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March 10, Day 31 Wednesday, Las Vegas to Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Bob Duthie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:06:16 +0000

We left the glitz 30 miles behind as we drove south west out into the desert to the campsite at Callville Bay Marina on Lake Mead. This lake was formed by the damming of the Colorado River in 1936. Before that time and before the railroads steamboats came upstream to the Mormon town of Callville. It was tough going in the rapids where the boats had to be winched upstream via hooks cemented in the rocks. This marina (see photo) is mostly rental houseboats. It has an enormous boat ramp and parking lot. The length of the boat ramp is made necessary by the extreme variations in the water level. Launching your boat is a major undertaking with long walks up and down the ramp. The season here runs from May to September. Today the park was virtually deserted. There is a good weather window through Flagstaff, AZ on Friday with no snow or freezing weather during the day so we will be leaving the Lake Mead area then.

March 9 Day 30 Tuesday, Las Vegas, NV

Bob Duthie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:24:56 +0000

We woke up to rain, high winds and cold 40 degree weather. In spite of this we took the free casino bus to Harrah’s on the Las Vegas strip. How wrong I was to think we would have the place to ourselves. The crowds were huge and everywhere. There must be direct flights from Japan to Las Vegas. The architecture of the strip is just a massive jumble of different styles, electronic signs, and fiberglass sculptures. It’s much worse than Disney World. We toured the fancy shops in Caesars Palace and the Bellagio. Sony had an exhibit of 3D TV that requires special electronic glasses to watch. That’s the next I got to get one. The casino floors are so large as you walk through you wonder if you will ever get to see the light of day again. The water show at the Bellagio is well worth a visit. The photo shows one of the buildings at Caesar’s Palace attempting to imitate the Louvre. The city has come a long way since my last visit around 1986.

March 8 Day 29 Monday, Beatty, NV to Las Vegas, NV

Bob Duthie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:37:19 +0000

We have returned to civilization and Internet access after 3 days in almost complete isolation. We now have 14 more days vacation to spend before our return to Nashville. Our strategy is to spend as much time in the warm parts of the west to allow the east to warm up so the probability of snow in the passes is reduced. We will tour Lake Mead, visit Sedona, and then head for Nashville. Today we are at staying at Sam’s Town Hotel, Gambling Hall & Bowling Center at their 500 site RV Park.

March 7 Day 28 Sunday, Death Valley to Beatty, NV

Bob Duthie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:34:28 +0000

We splurged on breakfast today at the old Furnace Creek Inn. After all the money saved with our Golden Age Passport that gets you into the park free and discounts the campsite by 50% we could afford it. The Inn was opened in 1927 by the Pacific Borax Company which mined borax nearby. The adobe bricks that make up the mission-style architecture were created on site by Native Americans. Furnishings and decor in the lobby and bar draw upon the classic look of the 1930’s. The Inn is only open from mid-October through mid-May. Breakfast was magnificent and the service first class. Then we headed for Mosaic Canyon. It was a 2 mile gravel road climb up the alluvial plain to a spectacular smooth marble narrow canyon (see today’s photo). I have always thought Death Valley was a desert like the Sahara. There are a few areas of sand dunes but it is only a small percentage of the land area. We stopped at the Mesquite Flat Dunes and then drove 36 miles to Scotty’s Castle. This is a 1920’s Spanish style mansion built by Arthur and Bessie Johnson with Arthur’s friend Scotty. Scotty was a performer having worked with Wild Bill Cody’s touring show. He convinced Arthur there was gold in the hills and after seeing the area, Arthur decided to build a winter home. Frank Lloyd Wright prepared a set of plans for the home, but Arthur didn’t like the look and fired FLW. As an aside, our tour guide mentioned that Bessie went to Cornell with FLW. The tour was very interesting and ended with an impressive organ concert in the music room. (see tomorrow’s photo). We ended the day driving the Nevada route to Beatty. The sky was incredible with rainbows, rain showers, fluffy clouds, on a foundation of snow capped mountains and desert. We camped about 5 miles north of Beattie across the highway from Angel’s Ladies, a Nevada brothel, with free all night truck parking. This was our last night with Judith and Robert as they are heading back to Vancouver Island in the morning.

March 6 Day 27 Saturday Tecopa, CA to Death Valley, CA

Bob Duthie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:32:49 +0000

We went ahead of Robert & Judith and had breakfast at the Crowbar Café in Shoshone. We all got together and drove the 72 miles to Furnace Creek in the center of Death Valley. The Valley is roughly 100 miles long about 13 miles wide and runs north & south between two mountain ranges. The mountains on the west side were snow covered with the peak 11,300 ft above the Badwater Basin. The Basin (see photo) is 282 feet below sea level. As the water in the lake evaporates it leaves the rectangular pattern of sodium chloride crystals. We walked a mile out into the lake to get that photo. There was a huge 100 and 200 mile race of bicyclists today. We must have passed 500. At one point they had to ride up hill for 10 miles on a 5% grade, then turn around and head down hill. After Badwater we took the one way Artists Drive up to a canyon called Artists Palette. As you might have guessed the rocks here are all different colors. Vehicles over 25 feet are not allowed on this road because they would get stuck in the dips. We set up camp at Furnace Creek in a large new campsite. There is no power or water at the sites.

