Ron woke up a little early to go for a walk and chase some big horn sheep around for a while trying to get pictures. Ton’s from yesterday were better.
After breakfast we set out to explore the rest of the park. We took a couple of short hikes and really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was perfect for hiking, mid to high 60’s, and we picked a couple of easy places that still gave us wonderful views of the Red sandstone that gives the park it’s name. We really enjoyed Valley of Fire, it is a nice size and has a variety of places to visit. It is the equal of many National Parks for things to see and do.
This Raven kept an eye on us for a few minutes while we were walking.
Our next stop was planned for Lake Mead National Recreation Area if you are wondering what the abbreviation in the title for the day is short for. Ton and I were both surprised by Lake Mead as we thought the Lake would be front and center, and for the first 40 miles it was almost invisible. Instead we had a drive thru a typical Mojave landscape with occasional burst of Red from Sandstone deposits. It was not at all what we expected. We are staying at a campground called Las Vegas Cove. Once again we are parked along a river and the Lake is far away. We enjoyed a nice dinner watching another colorful desert sunset. We managed to actually drive less than 100 miles and were content to park up around 2pm. Maybe we can slow down.
Our alarm was set for 4am so we could get up to witness the eclipse/Blue/Blood/Super moon. The skies were clear, but it was really cold. The temperatures had fallen more than we thought and it must of been around 20 degrees. Ton stuck her head out of the truck and told me to call her when the moon turned Red. I stuck around and watched the eclipse from the inside of the truck. When the moon turned Red I told Ton and she reluctantly rolled out of bed to take a look. After a few minutes she could not get a good picture and was very cold so she decided to get back under the blankets. I followed her a few minutes later. So while we witnessed the eclipse/Blue/Blood/Super moon we have no pictures to prove it, you will have to take our word for it.
Ton loves Joshua trees, we passed this one on the way to Valley of Fire.
After a little nap we got up and headed towards Las Vegas to Valley of Fire State Park. It is about 70 miles from Las Vegas and is quite striking. It has very Red Rocks throughout with many different shapes and forms. As we were arriving we noticed about 100 RV’s parked on BLM land just short of the state park and Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We assume camping is free there and we were tempted to park there for the night, but decided to opt for the State Park and pay the camping fee.
Small arch in Valley of Fire.
After we settled in we went for a short walk near the campground to a site of some Indian petroglyphs. They were quite impressive. Our reward for ponying up for the campground came in seeing 5 big horn sheep a couple of hundred yards from Scout. While we have been in lots of places with signs warning us to watch for big horns we had never actually seen one until today.
Petroglyphs in Valley of Fire.Big Horn sheep near our campground.
I love the west. Today we drove a ridiculous distance thru the Mojave Desert. We wanted to position ourselves to see the Blue Blood Super Moon eclipse tomorrow and decided a good place we had never been before would be Kershaw-Ryan State Park near Caliente Nevada. So to explain tomorrow is a blue moon, the moon is supposed to turn red after the eclipse, and it is a super moon. The only problem it was over 400 miles away. But we decided to go for it and if we were tired in Tonopah we would shorten up the trip.
The drive from Reno to Caliente is thru mostly unoccupied desert. Quite often you do not see anything built by a human for miles and miles. Our route once we got clear of the urban area around Reno was US 95 to Tonopah, US 6 to no where in particular NV351 to a small town we forgot the name of already and US 93 to Caliente. We are familiar with US95 from Fallon to Tonopah as it is the route we take whenever we go to see Alex or to Death Valley, we had one of our flat tires on US95 near Hawthorne a few years ago. We had never been on the rest of the roads on the trip but they were fun and really isolated. Route 6 goes thru long empty valleys with nothing to stop you. The roads are straight as an arrow for miles and miles. Ron began looking at how many miles it was before turns in the road and we had stretches of 11, 14, and the longest of 16 miles of perfectly straight roads.
This stretch of highway was 14 miles without a curve.
NV351 is also known as the extraterrestrial highway as it skirts Area 51 where everyone knows the government is secretly keeping the aliens that come to earth. The businesses along the road know a good thing when they see it so they have set up souvenir stands. We of course stopped and bought a magnet to put on the fridge at home.
