Needles, CA and Lake Havasu City, AZ

Continuing our meander south we spent two nights in Needles, CA. Desert View RV Park was peaceful for our brief stay and within walking distance of the Colorado River and a terrific lunch at the Riverfront Cafe.

Early morning light on the Colorado River. 

We took a little drive and discovered Goose Lake, part of Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. We could have walked for several flat miles but there are very few birds there at this time of year; looks like a good place to take a kayak out exploring.

Havasu National Wildlife Refuge.

We spent the next four nights at Lake Havasu State Park which gave us time to visit some cousins who live in the area and do a little hiking in the local desert. Our beachfront site, #41, was spacious and fairly private but very noisy over the weekend due to a RC plane event around the corner from us as well as a busy boat launch...there are a lot of loud, fast boats on Lake Havasu! Week days are much quieter on the lake.

Site 41 was a nice beachfront site.

View of the north half of the campground.
Sites are extremely varied at this park, some private and well separated, some with zero privacy.

SARA Mountain Park is a large recreation area for hiking and mountain biking in Lake Havasu City. We've done the popular Crack Trail there before so this time we chose to hike SARA Mountain Park Loop. It's supposed to be five miles with some rolling hills but we took a wrong turn and ended up with a seven mile double loop with some big hills!

We loved the cloudy skies as we headed into the hills.

Red rock grotto.

Big views to the Colorado River from the blue trail.

Our wrong turn took us up and over and around a big mountain.

Another day we hiked the Water Tank Trail, a 6.2 mile out and back hike on a jeep road through the hills just south of town. I had researched the route via satellite and discovered a single track trail that would make our hike into a loop. It turns out SARA Mountain Park trails connect to the jeep road allowing many miles of hiking in this area. It looks really good for mountain biking.

The jeep road cuts through Aubrey Hills.

That's horse hoof point and below it to the left, barely visible, is the "tank",
a flat corrugated metal water collection device that flows water into a metal tank for wildlife use.

Our return trail below the Aubrey Hills.

We enjoyed brilliant sunsets daily over Lake Havasu from our site.

Onward to Buckskin Mountain State Park...

Las Vegas Contrasts

Leaving Lee Vining, CA we had a long taxing drive on a series of small highways to Beatty, NV. The first portion, Highway 120 east, took us through unique forested volcanic lands with terrific scenery but quite a lot of ups and downs. Then a combination of tiny route 6 to 264 to 266 became rather featureless desert terrain that ended with several miles of dips before our final leg on highway 95 to Beatty. This was a difficult drive for Rosie, curvy mountain roads topped off with dips make for a sick kitty.

Beatty was just a quick overnight at Beatty RV Park where we'd stayed in late April. Then it was a relatively short drive into Vegas where we spent six nights at Las Vegas RV Resort, a block from Boulder Highway and Sam's Town Casino. Not a bad park for an urban RV park. The deluxe sites have decent separation and road noise is not too bad.

Clark County Wetlands Park is an unexpected oasis of green near the RV park. It was convenient for some easy walking when the temps were in the low 80's and we didn't feel like driving far to hike.

An average of 180 million gallons of water a day passes through the nature preserve on its way to Lake Mead, mostly originating from the water treatment facilities located along Las Vegas Wash. The excellent onsite Nature Center does a great job of explaining the history and environmental impact of these wetlands.

An unexpected delight in the harsh desert and urban center of Las Vegas.

Hans and I are morning people, rarely staying out late at night, but when Hans noticed there would be a night of live surf music at the Double Down Saloon during our stay we worked it into the schedule. It was a fun night at a cool dive bar with Thee Swank Bastards (Las Vegas), The Boss Martians (from Seattle) and the Messer Chups (all the way from Russia).

We walked around vibrant Fremont Street before heading to the bar and discovered the hip East Fremont district
and its wonderful neon.

The Messer Chups at the Double Down Saloon.

Hans has been fascinated by drag racing since he was a teenager and any time we'll be near a city with a drag strip he'll check the race calendar. He got lucky with our stop in Vegas. He managed to convince me I should see drag racing at least once and scored some reasonably priced tickets on Craigslist for a NHRA national event with many top fuel nitro and funny cars racing.

Several rows of semi's lined up create the pits.
Here is a funny car chassis with its body sitting off to the side.

The pits are open to all attendees and it's fascinating to watch the crews at work.

The semi's are super functional, with elevated storage for transporting the race cars.

We had fantastic seats. Ear protection is a necessity!

I found drag racing to be exhilarating and exhausting! The thunderous vibrations as the cars pass by is intense, shaking you to the core. The smell of nitro fuel gets in to your pores...we thought we could smell it for an entire day after the event. I wore earplugs almost the entire six or so hours we were there because we were blasted with sound constantly.

After days of urban experiences (including staying in an urban RV park) we were more than ready to get out in nature. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is a colorful outdoor lovers haven on the western edge of Las Vegas. Within minutes of the glitter and grime of the big city we found ourselves breathing a sigh of relief as our feet propelled us into canyons free of man made objects and sounds (and, being a Monday, almost free of people too).

Early morning clouds provide a cool contrast to the bright red Calico Hills.

