Perk's Posts: October 2013

Hoover Dam, Vegas Strip to Pahrump Station, Oct 19

We woke up at Blake Ranch RV Park & Horse motel. Besides amenities expected of a good RV park, it had dog runs, private shower rooms cleaned after each use, exceptional $1 laundry facilities, a country store. Full hookup rate was about $22 a night with cash senior discount. The owners are solid gun-toting, horse-riding Americans. Mr Blake was nsing a nice had a nice 50 ft square lawn that he watered 2X a day. The ground in th area is a few inches of soil over rock and does not hold water, though they get about 20 inches a year.

We set out toward the Vegas strip via the Grand Canyon. landscape along th way was rocky and ranged from flat with native shrubs or bare stone mountains.

We arrived at the Hoover Dam and viewed it from downstream from the a walk beside a Memorial Bridge. Minuscule appearance of large utility vehicles in the photo indicate. This photo is probably 1/4 mile or more from dam.

We saw more plaques commemorating the bridge than the dam. Info overload includes that it is the first concrete concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the US. It incorporates the widest concrete arch in the western hemisphere. At 840 feet (260 m) above the Colorado River, it is the econd-highest bridge in the US. And So on.

Here's the back side of dam and Lake Meade.

As dark settled, we headed for the Las Vegas Strip and snapped a couple more Lake Meade shots en route.

On the Strip, we saw the Vegas lights you normally see on TV. We had been concerned that we might have trouble driving in congestion, but traffic seemed moderate, and stoplights afforded pauses to look around and snap photos.

Plenty of Walgreen and McD, and here they are side to side.

Not a great photo, but here's Pawn Stars shop.

Riding down the strip and seeing the lights was fun. However, if we lived in Vegas, we can't picture going more than one for ourselves, and then maybe to show out-of-towners. Back streets on the way out looked a bit creepy. During our drive through we saw or heard more than half a dozen occasions of ambulance response.

then we drove west to find a place to overnight. We stayed at Best Western Pahrump station motel and RV.
it was a good basic RV park.

Grand Canyon to Kingman AZ Oct 18

Discovered water leak in RV. Got it fixed. Overnighted at Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel. They have all amenities at $22.

October 16-18 Grand Canyon National Park

Drove from Flagstaff KOA to Grand Canyon Trailer Village Campground at Canyon's South Rim (10-16). $35 a night for full hookups Right there in the Park. My (Bill) Senior National Parks Pass allowed free entry into the Park Plenty of visitors from all over, but not busy. About every 15 minutes, shuttle buses pick up at campground and run to about a dozen Canyon overlooks as well as other park facilities including stores, restaurants, and post office. We got our first view before sunset. Breathless! Spectacular array of colors on the rock formations and vegetation. Though photos do not show depth of the canyon our cameras really snapped. Here's a few from the Train Station vicinity. Most of the better pics are relative closeups, because at 18 mi wide, you can't effectively see stuff more than half way across. From most overlooks, spectacular rock formations that fill the canyon obscure the Colorado River (about a mile down). Anyway, here's our first views of the Grand Canyon.

Hopi House (reconstructed).

In the AM (10/17). I (Bill) got up early, took shuttle to the rim, and walked a couple miles east of Train Station stop. Here's some of what I saw.

Near the end of my walk, but not the canyon. I'm guessing the river is maybe 5 mi straight out.

Before noon, Beth and I shuttled to the Train station and to the overlooks to the west. Sound travels better than sight across the canyon. It was possible to hear distant helicopters in the canyon near the north rim, and not see them.