Death Valley National Park - April 2011

 A fellow visitor was kind enough to take our photo at the entrance to Death Valley National Park. 

Zabriskie Point.  Surrounded by a maze of wildly eroded and vibrantly colored badlands, this spectacular view is one of parks most famous.  This viewpoint is a short walk uphill from the parking area.

Polished marble walls and odd mosaic patterns of breccia make Mosaic Canyon a favorite hike.

This is a popular 2 mile, one-way hike.  The twisting lower canyon is so narrow hikers must walk through it single file.  

Move over Superman!  Here's Kathy holding up a huge rock.  All our hard work at the gym has paid off. She is also available to move furniture. 

Dante's View. The most breath taking viewpoint in the park, this mountain-top overlook is more than 5000 feet above the inferno of Death Valley.  The white area in the photo is Badwater Basin a surreal landscape of vast salt flats.

In this close up photo, if you did not know the white area was Badwater Basin, one might think its clouds.

Dave entering Golden Canyon.  We are hiking the Gower Gulch Loop, a 4-mile round trip.  The trail follows colorful badlands, canyon narrows, and old borax mines.

Here's Kathy standing below Red Cathedral located 1/4 mile up the canyon,

I think Kathy is telling me to go this way.  We are at marker #10 identifying the trail to Gower Gulch, a 2.3 mile hike down the gulch to finish the loop.

Here's our last challenge to get out of the Gulch.  Looks simple, but it's the top of a 25-foot dry falls.    Lucky for us there was an alternate route around the falls,  a narrow path that leads back to the parking area.

Lowest point in North America. 

Here's Kathy standing in the middle of the basin.  The Basin is 5-miles wide and you can walk the entire distance, not recommended since temperatures can exceed 130 degrees fahrenheit in July.   

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Dave is holding our Garmin Etrex GPS.  You can see that the elevation is showing -282 feet. 

Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort - March/April 2011

Welcome to Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort where swimming pools, tennis courts, nine-hole putting greens and a luxurious clubhouse come standard.  It does not hurt to have 5 hot tubs either! We arrived here on March 30th and we're parked on lot #389 owned by Rick, a friend of Bob Ulin who is our host.

We met Bob and Sandy two years ago during our visit to Admiral Baker Golf Course and RV Facility in San Diego.  Bob and Sandy live in Anchorage Alaska.  We stopped by for a short visit to see them during our Alaska trip during the summer of 2009. 

This is an exceptional lot with great landscaping and a beautiful outside kitchen and lounge area. It really looks good with our motor home parked in it. 

The outside kitchen is nicely equipped with a grill, 2-burner stove top, ice maker and 2 refrigerators.  The palapa in the rear also includes a fire place to keep you warm and toasty during those chilly Vegas nights.

Here's a photo of Bob & Sandy's lot around the corner.

Here's Bob in his vintage golf cart replica of a 1932 Ford pick up. I am making a custom cover out of Sunbrella for storage when they head back to Alaska for the summer months. We are planning to depart the resort on April 19th. 

In addition to the custom golf cart cover, I created custom wheel covers for Bob.  He said he was tired of bending to install his old ones.  The new ones easily attach via snaps to the outside of the RV.  I included a slot on the bottom of the covers to accommodate some metal stock from Home Depot to keep the covers from blustering during windy conditions.

Here's a picture of a cover I made for his 2-burner stove top.  It will help keep debris out of the burner tray. I can't think of anything else that I need to make a cover for so I guess it might be time to hit the road again!

Grand Canyon going up Bright Angel Trail - 29 March 2011

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We had a wonderful breakfast at the canteen at 5:30 a.m. which included pancakes, eggs, bacon and peaches. We arrived at the Bright Angel trail head at 6:40 a.m. to begin our hike up to the canyon rim.

