Red Rock Canyon - April 2011 - Near Las Vegas, NV

Between a rock and a high place. With more than 2000 climbing routes, Red Rock National Conservation Area is one of the top five climbing destinations in the United States. 

 Why are the rocks red?  More than 600 million years ago, the land that would become Red Rock Canyon was at the bottom of a deep ocean.  The formation, locally known as Aztec Sandstone, is quite hard and forms the cliffs of Red Rock Canyon.

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 Exposure to the elements caused some of the iron bearing minerals to oxidize.  This oxidizing process can be easily thought of as "rusting the sand," which resulted in red, orange and tan colored rocks.

Calico Hills offers access to sport climbing areas and the best close up views of Calico Hills.

Although you can see most of Red Rock Canyon by driving the 13-mile scenic route, no trip would be complete without a nice hike.  Kathy (she says it was me) suggested we take the most strenuous hike within the park.  Look in the center of the photo and you can see some people rock scrambling the final mile to the top of the peak.

 Turtlehead Peak is a 5-mile round-trip, 2000 foot, mostly rock scrambling climb to the top of the peak.  Here I am looking over the peak while Kathy is documenting our hike in the visitor log. It took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to walk and mostly climb our way to the top. My hat is reversed due to the 45 mph winds at the top of the peak. I did not want to get to close to the edge in fear that the wind might gust and I would be airborne without a parachute.

Enlarge this photo and you should be able to see Las Vegas in the background. You can literally sit on the edge and swing your feet over the peak.  No way. No how.

The hike back down was very steep with a lot of loose gravel.  It took us just over one hour to cover the 2 1/2 mile return trip.  I decided it was time for new hiking boots after this journey.  We both wished we still had a hot tub to ease our pains.

This is Turtlehead Peak.  What were we thinking?

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

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE

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.