Ron could not resist getting his picture taken with an alien.
Our stop for the night was at Kershaw-Ryan, Ron was a little worried about arriving late in the day as it is a small park. There was no need to worry as we have the place to ourselves. it is a pretty location in a little canyon, and all of the facilities look brand new. We went for a short evening stroll, and the Blue-Blood-Super Moon gave us a little preview.
Ton had a restaurant on her bucket list that is near Reno. So we began our day by heading towards Gardnerville to get a Basque meal at JT Basque Restaurant. She had read about this place at a Basque Museum in Boise and she had been looking forward to the next time we passed thru Reno to give it a try. We had the family style meal which included all you could eat soup, salad, beef stew, bread, beans and French Fries, and an entree and a small bottle of wine. The food was superb and it only cost $25 per person. Ton was really pleased and crossed JT’s off her bucket list with all of her expectations met. If you are in the Reno area JT’s is worth the 45 minute drive over to Gardnerville.
After JT’s we headed over to Virginia City. It is one of the most famous boom towns from the gold rush era. At one point it had a population of over 30,000 including Mark Twain who worked at the paper in town. It is in the hills above Reno and has a great collection of mid to late 19th century buildings. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and we were impressed with the buildings and the setting. We were tempted by a couple of the saloons in town, but were too stuffed from our lunch in Gardnerville to do it. It is probably overrun with tourists in the summer, but was pleasantly quiet in January.
The Red Dog Saloon founded in the gold rush in the 1880’s.
Our last stop was the Costco in Sparks. We were excited because the Sparks Costco had Diesel available and our experience on our Alaska trip was that Costco had by far the cheapest diesel in any town. So after going out of our way and driving during rush hour to get there we were disappointed that the Costco fuel was actually higher than one of the major chain stations in town. This is the first time Costco has let us down.
Today was a driving day as we decided to get serious about chasing warmer temperatures. The drive was long, but very easy as there is almost no traffic on the whole route. When we left we were surrounded by snow for the first two hours. The beginning of the trip was along Oregon State Highway 31 which is one of Ron’s favorite roads. It goes from LaPine to Lakeview, and is really remote and very scenic in a stark way.
After Lakeview you enter California and have to pass thru the state agricultural inspection station. After our experience losing our apples crossing into Canada, Ton was worried about losing our oranges so she had prepared by peeling the oranges and hiding them in the cabinet. Ron was sworn to commit perjury and swear we only had apples and bananas on board. All of this was for nothing because when we arrived at the inspection station it was closed.
We are parked up for the night in a casino campground in Reno. We stop here most of the time when heading south. We may be looking at alternatives after this stop as the area around the casino is deteriorating and the maintenance of the campground is neglected.
Today I made like a commercial truck driver and focused on miles and not fun. I covered a little over 600 miles in 10 hours. It was made easier by driving a route I really enjoy. I love the quiet roads and expansive views of the Great Basin. For me it really is low stress driving for me.
I was still on the road for sunset and the Great Basin rewarded me with a great desert sunset.
I decided to begin pointing towards home last night. I am beginning to miss Ton. But I wanted to try one more Nevada Park before leaving. A couple of years ago Ton and I swung thru Cathedral Gorge State Park without stopping. I wanted to check it out so that was the target for today.
The day began with a bit of a mishap. I woke up just after dawn so I decided to take a walk to enjoy sunset as it was only a three hour drive. It was a nice walk and the red rocks of Valley of Fire were spectacular. When I arrived at the campground I met a nice couple from Washington out walking their dog. We chatted for a while about different places before I went in to finish up preparing to leave. I needed to brush my teeth and I reached into the bag I keep the toiletries in and instead of grabbing my toothbrush I grabbed my razor and managed to cut the end of my index finger pretty deeply. I threw a band-aid on it and started to finish up packing. While I was putting up the electric cord I noticed my finger was bleeding considerably, so I grabbed the first aid kit and tried to stop the bleeding. I finally got the bleeding somewhat under control and was heading out when I saw the couple from Washington waving at me vigorously, I thought how nice, but then they shouted at me to stop. I had forgotten to close the door, and left the steps down on Scout. How embarrassing, fortunately my finger was starting to drip blood to show the reason for my incompetence as a RV’er.
