Road Trip: deserts, Vegas, Hoover Dam

10 August 2010
Tuesday

Reconnecting with the main road we discovered a quaint little village called June Lake: quite the alpine tourist town; it looks like fishing and skiing are the big activities here.

We stopped at a National Forest Service info center to get a BIG map for the BIG picture from here to Santa Fe. We were not quite sure what our options were. Our plan was to come in from the Four Corners area but we were already too far south and then we heard from Liza that the area is closed; apparently there is some discrepancy as to where the 'four corners" actually are. We also wanted to avoid the Mojave desert and Death Valley at this time of year. Think: HOT.

So we angled east toward the Ancient Bristlecone area. We had also picked up a "milepost" style guide book to narrate us into Nevada. We traveled through the lands of the ancient and current Paiute Indians. Whatever did they live on here? As we were still in the mountains we constantly did the up-and-down thing.

We left the Inyo National Forest. Now we saw lizards darting across the highway instead of wee squirrels. Bad karma: got a bird and a squirrel today. We are now east of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

In Nevada the scenery never changed: lots of Joshua trees and other desert flora. We traveled just north and then just east of Death Valley. Same experience with more towns. We had filled up the 5-gallon water container and continued to hydrate ourselves and check the radiator temperature. We must be going up again because our ears are popping and the temperature is dropping.

In a cute little town called Beatty, NV, we stopped for gas and lots of bags of snacks from the Death Valley Nut and Candy Company. Then we saw some interesting items: lots of yucca and a big dune [looks like a windstorm blew some sand over the mountains from Death Valley and deposited it like a big drift].

We got to go through Las Vegas at rush hour. Such fun and I will spare you the details. We saw trees disguised as cell phone towers--wait! it's the other way around.

Hit a temperature of 108! Thank you for AC!

In Boulder City we got a great view of Lake Mead. Then it was off to the Hoover Dam. Holy Hoover Dam! They're building a BRIDGE over the chasm. Now only visitors will be on the Dam which will alleviate all the vibrations and traffic jams on the historic structure. However, it is still a work in progress so we got to cross the dam once again.

Next stop: Kingman, NV.  We found a great Mexican diner right on Route 66 and enjoyed dinner at El Palacio. The heat made us decide to continue driving on the Interstate until well after dark. We were stunned to learn that Arizona closed all of its state parks and rest stops in order to keep their schools open during the budget crunch. Apparently the parks and rest stops are slowly being opened as money becomes available. On the other hand, finding a place to rest one's weary head and half-closed eyeballs becomes a little tricky. We found an interesting spot at a Texaco gas station and listened to freeway noise all night.

Not exactly a 5-star location.