Mountains, High Desert, and Lakes Near Las Vegas

Mount Charleston
With a short one hour drive from Las Vegas, you can be skiing, snowboarding, or just playing in the snow! The turnoff to Mt. Charleston is only 35 miles Northwest on a nice four lane highway. Another 25 minutes up the mountain, you are romping in knee deep snow.


This scenic overlook gives a great view of the valley floor below. To the left of the small brown peak is Creech Air Force Base where Predator remote piloted vehicle operations are conducted.


This shot is from the trail head leading to the overlook just mentioned.
The views from the mountain were spectacular whether looking up or down the mountain.


This campsite had quite a few campers just playing in the snow!


The top of the road was at the parking lot for the ski area.


This person is downhill skiing but it seemed a lot of the activity was on snowboards.


Valley of Fire
Leaving the mountain, we drove back into Las Vegas, across the loop at the North end, and then Northeast 25 miles to the Moapa River Indian Reservation and the Valley of Fire.
This valley is loaded with rock formations rich in iron and consequently extremely red.


Other areas show the variety of chemicals (and colors) in the rocks in the area.


Cliff dwellers left these petroglyphs describing hunting with the atlatl - an instrument used to launch a spear.


The area has many formations such as this loop formed by wind erosion.


And of course, there is a lot of wildlife.


Lake Meade
A short drive out the East entrance of Valley of Fire is Lake Meade - or what's left of it!
This panoramic view shows the lake - imagine a lake 25% longer and much wider. We were shocked at how low the water is!


We drove to Overton Beach only to find no water at all! This boat had been abandoned and vandalized. The lake will have to rise 20 feet or more to float this boat.


This is the boat ramp! It is probably 200 yards long and ends well short of the trickle that is the Colorado River!


Driving down the lake a few miles, we found an overlook where we could see how bad the situation is. You can see island at the right near shore that should be 25 feet under water!


As we drove South, we encountered dozens of work sites where they are widening and repaving the road. In the meantime, several areas require driving through stretches of gravel.
That, along with our travels in the desert meant a trip to the car wash!

Tomorrow, we "do the strip!"

A Day in the High Desert & Death Valley

We started the day early and headed just 35 miles Northwest of Las Vegas to Red Rock Canyon.
The National Park Service has fashioned a wonderful 13 mile loop through the canyon named for the iron rich red rocks lining the walls.


This is typical of the formations that occur mile after mile!
And they are huge - this formation is probably 40-50 feet tall!
Lots of rock climbers prepping in the parking lot.


After an hour in Red Rock Canyon, we drove the 120 miles to Death Valley.
We had considered staying in one of the Inns in Death Valley but they were way too expensive for us, so we made the drive out.

We entered the Southern Entry and drove North. Bob had done some research prior to te trip and had a list of the top attractions. First on the list was Dante's View. It was quite a drive to get there but WOW! The view is fabulous!
This hilltop viewpoint is almost 6,000 feet above the valley floor below. You can see for miles from this fabulous overlook.


Back down on the main road, we stopped at Zabriskie Point. This area also provides an overlook to the valley floor but more importantly, it displayed the dramatic undulations present in much of the valley due to the wind and water erosion effects.


Down on the valley floor, we drove to Badwater, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. We walked out on the floor of the valley, right up to the edge of the water.
The salt crystals form in beautiful tiny stalks that join together in a wonderful "spider-web structure.


The wind was quite brisk and we saw a few people chasing hats down the lake.


About half way up the face of this hill is a small sign noting "Sea Level."


You think you've got a tough golf course?! Try this one (it was closed due to wet fairways :-)


The Artist's Palette shows many different colors resulting from the chemicals dominant in each formation. It seems strange that they appear right next to each other.


As we headed up the valley, we noted this "dust" storm - of course the dust is actually salt!


Half way up the valley, we visited the ruins of the Harmony Borax Works.
Here Chinese laborers brought here from San Francisco, labored to scrape the salt off the floor of the valley and refine it for shipment. Hot work in an already hot environment.


For about 6 years, the refined Borax was hauled out by 20 mule teams in huge tandem wagons like this one. The train consisted of two borax wagons and one water wagon (to keep the mules alive!).


It wasn't long before the wagons were beefed up (steel rims & spokes) and the mules were replaced by a steam powered tractor.


Leaving the Harmony Borax works, we turned North for an hour drive to Scotty's Castle, a resort/retreat for a wealthy man and his wife. It was not built by Scotty, was never owned by Scotty, and in fact Scotty never lived there! But it was very nicely appointed inside and was quite modern for the 1930 construction - like electric lights, gas cook stove, electric refrigerator/freezer, evaporative air conditioning, and hot and cold running water!


We left Scotty's at 5 PM and realized we were 3 hours from Las Vegas! So we stopped at a little Mexican restaurant in Beatty, Nevada and were very pleasantly surprised by a wonderful meal and great service. We also ran into some folks we recognized from the Scotty's tour and shared a table.
Back at our hotel (Comfort Inn - clean, very inexpensive, and close to everything) at 9:30 PM in an absolute daze!
Tomorrow: Mt Charleston and the Valley of Fire.

The Rim of the World

Just a little over an hour north of San Diego, we entered the San Bernardino National Forest.


The drive ends with the Rim of the World.
But to get there (from the South end), you first drive through some absolutely gorgeous forested mountains.
As we rose in altititude (max we reached was just over 8,000 ft), we encountered quite a bit of snow (but none on the roadway).


