This is Las Vegas???

This is Las Vegas???
If you have been avoiding Las Vegas because “it’s not your thing”, maybe you should take another look.

If you have been with us on our journey from the beginning, you know our west coast base is in Las Vegas, Nevada.  It is an easy place to get reasonably priced flights any time of the year.  We have been here several times and, like most tourists, get mesmerized by all that is “The Strip.”  Those bright twinkly lights are amazing — but then, I am a sucker for Disney World too.  However, bright lights fade, and this past visit has really given us an insight into a plethora of activities that don’t involve lights and slot machines.

So… think Vegas isn’t your thing?  Read on and I’ll give you some options you might not be aware of.

Death Valley National Park
Sunset view of Dante's Peak at Death Valley National Park
Dante’s Peak

It is close.  Only about a two-hour car ride away, Death Valley makes a full, but fun, day trip.  At two hundred eighty-two feet below sea level, you can’t miss Badwater Basin.   It is the lowest point in North America, confirmed with a sign way up on the mountain wall indicating the point of sea level. 

You can walk on dunes and feel like you are in the Sahara Desert, have lunch in the historic Oasis Inn and view their art collection that includes Remington bronzes, drive through the aptly named Artist’s Drive and take in the beautiful colors displayed on the mountains.  At The Ranch at Death Valley, there is a free, outdoor museum with stage coaches, mule team wagons, and equipment used in borax mining. 

Make sure to stop at the visitor center and take a picture with the iconic temperature sign out front.  Finish your day at the stunning Dante’s Peak for a spectacular sunset.  It will cost twenty-five dollars to enter the National Park but your admission fee is good for seven days.  Bring lots of water along as there are few opportunities to buy it.   If aliens are your thing then make sure to take the highway 95 route to Death Valley and stop in Area 51 for “pictures with the Aliens.”  All manner of alien souvenirs is available here.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Lake Mead provides so many outdoor opportunities that you could spend a week here and not do it all.

Hoover Dam
Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge view from Hoover Dam

Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
Viewed from Hoover Dam

The most well-known attraction in the area is Hoover Dam and it’s only about thirty minutes away from Las Vegas.  I won’t bore you with facts about the dam as there are countless PBS specials about what it took to build this engineering marvel.  Even if you aren’t impressed by the engineering of Hoover Dam, there are still fabulous views, bronze sculptures, all sorts of Art Deco worthy of a monument to achievement.  It is free to visit Hoover Dam, however, there is a parking fee on the Nevada side, free parking on the Arizona side.  Tours are an additional cost.  You may want to check that wind speeds are not too high on the day you would like to visit as they can knock you around a bit.

The Lake
Paddle Wheel on Lake Mead
Lake Mead paddle wheeler

Lake Mead Cruises offers daytime sightseeing tours, weekend brunch tours, and evening dinner cruises on a paddle wheeler.  We chose to do a daytime cruise.  The cost was thirty dollars per person and there are sandwiches, burgers, snacks and drinks available for purchase onboard.  The cruise is narrated, takes about ninety minutes and they bring you as close to the dam as they can safely manage.  The dam is remarkable from any angle but from the water it is especially nice.  This tour is a great way to slow down and enjoy some relaxing sunshine and water.

Want to captain your own boat for the day and enjoy that beautiful blue lake?  Several businesses on the lake rent anything from personal watercraft to houseboats.  Check out Callville Bay Marina or Temple Bar Marina for more information and rates.

Colorado River

The Colorado River is what feeds the Lake Mead playground and the National Recreation area follows the river down to Laughlin, Nevada.  Below the dam is a popular spot for kayak tours.  No rapids are involved and there are opportunities to see wildlife, explore Emerald Cave and more.  A half day trip will cost about one hundred to one hundred-fifty dollars.  As the tour company will have to apply for a permit for each person booked, it is a good idea to try and arrange this one in advance.  Check here for rates and adventures:  Blazin Paddles; Evolution Expeditions; River Dogz.

If paddling a kayak isn’t your thing then there is still a way for you to get out on the river.  Black Canyon River Adventures will do all the work while they take you down the river on a large comfortable raft.  This trip includes lunch and a bus ride back to the origination point.

4×4 Trails

Do you drag around a Jeep behind your RV, never utilizing your four-wheel drive capabilities?  Want to give it a try?  Lake Mead National Recreation Area is a great place to “get your feet wet”.  There are approved back country roads that will give a four-wheel owner the opportunity to see what most others don’t get to.  Off roading is allowed on trails marked by a yellow arrow sign and black numbers on the arrow indicate the road number.  Detailed maps are available for download at nps.gov.

