April 19 to 24, 2011; Las Vegas to Valley of Fire, Nevada

APR 19, Tuesday, Las Vegas, Nevada
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! So they say, but, I will tell all!
After a lazy morning, we had to go to the grocery so we asked G&T if they wanted to come along which they did. We first stop at BIG LOT where Glenda wanted to show us a small side table they were interested in. It was very nice with a top marble like. This store sells just about everything so I picked up the groceries we needed and Terry and Glenda decided to buy that little table after all. From here we went to Walmart where Val wanted to check on tops but found none. It was time for a drink so we went to a huge casino, SAM’S TOWN, just across the street and we watched a light and water show while having a beer. Unfortunately I didn’t have the camera with us. There was this big waterfall with mechanized animals such as cougar, grizzly bear, birds, an owl and a couple of others. When the show began, the falls became quiet, a mist began rising then on top of the waterfall on this rock, a wolf came out of a cage, howl like one and looked below at all the people. It was mechanized too but so real! Then the water began giving its show, rising to the height of the falls and twisting and dancing. It was very spectacular!
We came home after the show and rested until 5 pm when we went to experience Fremont Street. Very, very awesome! It consists of 2 or 3 blocks with no car traffic and covered with this huge dome where light shows go on as it gets dark. The street was packed with people. We went to one of the 4 QUEENS CASINO, played a couple of slot machines where I won $40 then we went for dinner where they had 2 for 1 dinner. We just had to get a member’s card and a voucher each for the free meal and a free deck of cards. The food was great and the booze cheap. After dinner, we walked Fremont Street from one end to the other and back, watched the light show on the dome, there was a zip line over 280 feet long where some adventurous young people were zooming by over our head for the price of $20. The light show is every hour on the hour so in between, we went gambling and I came out $100 ahead and Val broke even. Took lots of pictures which are posted in Folder “CALIFORNIA TO NEVADA”. Fremont Street is definitely an experience in itself and worth going to. There were all kinds of characters on the street such as Marilyn Monroe, MR T, a warrior from the Athens days, KISS characters and even a guy curling himself in this little box. Of course, there were also show girls clad in very little clothing but huge plumage, bands playing Rock & Roll and Motown. It was noisy and exhilarating! We finally called it quit around 11 pm as Glenda and Terry were driving to the “Valley of Fire”, east of Vegas, early in the morning with their friends Bill and Laurie.
It was a GREAT day and evening and pleasantly warm!


APR 20, Wednesday, Last day in Vegas
Val got dinner going early, a chuck roast, in the slow cooker while I went to the garage to fuel @ $4.15 and got propane for $24. It is sunny and warm again but no complaining when looking at the temperature at home! About 3 pm, someone knock on our door and when I opened it, there was Fred from Alberta whom we met in San Carlos, Mexico. He and his wife Debbie are here for a couple days on their way to Alberta.
Terry and Glenda showed up at 4 pm and it sounded like they had a good day. We had Happy Hour then dinner with them. It was all a success and after dinner, we had ice cream then they went home; Terry was falling asleep on his chair...they did have a long day; over 100 miles drive. We said good night and watched Survivors then it was bed-time for us too.
Tomorrow, we head for the Valley of Fire for about 4 days IF we can get a camping spot as it sounded from Terry that the Park is full!? Easter week-end is coming up at the end of this week!


APR 21, Thursday, to Valley of Fire, Nevada
We left at 9:30 am after saying goodbye to Glenda & Terry and Fred and Debbie. We drove north on Boulder Hwy to get on 515 south then East on Lake Mead Parkway. On the way, we saw a TARGET and stopped to buy another ice maker as ours gave up a couple days ago. We continued on Lake Mead road which eventually became Northshore Drive! Wow, what a drive and the sceneries!!! It was hard to keep my eyes on the road. We stopped at Echo Bay and there was lots of camping available but we decided to continue and try our luck at “Valley of Fire”. It turned out to be to our advantage as we got a spot with water but no electricity which is OK as we have our own generator. We paid for three nights to begin with. After setting up in #4 @ “Atlatl Rock” Campground in the “VALLEY of FIRE”, we went for a little tour of the place. We are near the West entrance so we went back to the Visitor Centre which had a great display of the history of this region and some interesting mock-up of the wild life and the aboriginal people that lived in the region. It also gave a history on the formation of the Valley. It was under water at one time, millions of years ago! Most of the red rock is from sandstone carved by centuries of water and wind erosion and is the newest of the surrounding mountains which are darker. The red color is caused by the iron oxidisation and the holes are from erosion of the wind, water and cold and hot temperature.
From here, we drove on a road leading to the “WHITE DOMES” but first, we stopped at the Petroglyph Canyon and the “MOUSE’S TANK which consisted of a walk down this canyon for about a half mile and where there was two pools of water within the rocks. It really was interesting and beautiful. We drove on to RAINBOW VISTA and WHITE DOMES where there was a mile and half hike but I only did a half mile. About a dozen movies were filmed here including “1000 YEARS BC”, STARTREK and others including cowboys movies. Quite interesting!
After all this excitement, we went to find two Geo-Caches placed here by State Park employees to commemorate the 75th anniversary of this State park. One of caches took us up these stairs to look at petroglyphs near our camp site and the other at Petrified logs.
We came home and had Happy Hour then supper. We sat out to watch the night sky and all the stars. A great day!