We began our hike by crossing the Silver Suspension Bridge. The Bridge was built in the late 1960s connecting the Bright Angel Trail from the South Rim to Phantom Ranch and the North Rim. Only hiker traffic may cross this suspension bridge but that’s not the only thing moving across the canyon here. The Silver Bridge also provides a support structure for one of the great engineering feats of the Grand Canyon and a vital support for tourism at this popular national park—the transcanyon water pipeline. Through an extensive system of pipelines and pump houses, 500,000 gallons of water a day are piped from Roaring Springs near the North Rim down Bright Angel Canyon through Phantom Ranch, across the Colorado River suspended from Silver Bridge and then pumped up to the South Rim tourist area.

After crossing the bridge you walk along the river for a mile and one half before starting your ascent.

This photo shows some of the trail we hiked to get up to this point, however we are not even close to the half way point of our hike which is Indian Gardens.

Below you can see the mules going down the trail heading to Phantom Ranch.  You must be extremely careful and listen to the trail guide when the mules approach.  You have to get to the inside of the trail and be very still not to make and sudden moves as this is a highly dangerous situation for the mules and their riders. 

From Indian Gardens which is the green area way at the bottom of this photo you still have 4.6 miles to go to the rim. They only bad thing is we had to hike 5.4 miles to get to Indian Gardens.  Its all uphill from here!

Click on this photo and you can better see the riders going back up to the rim. This is a photo I cropped from the one below which shows just how dangerous trail conditions can be.

Here's the original photo. WOW, glad I'm not one of those riders!

Here's Kathy I don't know why she seems happy since we still have a mile or so to go.  Maybe she is suffering from high altitude sickness.  Get back on the trail! 

This photo shows how far we have come up the rim.

 Click on this photo and you can see Kolb Studio in the center of this picture, look left of center along the rim. We are almost there. We had to put on our yaktracks to help make sure we did not slip on the ice along the trail.

 Here we are after completing 10 miles of hiking.  We are very proud of our accomplishment!  Now for some food and rest.  30 minutes after this photo I could hardly walk to lunch.  I wonder how the heck I made the trip.

Kathy being the detailed person she is created this spreadsheet outlining our cumulative miles we hiked, elevation at various points, total time, break time and percentage of slope for the different levels of the trails.  She has way too much time in her day.

I saved this photo for last. Hiking is fun and can be a great experience but it also can be very dangerous. This article is about Margaret Bradley a marathon runner who died here in the Grand Canyon in July 2004. She underestimated the food and water required for her hike.  We made sure that we had the items we needed for each leg of our trails.  We also carried some survival items, that if needed, would allow us to safely camp overnight, then proceed the next day. 

Phantom Ranch - March 28-29th 2011

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Welcome to Phantom Ranch. Having descended more than a vertical mile below the rim of Grand Canyon, you have reached the bottom of one of the largest canyons in the world. The ranch continues to be one of the most popular destinations in the national park system; its accommodations are often sold out for a year in advance.   The only modes of access to the ranch are by foot, mules or rafting the Colorado River. The two suspension trail bridges near the ranch are the only Colorado River crossings within a 200-mile distance.

This is one of the first views of the ranch when hikers arrive. Designed by Mary Colter and constructed in 1922, Phantom Ranch provided food, lodging, and comfort against an austere backdrop.  The site now includes cabins, two male and two female dormitories, a restaurant (serving only people who book meals ahead of time), a mule corral, emergency medical facilities, and a park ranger station.  The ranch can accommodate about 92 people on a nightly basis. 

These are the only two cabins that have a queen beds for lodging.  Kathy and I were extremely lucky to obtain cabin #2 on the left.  The cabins have heat and AC along with an inside toilet and a small cold water sink.  The showers are only a short walk away.

Here's Kathy enjoying her chocolate cake after our wonderful steak dinner. Everything here is brought in and out by mules.  This is the last place in America where the mail is delivered and taken out by mule. 

Somewhere up there is our destination for tomorrow's hike out. Time for a good night's sleep.