Hiking Trails
Janet and Joey pose at red rock hiking

Hiking trails abound in the recreation area and if you are a hiking enthusiast then you don’t need me to tell you how to go about it.  But…you don’t have to be an athlete to look around.  It is fascinating.  There is even a trail that follows the old railroad bed and you get to go through the tunnels.  Your puppy can go on these too.   Just remember to wear sturdy walking shoes and bring along plenty of water.  Go to nps.gov for more helpful tips about trails and hiking.

Desert Bighorn Sheep

Shy and camouflaged, desert bighorn sheep are hard critters to spot.  Hemenway Park in Boulder City will give you the best opportunity to spot one or a few.  Hemenway is a city park inside a neighborhood where the sheep roam around unmolested.  The park closes at dusk and is a nice additional stop when going to or from the Hoover Dam.

Old fashioned Car Tour

Hiking, biking, 4×4 and tours sound like to much for you?  Just get in your car and drive.  A beautiful scenic drive awaits you after you enter the Lake Mead National Recreation Area from the Lake Las Vegas entrance or Lake Mead Parkway. 

You will have to pay a twenty-five-dollar entrance fee per vehicle and your fee is good for seven days.  The drive will give you a little sample of three of the four desert ecosystems found in the United States.  This is where the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin Desert and the Sonoran Desert all meet.  It is about a fifty-mile drive from Lake Las Vegas, around the northern side of Lake Mead, opposite the Hoover Dam or southern side and there are ample opportunities to pull over and take a few stunning photos.  This is a great drive to combine with a visit to the Valley of Fire.

Camping

Numerous campgrounds are available in the recreation area.  A couple have full-hookups available but most only provide a restroom, dump station, and potable water.  There are plenty of opportunities for remote boondocking if that is your preference.  Visit nps.gov for more camping information.

Valley of Fire State Park

The Valley of Fire is a unique area composed of Navaho Sandstone which gives the rock formations their brilliant red color.  They almost appear to glow or be “on fire” when the sun is high overhead.   Several movies have been filmed here, including Arnold’s Total Recall, due to the bizarre color and formation of the rocks.  Several short hikes to notable rock formations are available along with picnic locations and a small visitor center.  Ten dollars per vehicle is the entrance fee and is good for the entire day.  This is another place that it pays to bring along plenty of water.  We love this park combined with the Lake Mead drive.  It makes a wonderful day trip to explore the Nevada desert.  You can still enjoy this park if you don’t hike; there are plenty of stunning sights from your car window. 

Valley of Fire red rock formations

When you look at the map, there is a circular route from the National Recreation Area to Valley of Fire and out to Interstate 15, then back to downtown Las Vegas.  I wouldn’t recommend this route as your day will be finished with little scenery and interstate traffic.  Our recommendation would be to turn around go back the way you came.  The scenic drive will look different from the opposite direction.

There is a campground available in the Valley of Fire.

Spring Mountains National Recreation Area

The Spring Mountains are one of the most delightful finds we have made and is only about a forty-five-minute drive from downtown Las Vegas.  The Spring Mountains are part of the Sky Island ecosystem found in only a small region of the United States.  There are species and terrain unique to these mountains, rising almost twelve thousand feet from the Mojave Desert.  And there are trees, tons and tons of trees, which you might be desperate to see after a few days in the desert.   Several opportunities to enjoy the recreation area are available.

Lee Canyon
Lee Valley skiers coming down the slope

Lee Canyon is a ski and snowboard resort that is operated in partnership with the United States Forest Service.  During the winter season there is tubing, snowshoeing, snow play areas and ski/snowboard runs.  Lessons and rentals are available and there is a small café in the lodge.  Lift tickets are about seventy dollars and there is a five-dollar parking charge.  There are ample opportunities to play in snow or view the wildlife – such as wild horses — on the way up to the lodge.

Joey the Labrador sits in the snow
Joey

Summer activities include a scenic sky gondola ride and hiking. 

Be aware that, in winter, you may be required to have snow chains.  Also, an important note, you cannot use Uber or Lyft to get to Lee Canyon from Las Vegas.  There is little to no cell phone coverage so no way to call for a return.

Mt. Charleston

Another significant location within the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area is Mt. Charleston. Mt. Charleston houses the park visitor center, campground, a couple of small restaurants and lodging.  We enjoyed a pleasant lunch at the Mt. Charleston Lodge where the restaurant view is of the snow-covered mountains.  Also, they provide cabins that have the same scenic view.

Highway 158 connects Mt. Charleston and Lee Canyon and is a scenic ten-mile drive.  Various hikes and overlooks are available to stop at.  Watch for wild horses throughout the area as they seem to like walking down the middle of the highway.

Janet in snow for selfie at Lee Canyon, Las Vegas.
Janet and Ken in snow at Spring Mountains
Janet and ken in snow at Spring Mountains
So, this is Las Vegas

Grand Canyon by helicopter, balloon tours, horseback riding through Red Rock Canyon, desert ATV rides, ghost towns and abandoned mines.   There are a multitude of options.  Check out Viator.com for tour ideas.

