’ve attached a video from it. It was pretty good. Earlier in the day we went up the mini Effiel tower and then had dinner at the Margaritaville Café. 

The entertainment and food were very good. Tonite we are going to see Terry Fator at the Mirage who was the America’s Got Talent winner in 2007. He’s a singer, impressionists and ventriloquist. If you’ve never seen him check You Tube, he’s amazing. Tomorrow morning, Friday the 18^th of May, we are heading for the north rim of the Grand Canyon and back to cold nights. Lows are forecast to be around 30. I’m not going to try and put captions on photos.  Sorry but the time required is just too much. Linda is not happy with my online time as it is. We’ll be out of touch again for most of the next 2 weeks so you may not hear from us for awhile. Thanks for the supportive comments and I’m glad you’re enjoying this stuff.  

Photos are at https://picasaweb.google.com/103943218564105837637  and the blog is at www.davesdreamtrip.blogspot.com