Trip #35 (3): Viva Las Vegas, and points between

April 22 - May 3, 2011

Arizona: Flagstaff & Route 66

Nevada: Las Vegas and Valley of Fire

Utah: Zion, Kodachrome Basin, Capitol Reef & Natural Bridges area

Friday, Apr. 22 - Left a cool and breezy Durango by 9:30 am, it was in the 40s. Took 160 west out of Dodge and arrived at Cameron Trading Post in Arizona, our original destination for day 1, pretty early at 3pm and, with Arizona's no-daylight-saving  time, it was only 2. Shopped a little at the big trading post and decided to move on to Flagstaff for the night. There in Flagstaff we stayed at Woodland Campground on Route 66. Very tired, but we did unhook and go to town. Had dinner at the Beaver Street Brewery, very packed on a Friday night, good thing we arrived early. Afterward we walked around town and, of course, there was the cursing town lunatic in our path. I thought he had come out of a store cursing someone out, only to find he just walks the sidewalks doing that. We veered off to a side road, escaping his wrath. It was a pretty cool night. 
 

Saturday, Apr. 23 - Weather good, windy of course. Took the interstate from Flagstaff to Peach Springs, and then to Route 66 through Seligman (the birthplace of the famous road) and Kingman. 

A rather strange yet familiar greeting when you arrive in Seligman.

The cactus bloom were spectacular around Kingman.

Again decided to keep going (explaining why we don't plan a lot in advance) and ended up camping at Lake Mead at Boulder Beach campground. Drove over the new bridge to here, but with the high walls you can't see a thing. Will have to come back to see Hoover Dam. Weather getting warmer now in Nevada, and the campsites were lined with blooming oleanders. It was Easter weekend so it was pretty busy, but after a few laps we finally secured a nice spot, tho not down by the water. Actually there weren't any spots on the lake anyway. Took a nice walk down to the beach, which was packed with families for the weekend.

If you ask, you get the tree.

Sunday, Apr. 24 - Arrived in Las Vegas Oasis RV Park early in the day. Oh my, this place looks like Disney World, huge. And just a few miles off the strip. Very, very windy today. Since Vic et al were still on their tour, we used this day to tour Hoover Dam and the new bridge. Later that night we had dinner at a neighborhood Thai place, not bad. Finally we went to Mandalay Bay to meet up with everyone, who were just finishing up their tour farewell dinner. Went up to the room and caught up. Tomorrow we shall hit the town...

Hoover Dam generator room

The dam and the bridge all in one -- thanks Dad for the photo stitching.

The beautiful new bridge.

A display to show how the dam was built in sections.

(I gave this a good swift kick as I went by.)

It was the 30s -- they wanted a deco-look on the terrazzo  floors.

Check out that line by the door.

 

Monday, Apr. 25 - Today it was decided that we should see Las Vegas. But first, the guys went to get a rental car. Then we all piled in the van (six of us) and drove toward the other end of the strip to see the Pawn Stars place. Just an ordinary place, but with a line at the front door to get in. So we just took pics and passed on our chance to see Rick, Chumlee and the Old Man. and Big Hoss. Their loss. Took the car back to the Four Seasons then headed out on foot. Pretty warm, but beautiful day as we trecked on up the strip as far as the Bellagio. Earlier we had a mexican lunch in the Luxor, that was pretty good. Got to visit the M&M store, the Coke store and all the major hotels in between. 

The real reason I wanted to go to Vegas.

Toured the beautiful gardens in the Bellagio, as well as rested under the Chihuly ceiling in the lobby. The place was packed, and so many families. What recession? Later we cleaned up and went to the Gold Coast Casino to meet up with D for dinner. It was here we discovered the nickel slots. A lot of action for the loss of a few dollars. But wait, I did cash out with $4.65, with money on loan. Not a bad deal.

The Chihuly glass art ceiling in the Bellagio.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

just cool.

 

Tuesday, Apr. 26 - Today was a road trip, with seven now crammed into the van, to visit the Valley of Fire, about 50 miles away. Nice place, good visitor center, hiked a wash and saw lots of petroglyphs. The gang had moved to the Palazzo so we later dined at Valentino's in the Venetian and took some time to walk around the Venetian. WOW is all I can say. That was really huge and amazing with the canals and all. However, the nickel machines sucked. Later we went up to their room and watched a slide show and said our goodbyes. Time for them to go; time for us to hit Utah. 

Those ancient ones really knew dog behavior.

Entirely inside. Pretty amazing this side of Orlando.

Wednesday, Apr. 27 - Our next stop would be Zion National Park, our second visit. Weather was fantastic, 60s and breezy, but the camp was another story: it was completely invaded with catapillers. I mean ALL OVER, hanging off tables, crawling all over campsites, hanging in the trees, dropping on you... gross. It was so bad they refunded our prepayment and we only stayed one night. 

About as gross as it gets.

I deserve some credit -- we stayed one night and flung them away the whole time. gross. way gross.

