Young’s RV Park

We stayed at Young’s RV Park in Caliente, Nevada. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Dates:

  • Check in: 2022-04-21
  • Check out: 2022-04-24
  • 3 nights

Weather:

  • Windy, rainy, cloudy
  • High temps ranging between 60 and 72°F, lows around 32-44°F
  • Very windy the first day (wind is common in Spring)

Noise:

  • No road noise, occasional train noise
  • Quiet and noisy neighbors on different days

Site:

  • #38, pull-through, gravel
  • Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
  • Medium site: no marked edges, but about 60 feet long by about 25 feet wide
  • Full hookups:
    • 50 amp power conveniently located
    • Good water pressure, 55 PSI water, conveniently located
    • Good sewer connection, conveniently located
  • Picnic table

Internet:

  • Campground Wi-Fi: 0.5 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 45-145 ms ping; not used
  • T-Mobile: no service
  • AT&T: 3-8 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
  • Verizon: 3-9 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 80-128 ms ping

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpster
  • No pool

Here’s the review Jenn wrote on Campground Reviews:

Good basic campground

We stayed for a few nights on our way to Great Basin National Park. Our site was level and easy to get in and out of. Seems like a very popular spot for gatherings as I got the impression everyone else staying there knew each other, but at least everyone obeyed the quiet hours. We camped at Young’s RV Park in a Motorhome.

The weather forecast for our stay:

Weather

This park was unusual in that there was no paper map or other information provided, just a credit card receipt (that had the Wi-Fi password on it). Here’s the map from their website:

Map

The satellite view:

Young s RV Park

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

A tumbleweed blowing in the wind:

Tumbleweed

Conveniently located utilities:

Utilities

55 PSI water pressure:

55 PSI

It was very windy on our first day; here’s a GIF of the slide topper flapping in the wind:

Flapping GIF

Our site and neighbors:

Our site and neighbors

Other RVs:

Other RVs

Other RVs

The office:

Office

Bathroom and laundry:

Bathroom and laundry

More tumbleweeds:

Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed

It rained on our second day; the first time we’ve had real rain in about a month:

Rain

A side-by-side on the back of a pickup; an interesting arrangement:

Side-by-side on truck

Travel from Boulder City to Caliente, NV

We drove our coach 181 miles, four hours, from Lake Mead, Boulder City, Nevada to Caliente, Nevada.

Here’s the map, heading north:

Map route

Decorations in Boulder City:

Decorations in Boulder City

More freeway decorations:

Freeway decorations

Paladin was contented in his safe space:

Paladin in his safe space

A trike:

Trike

Las Vegas in the distance:

Las Vegas

Overpass art:

Overpass art

Wall art:

Wall art

Passing by Las Vegas:

Las Vegas

Exit:

Exit

Overpass art:

Overpass art

We stopped at Love’s for fuel:

Love's

We were interested to see that this Love’s has RV and boat storage:

Love's RV and boat storage

Fuel time:

Love's

Spendy for less than half a tank:

Fuel pump

I used my laptop while traveling:

Using laptop

Motorcycles:

Motorcycles

A lake:

Lake

Curvy road:

Curvy road

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

A long straight road, heading for the hills:

Long straight road

A bunch of Joshua trees:

Joshua trees

Downgrade sign:

Downgrade sign

The exaust heat warning light came on, with all the hill climbing; went off again shortly thereafter:

Exaust heat warning

Rocks and curves:

Rocks and curves

Rocks and curves

Our destination:

Our destination

Channel Islands National Park bonus pictures

I posted in early March about our visit and cruise to Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of California.

Well, those photos were taken by my iPhone, but Jenn also took a bunch of photos with her big camera, a Nikon D7200. She has just gone through those photos, and shared her favorites with me, so I thought I’d do a followup post with her pictures. Enjoy!

Whale tail:

Channel Islands National Park

Channel Islands National Park

Oil rig:

Oil rig

Lioning about:

Lioning about

Dolphins:

Dolphins

Dolphins

Whale tail:

Whale tail

Whale tail

Whale tail

Whale tail

Dolphins:

Dolphins

Birds:

Birds

 Arch and island:

Arch and island

Building

Arch and island

Arch and island

Lighthouse

Arch

Arch

Arch and island

Arch and island

Arch and island

Sea lions

Arch

Arch

Las Vegas Fremont Street Experience

Our second trip to Las Vegas was to the Fremont Street Experience in downtown. It’s a couple blocks of that street, covered with a large curved screen, that displays light shows and music videos.

Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street Experience

The historic Vegas Vic:

Historic cowboy

Fremont Street Experience

We went to the Cadillac Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar for dinner:

Cadillac Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar

Margarita and corn chips:

Margarita and corn chips

Jenn’s combo dinner:

Jenn's dinner

My burrito dinner:

David's dinner

We’re not into gambling, but felt we should pay some tax to the gods of luck while in Vegas. Though as it turned out, Jenn walked away with almost double what she put in:

Slot machine

Back outside:

Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street Experience

Las Vegas strip

While staying at Lake Mead, we took a couple of daytrips to Las Vegas. The first one was to the Strip.

We had actually planned to stay overnight at the Mirage, and attend “The Beatles Love” Cirque du Soleil show, but had to bail on those reservations as Jenn was sick with food poisoning for several days. But once she was better, we made do with the daytrips.

Driving to the Strip, we snagged a picture of the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada” sign:

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada sign

Driving down the Strip:

Driving down the strip

We parked, and went searching for lunch. We ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe, and walked across the road while waiting for a notification of our table being ready:

The strip

Hard Rock Cafe

Jenn:

Jenn

Lunch:

Lunch at Hard Rock Cafe

Some of the decorations in the Hard Rock Cafe:

Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe

Pretty sure those buildings weren’t there the last time we were in Vegas… which admittedly was 16 years ago:

Aria

Paris is still the same, though:

Paris

Eiffel Tower

The Bellagio fountains:

Bellagio fountains

Bellagio fountains

Definitely a sign of the times: the Museum of Selfies:

Museum of Selfies

Gordon Ramsay Fish and Chips:

Gordon Ramsay Fish and Chips

 We rode the High Roller ferris wheel:

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

The view:

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

Jenn & David

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

The MSG Sphere under construction:

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

The monorail from above:

High Roller ferris wheel

Bellagio fountains:

Bellagio fountains

Nearing the end of the circuit:

High Roller ferris wheel

High Roller ferris wheel

Then we headed over to The Forum Shops:

The Forum Shops

Fountain selfie:

Jenn & David

Curved escalator:

The Forum Shops

The Forum Shops:

The Forum Shops

The Forum Shops

We stopped by the Apple store for a couple of accessories:

The Forum Shops

The animatronic “Fall of Atlantis” show:

The Forum Shops

The Forum Shops

We had dinner at the Trevi restaurant within the Forum Shops:

Jenn

Dinner

Hey there Caesar:

Caesar's Palace

Finally, some High Roller greenscreen photos:

High Roller greenscreen photos

High Roller greenscreen photos

High Roller greenscreen photos

High Roller greenscreen photos

High Roller greenscreen photos

Lake Mead and Hoover Dam

Since we were staying with a view of Lake Mead, of course we had to go down to the lake edge. Plus, we visited the nearby Hoover Dam, which created and feeds from the lake.

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area is “America’s first and largest national recreation area”.

We drove to the lake:

Drive to Lake Mead

The lake is at a record low level due to the ongoing drought, so much of the road is actually below where the water level should be:

Drive to Lake Mead

Drive to Lake Mead

A life jacket loaner station:

Life jacket loaner station

A long walk to the lake edge:

Walk to the lake edge

The current lake edge:

Lake edge

Lake Mead

Lake Mead

Lake Mead

Jenn & David

Not entirely sure what this structure is; seems to be pipes. There is a sewage treatment plant nearby, so probably related to that:

Lake Mead

Blowing dust:

Dust

Then we drove along the road that should be just above the water level:

Driving by Lake Mead

A glimpse of our RV in the campground:

Our RV

The boat ramp, which has been extended several times as the water receded:

Boat ramp

Boat ramp

Boat ramp

On the way back up, we noticed signs indicating the water line over the years. I’m including a picture of each sign, and the metadata map indicating where it is. Note that the water line indicated by the map isn’t current; it’s lower than shown. Here’s 2018:

2018

2008:

2008

2002:

2002

2000, about where the water should be at capacity:

2000

We stopped by the Lake Mead visitor center:

Visitor center

Visitor center store:

Visitor center store

Lake model:

Lake model

Then we continued on to Hoover Dam.