The drive to Cathedral Gorge was uneventful. When I arrived at the park around 12:30 I debated whether to stop, it is going to be cold tonight and since I am heading home why not get in another 3 or 4 hours towards home? I drove in and after checking the excellent campground complete with electricity I decided to stay.
The Tower in the center was built as water storage in the 1930’s.
Cathedral Gorge is another beautiful site. It is a box canyon with interesting sides eroded to look like cathedrals if you have imagination.
Some of the “Cathedral” in Cathedral Gorge.
In the 1930’s during the depression the Civilian Conservation Corps built some interesting structures including a water tank and a picnic area that have survived until today.
This picnic area made of Mesquite trees and roofed with Willow branches has survived since the 1930’s.
They also have a nice trail system that is well signposted and easy to follow. Someone did a nice job with interpretive signs describing the flora and fauna of the area. It was a nice easy walk to make the day. As I am typing this I am watching a beautiful sunset to confirm my decision to stay was the right one.
Part of the trail system with a grove of Mesquites.
Valley of Fire State Park has been on my list for this trip since the beginning. Ton and I stopped here last year and it is really spectacular. The name is apt as the hills in the park are a bright red.
The drive over was even windier then yesterday and the temperature has fallen nearly 30 degrees. The sky is blue but the wind chill is at or a little below freezing. Scout was getting blown around pretty good on the highway as I made my way thru the desert from Laughlin to Las Vegas. I decided to by-pass Las Vegas by cutting thru the Lake Mead Recreation Area. I do not have to pay the entrance fee with my senior pass and there is no traffic on the scenic highway thru the recreation area, making for a much more relaxing drive.
When I got to the Valley of Fire I had to pay my entrance fee (no free entry for State Parks, only National Parks.) When I went by the visitors center to check things out and pay the fee, the ranger told me that as it was so cold there may be a couple of spots available in the full hook up area with electricity, but if I was interested I needed to head right over there. Since it is going to below freezing tonight having electricity to run the heater seemed like a good idea so I hustled over there and claimed the last electric spot.
Enjoying the Petroglyphs, picture courtesy of a nice German tourist.
A few hundred yards from the campground is a Petroglyph site. It is pretty high up a canyon wall so they have built a nice ladder and platform so you can observe the Petroglyphs. As i climbed down I saw a group clustered around a rock a couple of hundred yards away so I wandered over there to see what they were looking at. It turns out it was another large set of Petroglyphs at ground level that the park does not advertise. It was fascinating to try to interpret the symbols. Some are pretty obvious and some are not obvious at all to me.
The platform for the Petroglyphs.
After finishing up I decided to take a short hike thru a rock formation that I suspected would loop around and return me to the campground. After about 30 minutes walking thru the desert looking at the red rock formations I popped thru a narrow wash and came right into the campground feeling like a real adventurer.
Part of my walk. The rock in the left center reminded me of a throne in 3 dimensions.
After warming up for an hour or so I took another short hike to a display I saw off in the distance. It was late afternoon and the wind was getting even stronger and the display was disappointing so I called it a day and returned to Scout, turned on the heater, cooked supper, and put on The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen.
It is going to be a short one today as there is nothing much to talk about. I needed to begin moving towards home and after a couple of days of looking for something around Phoenix I could not come up with anything that caught my interest. So I decided to spend the day driving and have stopped in the economy Las Vegas, Laughlin Nevada. In fact it is so economical that I am staying in a casino hotel for less than most campgrounds.
The other reason for my decision to wimp out was the wind was blowing a gale, with steady wind around 40 mph and gusts to 60 (if you can believe the warning signs posted by the Arizona Department of Transport).
I do not gamble so there is not much for me to do in a casino. I walked around the lobby a little, noting that KISS was going to be playing there at the end of the month. The crowd looked to be a mixture of seniors, Chinese tourists, and people coming over from California on tour busses for cheap gambling. After a while people watching I went back to the room and watched some TV before turning in early.
