Blowing off the Cobwebs (02-14-21)

 After being hunkered down for quite a while over the holidays, we had a brilliant idea. Let’s go somewhere (preferably somewhere warm).

Liz and Randy had made a bunch of modifications to their 5th wheel, and we hadn’t towed ours with the new truck yet, so all of a sudden we were all antsy to get outta here and test them out.

Death Valley is only 4 hours from here, and it’s one of my favorite national parks- so I investigated the possibility of exploring and hiking there. The campgrounds are closed, but the hiking trails are open, so the 4 of us booked a spot in a nearby RV Park, and took off.

The weather was too cold to sit outside, so we were happy to find our own personal bar inside the casino at the RV park. It made a great place to hang out, and the drinks were good too.

The first time I came to Death Valley, I was stunned by how beautiful it is. I have been here several times now, and I still feel that sense of awe.

Our first stop was Dante’s View- its a great first view of the park and it never disappoints.

 Following the road, our next stop was Zabriskie Point. Liz and Randy have never been here, so we wanted to make sure we hit all the highlights and this is definitely one of them.

Continuing on, we headed down to the valley floor and Badwater Basin.  At 282 feet below sea level, this is the lowest point in North America- it was named for the taste of the water- apparently it isn’t “good”. Since the white stuff we are standing on is salt, I guess I can see why.

Speaking of white stuff- Death Valley only gets 2 inches of rain a year, spread out over about 20 days.  And yet it has rained every time I have been here.  None of my family would be surprised.  Bad weather tends to follow me but this time, mother nature outdid herself.

The following day as we drove through the park we started seeing white stuff falling from the sky. Not in the mountains- but just above the valley floor.

 Of course it “never” snows in Death Valley, so it was a real treat to be there for it. We stopped several times to enjoy and and get some pictures.

The following day the snow was gone from the valley floor, but there was still plenty on the nearby mountains.

We all wanted to get some hiking in, so on our final day we headed to Mosaic Canyon. 

Paul and I have hiked this several times, but I forgot how much bouldering there is. 

Randy and Liz were good sports though, and we made it in about 1.5 miles before turning around.

By lunch time the weather had warmed up enough for a picnic.

From Death Valley, we moved along to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. 

It’s easy to see where it gets its name. 

We spent a few days exploring this park- but the weather was still pretty chilly, so we didn’t do much sitting outside.

From bright red to pastels, to white, this park has rocks of all colors.

I love hiking on rock- its particularly fun for me-I am not sure why- but anyway, this park has plenty of it.

Twice we saw bighorn sheep- first it was a herd of females and then later we saw a bachelor group.  Turns out the two groups don’t hang out together unless its mating season.

After a few days exploring, it was time to head home.

The Beginning of 2017 (03-30-17)

Once the year-end holidays were done, we said “goodbye see you in a few weeks” to our friends, as we all moved on to new adventures.  It’s really sad that I had to check my Facebook feed to see what we were doing in the early months of 2017.

As an overall statement, I will say that we spent the first half of 2017 going back and forth between our house and Paul’s mom in El Paso.  Sometimes we took the rig (and the cat) and sometimes we didn’t.




We are extremely fortunate enough to have Mike and Julie as our very good friends.

They made themselves available to house sit and cat sit as much as we needed, while we trekked back and forth to Texas.  It would have been so much more stressful without them!

Actually, we have a great group of friends who Paul and I know we can count on, whenever the need should arise.

Our first major event of 2017 was the Havasu Balloon Festival in January.  We have never been in Havasu to see it, but we managed it this year. We were joined by several RV friends, and although the weather wasn’t perfect, we still had a great time getting up at 5 am!










Next up on the agenda was our annual pilgrimage to Quartzsite, AZ, in mid January.
Quartzsite, in January, is a gathering place for RVers who are interested in hanging out in the desert. We have been coming here every year since we bought our first 5th wheel.





Camping in the desert with a bunch of friends, with no RV park, no electricity-no amenities at all…..is an absolute blast.
Campfires are awesome, when the weather is good…

and when the weather is iffy….Farkle in the roomiest RV (sometimes ours) is a fantastic way to pass the time!

In theory, RVers come to Quartzsite for the RV show, but we come mostly to hang out with friends…

 

… and of course eat Silly Al’s Pizza (the best in the world) and have lunch at Beer Belly’s, where, if it isn’t 2:00….

    who cares?

For the past 5 years, Mike and Julie, and Paul and I have hosted a Quesadilla/Margarita party for our friends, in Quartzsite.

We have fed as many as 45 people each year, and dispersed many batches of Margaritas….Always a good time (since no one is driving home!!)

Since Quartzsite is only an hour and a half from our house, we took the rig, and went back for the Jeep and Teryx.  We had a great time exploring the desert.

Soon after Quartzsite, we stopped in Tucson to visit with our good friends who had recently sprouted roots in the town (bought a house).

If we weren’t interested in boating, Tucson would have been our dream town, so we are always happy to visit them here!

Since I am a big New England Patriot’s fan, in early February  there was more fun in store for me!  Who doesn’t enjoy a Super Bowl when their favorite team is losing…..the entire game!?!