On the way to the RV park, we went over this bridge in our coach, the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. When Jenn saw it from below, she said she was very glad she hadn’t realized how high it was at the time. That Wikipedia article says it “incorporates the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. At 890 feet (270 m) above the Colorado River, it is the second highest bridge in the United States”:

Bridge

Leaning towers hold the electrical cables away from the canyon wall:

Leaning towers

We drove over Hoover Dam:

Driving over Hoover Dam

One of two spillways, that haven’t been used in decades:

Spillway

After driving across and back over the dam, we parked, had a snack in the cafe, went to the gift store, then the visitor center. Which wasn’t worth it; I’d recommend skipping it unless you’re really interested. There were few displays, and about half were out of order. And they charged $10 each to get in… plus you have to go through a security checkpoint (that made me remove my fabric belt, for some reason).

But one exhibit that was somewhat interesting was a video showing the dam being built, which I recorded and made into an animated GIF:

GIF

Another display:

Visitor center display

The visitor center also had an observation deck with a good view of the dam:

Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam

Wide angle:

Wide angle

Top of the dam:

Top of dam

Power house:

Power house

Valve house:

Building

Bridge:

Bridge

Power houses:

Power houses

Oh dam:

Dam

Dam selfie:

Jenn & David

Bridge and river:

Bridge and river

Then we walked over the dam:

Walking over the dam

Power houses:

Power houses

Bridge and visitor center:

Bridge and visitor center

Dam:

Dam

Plaque:

Plaque

Bridge and river:

Bridge and river

Wide angle:

Wide angle

The parking garage and visitor center:

Visitor center

A high-and-dry spillway:

Spillway

Spillway

Back of the dam:

Back of dam

Lake Mead, and one of four intake towers:

Lake Mead

Wide angle:

Wide angle

Back of the dam:

Back of dam

Arizona-side intake towers:

Collection towers

Lake Mead:

Lake Mead

A plaque halfway across:

Plaque marking halfway

And the divider between Nevada and Arizona:

Nevada and Arizona

Windy selfie:

Jenn & David

Nevada-side intake towers:

Collection towers

Lake Mead:

Lake Mead

Exhibits building (which was closed):

Exhibits building

Spillway house:

Spillway house

Back of the dam:

Back of dam

Wide angle:

Wide angle

Chair armrest adjustment

Our coach has fold-down arms on the two cockpit chairs. When we bought it, one of the arms of the passenger chair was too low. We figured that someone had put too much weight on it and broken it:

Passenger chair

Armrest too low

However, I recently learned a trick: inside the small hole at the end of the armrest is an adjustment lever. One can put a finger in there and lift up the lever below the hole, and adjust the resting height of the armrest:

Hole with adjustment lever

So now yay, it’s all better:

Adjusted armrest

Mind blown! 🤯

Learn something new every day.

Video

Video: timelapse of sunset and sunrise over Lake Mead

I noticed that the sun rose pretty much directly in front of our coach at our lake-view site in Lake Mead RV Village, so I had the idea of leaving the dashcam on overnight to record the light on the hills of the sunset, some of the air activity overnight, and the sunrise. I think the audio track really adds to the mood, too. Enjoy!

Lake Mead RV Village

We stayed at the Lake Mead RV Village in Boulder City, Nevada. (Campground Reviews listing.)

We considered staying at the Thousand Trails in Las Vegas, but the reviews weren’t very favorable. So we opted for a nicer park with a view of Lake Mead instead.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2022-04-10
  • Check out: 2022-04-21
  • 11 nights

Weather:

  • Sunny, some clouds
  • High temps ranging between 66 and 91°F, lows around 35-57°F
  • Some days of gale-force winds (gusts up to 64 MPH!); did not enjoy those

Noise:

  • No road or train noise
  • Initially noisy neighbors, until they left

Site:

  • #LV21, pull-in, cement pad surrounded by gravel
  • Unusual in that pull coach in front-first — so get a lake view out the windscreen
  • Initially had a fiver next to us, backed in, so their door was facing us; didn’t like that — but the site remained empty after they left
  • Needed to disconnect toad; parked on gravel beside coach
  • Medium site: about 55 feet long by 30 feet wide, with 40 by 15 cement pad for RV
  • Full hookups:
    • 50 amp power conveniently located
    • Good water pressure, 60+ PSI water, conveniently located
    • Good sewer connection, conveniently located
    • All utilities on both sides, to accommodate front-in motorhomes and back-in trailers
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit

Internet:

  • Campground Wi-Fi: 26 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 25 ms ping; not used
  • T-Mobile: 25-30 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
  • AT&T: 7 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 38 ms ping
  • Verizon: 32-37 Mbps down, 15-17 Mbps up, 55 ms ping

Amenities:

  • Garbage and recycling dumpsters, not particularly close
  • No pool
  • Nice camp store; we bought groceries there
  • The usual other stuff we didn’t use

Here’s the review Jenn wrote on Campground Reviews:

Gorgeous lake and mountain views

We had a pull-in Lake View site and it was sooooo worth it. Best view ever, even if the lake isn’t as high as it used to be. The only drawback is that while we were front-in with our motorhome, our neighbor was backed in with a 5er, which means it was basically a buddy site, so privacy was lacking. If they could keep motorhomes and trailers/5ers separate that would be even better. Utilities are available on either side of the site because of the front or back-in arrangement.

Our site was so level, our automatic levelers pretty much just went down and called it good without any fiddling. That never happens. Very convenient to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas for some sightseeing and touristy fun, but it was so nice to come back to this quiet spot when the day was done. Some basic necessities in the camp store. Groceries in Boulder City or Henderson weren’t too far away, but you might want to put a cooler in the car just in case. We camped at Lake Mead RV Village in a Motorhome.

The weather forecast for our stay:

Weather

It was quite windy, with gusts up to 64 miles per hour, though I think we were a little sheltered from the worst of that:

Wind

Here’s the campground map, which only shows the RV sites; most of the park is mobile homes:

Map

The satellite view shows all the mobile homes; our approximate location is circled:

Satellite view

Zooming out, you can see the lake edge. Though these satellite images are out-of-date; the water is actually a bit further now, as the lake continues to drain due to the ongoing drought:

Satellite view

Satellite view

This last image shows the Nevada/Arizona border line, and Hoover Dam:

Satellite view

Our lake view site; notice that we fronted in, to have a nice view out our windscreen, while trailers back in:

Site

Site

Site

The downside of this arrangement is that a trailer next to us has their door facing us, so a “buddy” situation. Not great for privacy:

Site

Site

Fortunately the sites are fairly wide, so we weren’t on top of each other. And they left after a few days, which was a relief, since they had their TV blaring with the door open most of the time.

Looking down the side of the coach to the utilities:

Site

Pretty convenient location; to accommodate motorhomes and trailers, all of the utilities are available on both sides of the site:

Utilities

Good water pressure:

Good water pressure

Once we spent a night here, we were able to fill in a hole on our states map, adding Nevada:

States map

States map

Utah will be added soon, too.

Here’s the picturesque view out our windscreen; we didn’t put up the Magne Shade, so we could enjoy the view:

View out windscreen

View out windscreen

View out windscreen

A dust storm:

Dust storm

Dust storm

Paladin relaxing:

Paladin

Let’s take a walk around the campground, and look at other RVs and the mobile homes:

Other RVs and mobile homes

Other RVs and mobile homes

Other RVs and mobile homes

Mobile homes

The entrance:

Entrance

The office:

Office

We enjoyed the blooming cacti out front:

Blooming cacti

Blooming cacti

The office also included a decent camp store, where we got some groceries:

Store

Village hall:

Village hall

I worked outside on several days (when not too hot or breezy), in the shade in front of our coach, enjoying the view:

David working outside

David working outside

David working outside

David working outside

Jenn had some meetings outside, too:

Jenn working outside

Jenn working outside

Jenn working outside

Paladin looking outside:

Paladin

Paladin watching taunty quail:

Paladin watching quail

Paladin watching quail

An interesting plane / copter thing:

Interesting plane / copter

Dinner with a view:

Dinner

Surprisingly, there were several empty sites for much of our stay. We had several trailers come and go on our driver side, but I would have expected the park to be more packed. Sure, it’s early Spring, but we were here around Easter weekend:

Empty sites

Empty sites

Sunrise over the lake:

Sunrise

 The moon over our coach:

Moon

Moon

 Sunset alpenglow:

Sunset

Sunset

Sunset

A good park, with the nicest view we’ve experienced (so far). We’ll definitely stay here again.