It is a short one today. Alex and I met in the morning and had a buffet at one of the casinos at the strip. We then walked the strip and did some people watching, and kept up with the news of Kobe Bryants’ death.
Alex had a baby shower to attend so I went back and cleaned scout, and did some laundry. Alex joined me again for dinner and we had a good father son talk it was an enjoyable day for me.
Scout tucked in among all of the giant RV’s at Las Vegas RV Resort.
Today was a quiet day in Las Vegas with Alex my son. He is an elementary school teacher here and has been at the same school for 6 years. I realized I had never seen his classroom so I asked if he could show me. He walked me thru the school for about 30 minutes and told me about the joys and the trials of teaching. While he has a lot of frustrations, he truly enjoys what he is doing and works very hard to help his kids. I am proud of him.
After that we just drove around the non-tourist part of Las Vegas, visiting the hockey team training facility (Alex is a big fan), a teachers supply store, and had a nice lunch. We ended the day at the casino down the street watching the Lakers game on TV.
The original plan was to drive to Tonopah NV which was about 250 miles. I woke early and while I took my time getting going and doing a trip to Walmart to get some supplies I was still on the road at 8:15.
The route thru central Nevada goes thru some more remote land, though not quite as remote as yesterday. The roads are pretty good, straight as an arrow and posted at 70mph. I took it easy and cruised at 65mph, and while there was not much traffic it was all faster than me including tankers and semi-trucks.
I’m not sure what this thing was, but I was diverted to the shoulder so it could get past, and it had another truck hooked to the back to push.
The highlight of the drive was a giant gold mine at a place called Round Mountain Nevada. Gold was originally discovered there around 1880 and it was a very large and initially easy strike as it was surface gold. Over time while there was quite a bit of gold still around it became much more difficult to get at, and according to the signpost at the mine all of the different techniques for gold mining have been used there. At one point it was abandoned, but as mining technique became more sophisticated the mine was reopened and now it is quite a spectacular operation. It is now a pit mine and there are extremely large trucks moving the dirt form the hole to the site where it is processed. I stopped and watched these oversized dump trucks run up and down the hill for a while before moving on to Tonopah.
The Round Mountain Gold Mine with one of the giant dump trucks moving dirt from the pit to the processing area.
It was only about 12:30 when I got to Tonopah, and thanks to the miracle of satellite technology I was immersed in the Arsenal v Chelsea game on the radio so I decided to press on to Death Valley today. This turned todays drive into 380 miles. I arrived about 3 and went into the visitors center to register when I realized I was now eligible for the Golden Age pass which is a lifetime pass for all of the parks in the US. It also gives you 50% off at campgrounds. So taking advantage of my senior status and $80 I now have lifetime access, and half off in the campgrounds. Publishing this is probably going to be delayed as there is no internet at the campground, and really marginal phone service.
Sunset looking at the Panamint Mountains from the campground.
Winnemuca Nevada has been on my radar since last year when we passed thru on the way home. I liked the name and it had an interesting history. It got its start as a railroad stopover on the intercontinental rail road. There are several large gold mines in the area, and one of its banks was robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It has a Basque heritage, and boasts of five Basque restaurants in town. The final reason is that it was only 230 miles from Bend and seemed like a reasonable distance for the day.
Windshield shot of the loneliest road in Oregon. Don’t worry about my safety, I was in the middle of a 10 mile straight stretch of highway without a car in site in either direction.
The first 150 miles of the trip was on Oregon Highway 78 which has to be one of the emptiest highways in the continental US. About 30 miles outside of Burns is a gas station and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT, it comes up again later!) has put up a sign warning motorists that there will not be any fuel for the next 120 miles. Ton and I have driven this road several times in our visits to eastern Oregon and we always comment on the lack of man made objects. This time because I was by myself and had nothing better to do I paid attention, and for a 48 mile stretch of OR78 there are no visible permanent man made objects besides the road and the power lines adjacent to it. For a 100 mile stretch of OR78 and US95 there are six man made objects, I kept track. In this stretch all you see are 2 ODOT facilities for road maintenance, 1 radar site for either the military or the FAA, 1 cell/microwave tower, and 2 very lonely ranches. It is hard to envision the emptiness of south east Oregon.