March 5 Day 26 Friday Tecopa, CA

Bob Duthie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:30:23 +0000

We all went in the View today. We stopped in Tecopa at the elementary school where there was a water tank. The pressure was so low it was hopeless trying to fill our tank, so we went on to China Ranch. There is steep canyon with sharp turns to get into the ranch. We made it through the canyon and I filled the tank with their hose. We had date milkshakes which were very good and toured the 25 acre date palm farm. We climbed back out of the China Ranch and went to Shoshone. Originally the town was built to serve the Tonopah and Tidewater railway line in 1908. Now it is one of the gateways to Death Valley. We had lunch at the Famous Crowbar Café & Saloon. We joined the motorcycle crowd and had a pretty good lunch there. Next door is the Shoshone Museum which had WiFi and I managed to get a couple of emails off. The service was too slow for access to the blog. After lunch we toured the caves built by talc miners in the area and headed back to the campsite. I was intrigued by the dunes in the area and hiked a mile along the road to see them (see photo). They are fragile mud hills according to a sign along the highway. Tonight we will take to the mineral water hot springs again. The water here is rated highly by spa lovers worldwide. The very high sodium content makes the water very smooth and it has no odor.

March 4 Day 25 Thursday Twentynine Palms to Tecopa, CA

Bob Duthie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:41:49 +0000

We took the Amboy Road from Twentynine Palms to Amboy. This was a famous stop on Route 66 in the Mohave Desert. Roy’s (see photo) was a restaurant, car repair, gas, and motel stop on this route from New York to LA and opened with the highway in1926. In 1973 the highway was bypassed with the completion of I-40. Today you can get gas, and bottled water, cold drinks, and snack. There is no brewed coffee as the health department won’t allow trucked in water. The restaurant was left as is with the lunch counter intact and and a stack of photo albums. A mile along Route 66 is the entrance to Amboy Crater. This volcano last erupted 10,000 years ago. We walked 3.1 miles to the cinder cone, climbed to the rim and toured the craters in the crater. It was my first time in a volcano. We continued driving north through desert, sand dunes at Kelso, to Baker. My last visit to Baker was July 2, 1950 with my family driving in our 1950 Studebaker from Toronto to Los Angeles. My father wrote in his blog which records that because the daytime temperature was 120 degrees, we drove through the desert at night and had breakfast at Baker. Another 51 miles and we arrived at the Tecopa Hot Springs and Campground which is operated by California Land Management. The rate is $19 with power, water, and use of the hot spring. For the first time on this trip there is no Verizon cell phone service here.

March 3 Day 24 Wednesday La Quinta to Twenty-nine Palms

Bob Duthie — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:22:41 +0000

Judith planned the trip today which started with a visit to Coachella Valley Preserve where we hiked 2 miles to an oasis beside the San Andreas fault. There was a large pond in the Oasis surrounded by huge dense palms. We climbed up to 2500 ft and had lunch at Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. Then it was on to the town of Joshua Tree and one of the strangest sculpture gardens anywhere by artist Noah Purfoy. An African American growing up in Alabama he filled his 7 acre lot in the high desert with assemblage sculptures made from various scrapped items. Many pieces have a message based on his life experiences. The artist died in 2004 but a foundation was formed to try and preserve the works as best as possible. More on the web by googling Noah Purfoy. Today’s photo shows his “Kirby Express” named after the vacuum cleaners.

March 2 Day 23 Tuesday Rancho Santa Fe to La Quinta, CA

Bob Duthie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:20:10 +0000

We left Rancho Santa Fe and headed northeast for the first time. I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the back roads. We climbed to 4,000 feet over a distance of 80 miles and then dropped south of Palm Desert to 40 feet in about 10 miles. The photo shows the severe switchbacks in US 74. We are camped now at the Lake Cahuilla Recreation Area where we met up with our friends from Saltspring Island, Judith and Robert. They have a motorhome similar to ours and we will be travelling together through the Mohave Desert for the next week.

March 1 Day 22 Monday Rancho Santa Fe

Bob Duthie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:17:59 +0000

Phil had told me about the Rotary Club of Rancho Santa Fe which meets Monday noon at the Rancho Santa Fe Inn. This is an old 1923, posh inn built to provide accommodations for prospective land buyers in the early days of Rancho Santa Fe’s development. It’s one the Historic Hotels of America and Conde Nast Johansens Recommended. The Rotary sign at the hotel is a modest bronze plaque. I arrived in suitable style having borrowed Gillian’s red Jaguar convertible. The meeting was very interesting with an author describing his book about how he escaped from the Nazis, and Russia during WWII, emigrated to America, and became an engineer with NASA developing the Apollo Simulator used to train Neil Armstrong. Our friends are building another home in Carmel with an ocean view. Lifelong golfers they will be close to Pebble Beach. That evening we spent several hours in the Theater showing slides. I was very gratified after showing 200 of my pictures, when Gillian asked “Is that all you are going to show.” Naturally I showed a bunch more. Today’s photo shows the view of the garden from the View.