Brilliant pink cactus bloom
Desert Cactus

So, if you have been avoiding Las Vegas because “it’s not your thing”, maybe you should take another look.  The best time of the year, as most places, is spring. The days are balmy and the nights cool, rain has the desert in full bloom, there is still snow in Lee Canyon. Spring just seems a little more pleasant to get outside and make memories. Always grateful.👫

Test of our Boondocking Limits

We were ready. Yes we were. Everything had been done to prepare for the test of our boondocking limits. All the meals were prepped. The last leisurely showers were taken…and I had resigned myself to living without smooth legs for the duration 😬. We were doing okay out there. The test to see how long we could go without being connected to utilities was underway. And then…

The generator died.

Now, in our younger days, Ken and I did our share of primitive camping, but we aren’t really into that level of outdoorsiness these days. And besides, we love our electronics (and the new InstantPot). The only option was to pack it all up, go back to Vegas to the local Cummins dealership, and get the generator repaired. Which we did.

Attempt Number Two

It’s now day six in the captain’s log for attempt number two. Water supplies are holding and we continue to enjoy sunny days, which are keeping our batteries charged. The generator is running smoothly, after it’s little hiccup, and all systems are functional

It’s working

I am kind of amazed we are spending this much time un-tethered, and it’s fairly easy. How much more can we do? We really don’t know. How many sailor showers can we stand? The gauges supposedly tell you how much of this and that we have, like water and propane, but (hearty laugh) we’ve learned not to trust those.

Since this is a test, the location we have chosen does have a dump station and fresh water fill-up nearby. It will only be a matter of putting away the awning, cranking up the RV, and driving a short distance.

We are taking baby steps. We are still finding our way in the RV world, learning still more about ourselves, and what trade-offs we are willing to make. The beauty is that there are options with this lifestyle.

Better camp locations
Janet flying a kite on a breezy day at Lake Mead
A breezy day on Lake Mead

We adore our location on Lake Mead. It’s peaceful, beautiful, and a huge surprise that it is so close to Las Vegas. But if we get a noisy neighbor, we can move, if sailor showers get old, there’s an RV park only thirty miles away.

Saving money
boondocking site at Callville Bay view of Lake Mead
Campsite view

What is important from a financial standpoint is that this form of camping is only costing us ten dollars a night here at Callville Bay. We are in a National Recreation Area and are using a senior pass that cuts our camping charges in half. To be positioned in an RV park with all it’s utilities and amenities would be about thirty to fifty dollars a night – and sometimes even more. You can see that boondocking is a considerable savings. In addition, you have options to be more remote than we are now, which would cost us nothing – but we are not quite ready to go there yet.

Everyone has their ideas about what they will and won’t deal with. This was a test of our boondocking limits but so far, we’re good. That extra twenty dollars a night is staying in our pockets and will allow us more in the dining and entertainment fund. I’ll remind myself of that when I take my next two-gallon shower.

Always grateful. 👫

Laissez les bons temps rouler!….Let the good times roll!

Does New Orleans live up to all the hoopla?

Ken and I have started out the new year on the road with our first stop in 👑New Orleans. Probably not the best choice when you have vowed to do better on your budget and your diet🎺🎶🍽 but it was in our path, so who could resist?

Does New Orleans live up to all the hoopla? We only stayed for three days but I’m all in. New Orleans is older than our country, filled with restaurants that have created (and continue to create) iconic foods such as Oysters Rockefeller, Bananas Foster, Po’Boys and Gumbo and overflowing with fantastic old buildings. If you are a foodie or history buff then NOLA is a must.

From NOLA, we continued west. There was a frightening experience in Vidor, Texas where we tried to overnight at a Walmart. We still aren’t sure what the motive was but we were harassed and followed out of town at 1:00 am. FYI: The police are little help until an actual crime has been committed. We didn’t feel like waiting around for that to happen. So, we followed our instincts and left. Thank goodness The Burrow was refueled before our stop and we were able to get far, far away from Vidor, Texas.

Our next stop was with long time friends and family in Austin. We love Austin and even though it was a quick visit, it was like old times with friends Tim & Kaye who were generous enough to let us driveway surf.

Other than a cold front that forced us to spend a couple of days in Van Horn, Texas and another stop to visit family in Scottsdale, we made an uneventful trip back in to Las Vegas (our West coast base).

So, here we go again. New adventures are calling. A little more RV savvy, a little less stressed and a lot more certain that this is where we want to be.

This year we intend to focus on economizing our travels. So stay tuned. We’ll be writing about some of the measures we are taking (including more boondocking 😬) and how effective they are. And, of course, we will be sharing photos of our stops and flops.

Always grateful. 👫