Typical scene along OR78. Sagebrush desert virtually unaltered by man.
Last night while researching things to do on the drive today I came across an entry for Paradise Valley in the Nevada tourism site. It had an interesting history as a gold mining town in the 1880’s and was billed by Nevada tourism as a living ghost town. The blurb showed a couple of interesting pictures. It was close to my route so I decided to swing over for lunch. I know that selling tourism in north central Nevada is tough but they really exaggerated the ghost town. What is there is a small farming community with a couple of well maintained churches, a few nice houses and some derelict buildings that are old. It is certainly no ghost town, and really shows the power of what a good photographer can do to make a mundane site look interesting.
The “ghost town” of Paradise Valley.
I arrived in Winnemuca around 1:30 and checked into a very nice campground a couple of miles out of town. I was debating what to do for the rest of the day but I had noticed that there was a brand new sidewalk all of the way from town to the campground, so I decided if Winnemuca had gone thru all of that trouble to build a sidewalk I should use it. The walk into town was nice as I spent a lot of it chatting with Ton. The town itself was kind of disappointing. I expected more, but it looks like Winnemucas’ downtown has suffered from the suburbanization of it’s shopping so there was not much going on downtown. The tourist information office/museum was closed, and none of the other stores looked interesting. The restaurants looked shabby, and they do not brew beer in town. So after walking around a while I headed back to Scout and cooked up some of Ton’s Larb, which is my favorite Thai food.
Today we spent the day with our son Alex. He wanted to have Korean food for lunch so we had our second Korean barbeque in three days. It was also good and Alex really enjoyed it.
After that we headed out for some shopping and then went to watch the local hockey team on TV as Alex has become a big fan. Who would have ever thought of Las Vegas as a hot bed of hockey. Unfortunately the home team lost.
Ton was looking for some Mexican food and had a place in mind. When we got there though the restaurant was closed. We just drove randomly down the road after that looking for a Mexican restaurant and found a place called Pepe’s. It turned out to be both the cheapest and possibly the best meal we had in Las Vegas. Ton really loved their salsa.
This was the last day for all of our friends in Las Vegas as they all need to get back home to go to work. The guys and Ton wanted to watch the football games, while the girls were either sleeping in from their club adventure, or shopping.
Las Vegas has a replica of the Hofbrauhaus from Munich and we decided to watch the game there. We found ourselves in this cavernous beer hall with one other couple. It was kind of strange to have that much space to ourselves. Both Ton and Tim one of our friends had been to the original Hofbrauhaus in Munich and they thought it was a pretty good imitation. Our waitress had a slight accent so we asked if she was German, and it turns out she was from Heidleberg in Germany. Her and her husband are touring the US by RV for the past few years and have stopped here to raise a little money. We enjoyed comparing the experience of RVing here and Europe for a while until she had to get off to another table.
Ton and her posse at Fremont Street.
Following the games everyone decided we had been in the posh part of Las Vegas too long and decided to head down to Fremont street. The clientele are not as elegant, but Ron felt like he belonged there, and the drinks were significantly cheaper. Our friends decided it was time to take advantage of the lower cost of gambling there, so we took our leave and headed back to Scout for the night.
When we got back there was a Blood Red Wolf Moon which was nice. The weather was talking about high wind warnings, and while a couple of good gusts hit it did not seem to be as bad as they indicated.
Today we spent with our friends, beginning with a walk down the strip for lunch at a Beer house. After that the group splintered for a while with different people doing what they were most interested in in Las Vegas. Some went to gamble, some went shopping, and Ton and I relaxed in one of our friends posh rooms in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.
In the evening we headed out to dinner at a great Korean Barbeque near the strip. Everyone ate far too much beef and pork, but it was delicious. Following dinner we headed back to the Cosmopolitan and shared some drinks in another friends room. They had a fabulous view of the strip at night, and got to see a fireworks show, and the fountain show at the Bellagio from their balcony.
Enjoying a pre-clubbing drink.
When the group decided to go clubbing again for the night, Ton and I headed home to Scout for a good nights sleep.