We were able to get a more open space, but they were still crawling on the ground. Get me outta here. Again, sometimes it's tough to plan ahead, you never know what you will find.

Thursday, Apr. 28 - Fortunately, Kodachrome Basin State Park had a full hookup opening so off we went as soon as we could. This park is just south of Bryce. We arrived to perfect weather but slowly it got windier. Did the 11 mile drive to Grosvenor Arch and checked out the scenery (rocks). Did some short hiking around the campground.

That's us. Quite the setting, eh?

"Sixty-seven monolithic stone spires called sedimentary pipes accentuate multi-hued sandstone layers revealing 180 million years of geologic time.  The color and beauty found here prompted a 1948 National Geographic Society expedition to name the area Kodachrome after the popular color film."

The surrounding scenery, just beautiful.

Grosvenor Arch a few miles south down the rocky road.

Friday, Apr. 29 - Our second night at Kodachrome. Today we drove over to Willis Creek to hike a slot canyon. Turned out to be very wet so we went back to the car to change into our dive booties, the only way to go. Very nice hike but Bill had some sore feet due to his thin booties, and walking on the rocks. Note to self: water shoes. Later it got so freakin' windy we drove around the park a little more and got sand-blasted checking out some notable areas, but went back to the trailer and watched some movies. Just too nasty to sit outside. That's fine, we were pooped anyway.

Willis Creek hike. Water the whole way.

Oh yeah, just the sign I want to see before heading out.

Here's the start of the hike, out in the open, then you go IN.

Saturday, Apr. 30 - Alert: Last day of National Park Pass! Time to move on to Capital Reef National Park, one of my favorites. On our way there we drove through Escalante and stumbled on the new Shooting Star Drive-In: a man and his vision of fixing up old Airstreams and renting them as hotels. They were a week away from officially opening (and had a long way to go), but a nice lady took us all around to see what they were up to: specially themed 30-footers showcasing Hollywood stars and characters such as The Duke, Marilyn Monroe, Indiana Jones, and many more. He was also collecting old convertibles to park permanently in front of a drive-in screen for evening entertainment. Quite the idea, let's see if it works. Their website is great: shootingstardrive-in.com. 

Here are just a few of the trailers on hand, with the drive-in theatre screen in the background.

Arrived at Capitol Reef just as the skies were clouding up -- even saw some snowflakes crossing a big mountain to get there. Arriving at the campground it was nice to see the fruit trees were in flower, very pretty. Drove to the Capitol Gorge and did a 2 mile hike to the pioneer graffiti along the canyon walls. With the sky clouded, it was kinda cool the the windy gorge, it was around 45 degrees. I had on four layers and could still feel it with the wind. It would dip into the 30s that night.

Not sure if these are apples or what, they were just pretty.

This park lets you drive in the wash.

Sunday, May 1 - As I'm updating this journal this morning, Bill has gone to the little settler shop to get some scones. How cool is this to have a nice little country store with jams and salsas and ice cream and baked goods a mile way. Pretty cool I can tell you. Filled the Las Vegas dispenser yesterday, destroyed a bag of BBQ potato chips yesterday too. And now scones. Not good, but yeah, it was all good. It is 38 as I write this at 8:19 am. Pretty busy campground.

Makes you wonder what happened here to create this.

Brilliant red indian paintbrush along the road.

Capitol Reef's Waterpocket Fold. What is that, you may ask? It's this: "The Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long wrinkle in the earth's crust known as a monocline, extends from nearby Thousand Lakes Mountain to the Colorado River (now Lake Powell). Capitol Reef National Park was established to protect this grand and colorful geologic feature, as well as the unique natural and cultural history found in the area."

Waterpocket Fold looking south. Can you believe this formation has been on our earth the whole time and nobody told us?

Our hike would be in Upper Muley Canyon (or something) so this is the climb to get to it on the other side. It was from the trailhead area that we got the overview of the fold.

Here we are on the edge of the gulch, there on the left. See you later.

Monday, May 2 - Thank you Capitol Reef, it was lovely; time to move on. Stopped to check out Bullfrog Marina, at the northern end of Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Considered camping here, but it was rather desolate and unpopulated so we decided to move on rather than fearing for our lives all night. It wasn't bad, just...desolate. We went to Natural Bridges, but the whole of their 13 spots were taken so we went to the overflow camping, a few miles down the road. Again fearing for MY life, Bill didn't care, he loved it (it was free) -- we did set up there and it actually turned out to be great. We were right on the edge of a gulch which I explored until I had to come home for dinner, and followed the sounds of the Doors 'till I found the trailer again. What a cool place, dry and rocky in one place, then wet and full of trees in another. I was an 8-year-old boy on an adventure. Thankfully I didn't run into any squatters out there, ya never know... This would be the last night of our journey. We headed home the next morning. (But it still say it was still kinda creepy there.)

Natural Bridges overflow camping had a view of the Bear's Ears.