N 36* 25.071’
W 114* 33.156’
Alt: 2274 feet

We drove 84 miles in 2 hrs and 15 minutes at an average 37 MPH. We stopped for ¾ hour at Target and the Park entrance.


APR 22, Friday, Valley of Fire; sightseeing and geo-caching
It was a very pleasant night but for some reasons, I was very restless. Got the coffee perked on the stove and sat outside for a while. I got the generator going so Val could do her hair. We left around noon and visited everything else we missed yesterday. Our first stop was the other campground and the Arch Rock where we got another cache. From here, it was the “Beehives”, a couple of huge rocks that looked like a bee hive with its little holes on it. We also got another cache. We drove east to the “Seven Sisters” where we had lunch. There was a group there with kids and as we were walking the desert, Val found a plastic Easter Egg and upon opening it, got a bunch of candy and a dollar bill. This is when we noticed that there were a whole bunch all over the place and realized that it was for the kids so we put it back intact. How neat! We took a few pictures and had lunch then left for the “Cabins” built in 1935 by the CCC to accommodate hikers and visitors. From here, it was the East Entrance and the “Elephant Rock” (SEE PICTURES FOLDER # 76 Valley of Fire). This ended our visit to “Valley of Fire” State Park! We drove on to Lake Mead highway and stopped in Overton, a small town on the north-east side of the park. We got a few more caches on the way, stopped in town for milk and a couple beers then called it a day. The weather was great and we had a good time.


APR 23, Saturday, Last day in Nevada
Once again, a warm night and a gorgeous day! After showering and having breakfast, we headed to the West Gate and I-15 to get the balance of our listed caches. We found 4 on the way, got on I-15 North East to the turn off to Langdale and Orton where we got 4 more. There was an info card where we had lunch and read about the Spanish Trail/Mormon Trail. Interesting stuff and I took a few pictures which can be seen in folder #76. After lunch, we headed south-east, to Orton where we stopped for a beer and picked up some groceries. We eventually made it home by 4 pm and had Happy Hour then dinner, BBQ’ed steaks from Costco and after dinner, Tucker got his bath; he was very dirty from the desert dust and dirt. The park is not quite full as a few people left today. This has been a wonderful 3 days and we would definitely come back here. It has been warm, pleasant, quiet and peaceful. People have been coming in and out throughout the week-end. This is definitely a family place. We observed young kids going up rock faces and playing King of the Hill. Parents have been involved too and it has been fun to watch them.
Tomorrow we head out north towards home!


APR 24, Sunday, Happy Easter; Onward Ho!
We were up by 7 am and after showering and eating, we loaded our stuff, the generator, hooked up and drove to the dump site. We were on the road by 9 am heading west to I-15 and turned south to Hwy 93. We stopped to get some coffees and headed north. The scenery was quite awesome and spectacular. I love deserts and the way they lay. I find it amazing how you can head for a mountain or hill and VOILA, there is a passage through.
We stopped in Caliente for lunch and for fuel @$4.28/gal. We eventually came to the cross-road for Hwy 50, known as the loneliest Highway in the US and I can attest to that reputation. I stopped again at the Utah State line and filled up @ 4.36/gal. Definitely not cheap anymore!
We arrived at Delta, Utah and found an RV park. It is 4:30 pm (5:30 local time, Mountain Time) and we are staying at Antelope Valley RV Park, an AOR member. We came in late so no one was in the office.
We hit rain on the way up on and off. As we neared Delta the sky was really black and we got in on the tail end of a storm according to our neighbour. We climbed over 3 passes and went as high as 6500 feet but easy climbing.
We left this morning, it was 75*F, in Caliente it was 65 and here...54*F (12*C). Val wants to go back to Vegas!!! We have WIFI so will upload the blog finally and post my pictures. I started a new one # 76 Valley of Fire and # 77 Nevada to Home.

We travelled 387 miles (684 Km) in 7 hours and were stopped for 45 minutes @ an average of 56 MPH.
N 39* 21.086
W 112* 35.633
Alt: 4607 feet