Our route today was on one of Ron’s favorite stretches of roads. US-95 from Fallon to Las Vegas passes thru some of the most stark terrain in the US. There is a town about every 100 miles and the rest of the time you are surrounded by desert and mountains. Generally the traffic is light so you can enjoy the views.
We have traveled this route quite a bit as in addition to being the way we prefer to go to Las Vegas to visit our son, it also is a way to access Death Valley National Park.
It also passes by Area 54 which is an Air Force test and bombing range, where if you believe the movies the US government keeps the aliens we have captured!
The Mojave Desert with the snow capped Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background.
In addition to visiting our son on this trip, a bunch of our friends from Portland are flying in for the weekend to celebrate some birthdays and to enjoy Las Vegas. Alex picked us up at the RV park and we decided to head to the strip for dinner. While Ron was parking our rental car, Ton and Alex ran into Goi one of our friends so she joined us for dinner.
Later we went out for a late dinner and some drinks at a nice but expensive Tapas bar. The rest of the group headed off for some clubbing while Ton and I used our advanced age and ailments to skip the clubs and head to bed.
After getting up we both felt a little better so we decided to push on. We planned an easy day down to Fallon, and Ron optimistically commented that if we got to Fallon too early we could go on to the next town so we would have a shorter drive into Las Vegas the next day.
The weather was supposed to be rain with a chance of mixed rain and snow at the passes. They were mostly right, and the first 150 miles from Klamath to Alturas was just that. The next leg was about 80 miles from Alturas to Susanville California. As we climbed up to the pass the rain turned to mixed rain, and then turned to just snow. Before we new it we were on snow covered roads and in 4 wheel drive. After about 5 miles the lane we were driving in was suddenly clear of snow though the other lane had about 8 or 10 inches covering it. It turns out we were behind a snow plow. We lucked out and followed him for about 20 miles until he turned off. We covered the last 15 miles or so to Susanville in 4wd. While it was slow we made the trip without any real drama, though we did see one accident. Once we descended to Susanville we were back in the rain for the rest of the trip.
The snow plow we followed for about 20 miles. Thanks.
Because of the snow Ron’s optimistic hope of going past Fallon was dashed, and his back was pretty stiff from driving so we decided to spend one more night in a hotel.
Alex had to teach so we had a day to kill in Las Vegas. We are not gamblers so we decided to have an easy day taking in a movie and doing a little shopping in Costco and another Mexican Supermarket.
Later we met Alex for dinner at one of his favorite place in Las Vegas Nacho Daddies. As you can guess from the name they are famous for their Nachos. They have been featured on one of the restaurant shows on the Travel Channel. Alex and Ron had big plates of Nachos while Ton ordered soup and ceviche.
Afterwards we did our favorite thing in Las Vegas which is watch people. It is a great place for people watching, and our favorite place is the outside arcade in the old town. We enjoyed a nice walk and the people did not let us down providing great free entertainment.
The Fremont Arcade our favorite place to people watch in Las Vegas.
When we were doing the planning to see both of our sons we new that it would be hot in Las Vegas but our experience was that it cooled down at night to a point where it was comfortable. The night before we left Dylan looked up the weather for Las Vegas and said it was quite hot, the high was supposed to be 106 degrees.
Driving over we stopped at a rest area about 50 miles outside of Las Vegas. The thermometer on the dash said 111 degrees, and as we stepped out of the truck we were hit with a wind of about 20 miles per hour that felt like a blast furnace. As we pulled out of the rest area Ron asked Ton what she thought a room would cost in Vegas. Without hesitating Ton began the research. It turns out rooms were cheap, The Rio was offering a rate of $30 plus a $34 dollar resort fee. We both decided that was cheap enough to not bother stress testing the A/C unit on Scout as the overnight low was supposed to be 92 degrees. The deal got even better when we checked in as Ron asked if they had a military discount and that got us down to $15 plus the resort fees.
Elvis and a show girl. After all it is Las Vegas.
Alex had to work late as this is the first full week of school in Las Vegas so we decided to eat in the room. Ton whipped up some food in Scout and we carried it up to the room for dinner. We spent the evening talking about teaching and particularly teaching in Las Vegas which is infamous for having a low priority for schools. Alex earns every penny of his salary.