Morning sun peeks through the clouds to throw golden light across the hills.

Big valley views.

We hiked the White Rock/La Madre Spring Loop and found a little bit of fall color in the washes.

Our critter sighting of the day, a small Great Basin Gopher Snake.

Wonderful swirly colors in this rock.

Ancient hand prints.

The canyon we hiked through held a forest of pinyon pine and juniper.

Colorful layers seen from the scenic drive.

We met up with John and Pam on our last full day for a hike in Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. Petroglyph Canyon Trail was a great way to catch up with these two whom we last saw on the Oregon coast this past summer, and will see again in San Diego in a few weeks.

After a bit of a slog up a sandy/gravely wash we had to climb up several pour overs.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of petroglyphs on both sides of the canyon.

This one was hard to photograph because it was high above us, but it held some very interesting designs.
There seemed to be petroglyphs from different periods throughout the canyon.

Unfortunately this was the only kind of bighorns we saw on this hike.

Pam and John.

Looking back into Sloan Canyon Preserve, a harsh desert environment.

From here, we continue south for more desert adventures...

Autumn in Carson City

We had a very enjoyable 10 day stay in Carson City, NV in May of 2014 when we discovered there is a very active trail building community here. This last stay was no different, in one week we hiked a new-to-us trail almost every day, with the added bonus of some lovely fall color.

The Bently Heritage Trail is a flat, easy walk through the Carson River floodplain, sometimes along the river. The Nature Conservancy worked with the property owner to demonstrate that habitat protection, cattle ranching and public access can coexist. Horses, bikes and dogs are not allowed on this trail system. While not the most exciting place to hike, there is bird watching (we saw numerous Northern Harriers) and long distance views galore.

The Carson Range, a spur of the Sierra Nevada Range, stands between Carson Valley and Lake Tahoe.
Grasses, sagebrush and a few giant cottonwoods grace the Bently Heritage trail system.

Subtle autumn colors stretch across the valley.

Just a few miles over the mountain from Carson City, Skunk Harbor is an easy walk 564 feet down an old fire road to a gorgeous bay on Lake Tahoe. There's an old abandoned summer house built in the 1920's and potential wildlife watching. We saw bear tracks, a couple of bald eagles and a mink! Top that off with complete solitude and it was a perfect day on the trail.

Built in 1923, the Newhall House was a retreat for a wealthy San Francisco family.

The house looks out on this stunning bay.

Bear tracks along Lake Tahoe.

We sat still enjoying the scenery long enough that a mink decided we weren't a threat!

Sorry for the blurry photos...it moved quickly!

The mink was so curious about us it swam over to get a closer look!

It got within five feet of us, probably hoping for a handout.

Newhall house peeks out from autumn finery on the shores of Lake Tahoe.

The western edge of Carson City nestles up to the foothills of the Carson Range so for many folks hitting the trails is as easy as walking west from their front door. Ash Canyon is just such a place where miles of trails and dirt roads head right up into the mountains...some roads will lead you all the way to Lake Tahoe!

A beautiful fall morning in Ash Canyon, home of a year round creek and trails and roads
leading all the way over the mountains to Lake Tahoe.

Another trail system right in town is Prison Hill Recreation Area. This 2,500 acre recreation area adjacent to the local prison has two sections, the northern parcel has miles of trails for non motorized use and the southern portion is for off road vehicles. The cool thing about this hiking area is the variety of terrain...you can walk for miles along the Carson River and the Mexican Ditch (built in the 1860's to power a mill and irrigate the land), or climb some serious hills providing great views of Carson City.

At Prison Hill Recreation Area we chose an easy morning walk along the Carson River and a couple of miles
worth of brilliant yellow cottonwoods.
Here, we had nice reflections on the pond dammed to divert flow into the Mexican Ditch.

There is a seven mile trail that connects Ash and Kings Canyons on the western edge of Carson City, it's got plenty of elevation gain so is best done as a shuttle hike or bike which doesn't work for us since we have just one vehicle. Having hiked at the Ash Canyon end already, we chose a 4.5 mile loop at the Kings Canyon end for our final hike in the area. The Upper Waterfall Loop provides great long distance views of the Carson Valley as well as a couple of waterfalls.

A pop of colorful aspen among the Ponderosa.

Upper waterfall.

Looking down King's Canyon into Carson City.

Carson City has some beautiful historic homes adjacent to downtown so it's always pleasant to take a stroll through the neighborhoods. I didn't get any photos but there was a bounty of fall colors as the trees were at peak color in all the neighborhoods we walked. What I did photograph was some of the Halloween decorations currently on display...

Do you dare enter???

Built in the early 1900's, the Governor's Mansion is an iconic historic building...all decked out for Halloween.

Spooky!

Once again we stayed at Camp-N-Town, a basic urban RV park that is convenient to everything in Carson City. Roads are paved, sites are gravel and there are quite a lot of permanent rigs, though they are reasonably tidy. One of the best things about this location is right across the street, the amazing Pho Country Vietnamese restaurant. The Pho is out of this world!

Mmmm Mmmm Good, Pho Country!

Next up: a couple of nights in Lee Vining, CA.