After a nail-biting 3 hours, my New England Patriots took home the big prize!

GO PATS!!!

The next major trip we took was to California, in mid February. We packed the cat and the truck camper, and took off for Atwater, with Mike and Julie right behind us.  Lucky for us they were, too. While driving down the highway, a trucker pulled up alongside and tooted at us.  We pulled over, only to discover that our hitch pin had let go and the trailer for the Teryx was swaying across the lanes of the highway, held to us only by a chain.  A very dangerous situation.  Mike pulled up behind us and gave us another pin to hold the trailer together, and we were on our way.

The entire weekend in California was one big party with Paul’s fraternity brothers. starting with dinner in Fresno, and then moving on to Nancy and Bill’s Party barn in Atwater. Bill and Nancy are farmers and have lots of almond trees!

It really is a barn, but not like you’ve ever seen before!
















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The next morning many of us took turns driving a tractor around the yard.

On the way back from Atwater, the 4 of us were excited to make a stop at Death Valley National Park.  We have all been here before, but it is extremely beautiful and we looked forward to exploring it more.

We had brought the Teryx just for this outing, but ran into a snag.  Although we had been told we could use the Teryx in the park, when we got there, we got conflicting information.  After a lot of back and forth with park rangers, we decided not to use the Teryx- so- we towed it all that way for nothing.








So, gee, instead, we spent an awesome few days exploring and hiking.

















The Boys- high up on a hill in Golden Canyon

View of Badwater Basin:

Natural Bridge Canyon Trail:









It’s kind of cool though that Paul and I can now say we are 2 for 2.  Even though Death Valley is a desert, and gets very little rainfall each year….it has rained every time we have been there!

Back home again, we received another visit from Jess.  This time it was a St. Patrick’s Day visit. While bar hopping with her parents, she managed to win a Guinness T-Shirt, but only because she actually WAS drinking Guinness at the time!  Wow. I thought I knew her!

We had quite a relaxing weekend, and the picture she posted on Facebook summed it up.  Lake Havasu’s motto is “no bad days”.  Jess’s post: “No bad nights, either!”

To Be Continued…

Valley Of Fire State Park, NV (03-31-12)

      On the way to Valley of Fire, we stopped in Pahrump for two days.  It took that long to get the desert dust out of the trailer. It seems like a never ending chore sometimes.  We also had a ton of laundry to do, and I can pretty much say that after 9 days in Death Valley, we didn’t have any fresh produce left. That all seems so long ago, even though it’s only been a week.   The RV Park we stayed in had a winery attached to it, so we took the short tour and got a free wine tasting.  At least, I did.  Paul only tried one wine and didn’t care for that one.


the campground nestled among the red rocks.



  In addition to the history of the area, Valley of Fire is all about the hiking and the rock formations.  Hiking in a desert can be different, and has some unique challenges. Paying attention to water consumption is critical and we always turn back when half our water is gone. Also, many hikes actually have no official trail.

Much of the logical path to follow in a desert is on either hard packed desert soil, or soft dry riverbed .  One day we followed “Prospector’s Trail” but it ended up being an old road and we were more interested in hiking up and down the rock formations, so we quickly moved off in our own direction,  As we climbed up and down the boulders and hills, it was easy to lose depth perception and at times became difficult to figure out if we could continue the way we were going, or if we were going to come to a dead end and have to turn around. After a while, all the rock formations start to look the same.  Of course, we have a GPS with us (two, actually) so we wouldn’t get lost, but we could spend a lot more time getting someplace than we had planned on. 

 
That’s where Cairns come into play.  Cairns are  trail markers, many times unofficial and left by previous hikers.  Hikers will make a small pile of rocks indicating a turn in the path they took. Sometimes there will even be an arrow made of rocks, or a line of rocks blocking a pathway, indicating that we shouldn’t go that way. We came across quite a few rock cairns on our hike, which helped us make choices as to which way to go.

Easter Egg Canyon

Intermingled with all the red sandstone were some areas with a high mineral content that created beautiful colors.  I dubbed this particular area Easter Egg Canyon, because it literally looked like someone had taken the dye for Easter eggs and painted the rocks with it.



Lake Mead


Once we’d had enough hiking for a while, we took a day trip to nearby Lake Mead.  I have never seen Lake Mead before but of course I’d heard of it.  It was a beautiful warm day and we brought our swimsuits, just in case. It turns out that Lake Mead is a great boating lake, but there isn’t a lot of access to the lake without a boat. 





Our visit to this park was made more fun by the people we met. There were 3 Canadian couples traveling together that we became friendly with.  Each night we had social hour with them, and a campfire on the nights that didn’t have 40 mph winds.  Lately we’ve met some really great people- this group and the people we met in Death Valley are some of them.  Hopefully we’ll get a chance to meet up with them again at some point!


After extending our visit twice, we finally left the park today.  The weather, although dry, has been extremely windy at times and tomorrow the winds are supposed to be 40-60 mph so we started heading towards Fresno.  Our last day there we spent climbing the rocks that surround the campground. It was almost like being a kid again, climbing as high as we could up the rock formations and then finding a way down the other side. Great fun.