On the north shore of Big Bear Lake (elev 6750 ft) there are some pretty spectacular homes!


Near the west end of the lake, we stopped off at the Big Bear Discovery Center where Theresa made friends with a (thankfully) bronze bear!


Inside the center, we noticed this little Doggy water dish!
Our friend Pat in San Diego is following our blog and we knew she would like to see this!


Again, we make friends with a bear - this time a bear skin!
(Hopefully this is as close as we'll come to a real bear!)


For those we've left behind in the snow, we finally encountered snow!
Bob actually got snow in his shoe while taking some of these shots!
He even got his sock damp!!
(I'm not sensing I'm getting much sympathy here!)


Big Bear is a man made lake and is over 7 miles long!
It is a completely snow-fed lake having no other means of tributary or mechanical replenishment, so you know its gotta be cold! (Remember the bit Bill Cosby did on swimming in a mountain lake?) The East end was still iced over but about halfway down the shore, the ice gave way to water. This shot is from the West end of the lake.

This area is also popular as a ski resort and we saw the lifts and slope as we drove.
They didn't seem busy but it is Monday, so the weekend was probably very busy.

Once we'd left the lake, we entered the Rim of the World region, so named because of the vista from the drive down into the valleys below. (Pan shot below really makes it clear.)


Silverwood Lake was out of the way but worth every hairpin turn on the road to reach it!
This lake is at 3500 ft, so is no where near as high as Big Bear.
Many of the scrub trees around the lake at the west end (where we drove) appeared to be charred. Not sure if they were involved in some of last years fires, but we saw many signs encouraging people to clear the forest near their homes to make them more survivable in future fires.


Finally, this panoramic shot shows the valley floor as seen from the Rim of the World drive.
After seeing this, the name seems to fit nicely. It's hard to believe we are only an hour from Los Angeles!

Farewell San Diego

We have had a great month in San Diego!
The places we've been, sights we've seen, our "Palace" we called home - it was all great!
But it would have been just another beautiful city if not for our beautiful friends!
So a special thank you to . . .

Pat & Eric


Carl & Nancy


Chad & Amanda


We look forward to reprising this trip!

Best Hamburger in San Diego?

While talking with Chad and Amanda Bibler (Bill & Trish's son & daughter-in-law), I mentioned the dilemma we had deciding between In-N-Out and Five Guys hamburgers.
She asked if we'd like to taste the best hamburger in San Diego!
Well, we couldn't pass by that, so Sat noon (after a nap to recover from the crack-o-dawn ship launching), we met in Pacific Beach.
Pacific Beach is one of the best locations in San Diego (which is saying a lot, since this is a city FILLED with great locations!) - it lies between Mission Bay and the Pacific coast. This shot is of Mission Bay looking South from the island in the center. The tall spire on the left is Sea World. The beaches on Mission Bay offer relief from the surf and are very popular, especially among families, in the warm weather. It was rainy and 60 degrees this day, so the beach is empty!


A very short drive (or walk) puts you on the Pacific Ocean with the surf and drop-dead-gorgeous vista! The pier in te background is the Pacific Beach Pier.


While enroute, Amanda called to say Chad had been recalled to the ship for the Tsunami.
There had been a huge earthquake (8.8) in Chile that morning and Tsunami warnings had been issued throughout the Pacific. (The wave did hit San Diego but was only two feet. Even Hawaii only experienced a six foot swell. Seems they can predict the event but not the magnitude yet.)
So Amanda met us at Rocky's Crown Pub.


Rocky's reminded of the Ice House on Indy's near-south side - only 1/2 the size. Rocky's is a sports bar where you order at the bar, pay cash, and eat hamburger! The menu is on the chalkboard above the bar. Your choices are 1/3 pound or 1/2 pound hamburger, with or without cheese. Oh yea, you can get fries (really good fries made from actual potatoes I think!)


We had to wait for a short bit, but scored a nice round table. When we asked the bouncer (yes, it's that kind of bar) if he'd take our picture he just said "No, I had to buy a camera when I did that last time, so I don't do it any more!" Another patron at the bar agreed and he "shot" the three of us.


After we finished our burgers (BTW - they were great but one doesn't want to rush into such things, so I need to do additional experiments before I proclaim this the "Best Burger in SD!") Amanda suggested a place downtown to get desert.
Meanwhile, Chad had been released and was able to join us. We chatted for about an hour, we had coffee while Chad and Amanda split an apple desert that looked fabulous!
Chad had not yet eaten lunch, so we bid adieu to the two of them after shooting the pic below outside the restaurant. We had a great time getting to know these two friends better!
We repaired back to "The Palace" to begin packing (sob!).

Launch of USNS Charles Drew

Saturday morning, we rolled out at 5 AM to attend the launch of USNS Charles Drew.
(The launch time of 7:35 AM was dictated by the high tide.)
The weather forecast was rain and the weather did not disappoint! It was very heavily overcast when we arrived. But the band was playing, banners flew, and a festive mood prevailed in spite of the threatening rain. Jumbotrons provided a view for those in the back. We were surprised at the size of the crowd! We guessed there were 500 or more people who braved the early hours and nasty weather to see Drew launched!


Tents provided cover from the rain (which started just after we arrived and kept up throughout the entire ceremony) but unfortunately the tent blocked most of our view of the ship!


When the speechifying was done and the launch was signaled, Bob worked his way down the side of the tent and got this sequence.
It was really exciting to see this massive ship glide into the water with her whistle blowing and banners streaming, while the band played "Anchors Away!"