Attractions and other places we visit.
Last September we visited Yellowstone National Park in a rental travel trailer, shortly after buying our coach (as our 40 foot motorhome was too big to fit in Yellowstone). I did several blog posts about our trip, but Jenn recently processed the photos she took with her big camera, a Nikon D7200. So here’s a bonus post with some really nice pics of a very special place. (The photos are also on her Flickr page.) Enjoy!
We visited Great Basin National Park in Nevada, and did a Lehman Caves tour.
The road to the park:
Wheeler Peak:
Great Basin National Park entrance:
The visitor center:
We had a picnic lunch behind the visitor center:
Lehman Caves diagram:
Lehman Caves 3D model:
Info sign:
Our ranger guide at the cave entrance. Actually, it’s the exit; they are still doing a COVID-era abbreviated tour, in and out the exit tunnel, a one hour tour instead of 1.5 hours:
The tunnel, heading down into the caves:
A bunch of pictures within the caves:
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:
Oil rig:
Lioning about:
Dolphins:
Whale tail:
Dolphins:
Birds:
Arch and island:
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.
The historic Vegas Vic:
We went to the Cadillac Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar for dinner:
Margarita and corn chips:
Jenn’s combo dinner:
My burrito 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:
Back outside:
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:
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:
Jenn:
Lunch:
Some of the decorations in the Hard Rock Cafe:
Pretty sure those buildings weren’t there the last time we were in Vegas… which admittedly was 16 years ago:
Paris is still the same, though:
The Bellagio fountains:
Definitely a sign of the times: the Museum of Selfies:
Gordon Ramsay Fish and Chips:
We rode the High Roller ferris wheel:
The view:
The MSG Sphere under construction:
The monorail from above:
Bellagio fountains:
Nearing the end of the circuit:
Then we headed over to The Forum Shops:
Fountain selfie:
Curved escalator:
The Forum Shops:
We stopped by the Apple store for a couple of accessories:
The animatronic “Fall of Atlantis” show:
We had dinner at the Trevi restaurant within the Forum Shops:
Hey there Caesar:
Finally, some High Roller greenscreen photos:
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:
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:
A life jacket loaner station:
A long walk to the lake edge:
The current lake edge:
Not entirely sure what this structure is; seems to be pipes. There is a sewage treatment plant nearby, so probably related to that:
Blowing dust:
Then we drove along the road that should be just above the water level:
A glimpse of our RV in the campground:
The boat ramp, which has been extended several times as the water receded:
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:
2008:
2002:
2000, about where the water should be at capacity:
We stopped by the Lake Mead visitor center:
Visitor center store:
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”:
Leaning towers hold the electrical cables away from the canyon wall:
We drove over Hoover Dam:
One of two spillways, that haven’t been used in decades:
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:
Another display:
The visitor center also had an observation deck with a good view of the dam:
Wide angle:
Top of the dam:
Power house:
Valve house:
Bridge:
Power houses:
Oh dam:
Dam selfie:
Bridge and river:
Then we walked over the dam:
Power houses:
Bridge and visitor center:
Dam:
Plaque:
Bridge and river:
Wide angle:
The parking garage and visitor center:
A high-and-dry spillway:
Back of the dam:
Lake Mead, and one of four intake towers:
Wide angle:
Back of the dam:
Arizona-side intake towers:
Lake Mead:
A plaque halfway across:
And the divider between Nevada and Arizona:
Windy selfie:
Nevada-side intake towers:
Lake Mead:
Exhibits building (which was closed):
Spillway house:
Back of the dam:
Wide angle:
We took a day trip to three national monuments east and north of Flagstaff, Arizona: Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano, and Wupatki National Monuments:
Starting with Walnut Canyon National Monument, with cliff dwellings:
Visitor center video:
Model:
Walnut Canyon path:
Walnut Canyon:
Then the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument:
Lava field:
Lizard:
Lastly, Wupatki National Monument, with pueblo communities:
The Wukoki house was our favorite part of all three parks:
Very windy:
Visitor center:
Wupatki pueblo:
In our travels, we encountered lots of tumbleweeds:
Williams isn’t the only town celebrating the history of Route 66 (or stuck in the past?). We took a drive along one of the longest drivable portions of Route 66, from Willams (actually on I-40 until just after Ash Fork) to Kingman, Arizona, with a stop for lunch at the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman. A 129 mile trip, plus a faster 114 miles return via I-40.
Here’s a map showing Williams on the right, and Kingman on the left:
The equivalent satellite view:
The portion of Route 66 between Ash Fork and Seligman were the best; after that, the road was much like any highway, resurfaced and recently painted. So in retrospect, we could have skipped that longer portion. But hey, at least we can say we’ve done it. Apparently this is the longest section of the original Route 66, too.
A useful reference site for driving Route 66. And another one.
Here’s Jenn with Route 66 sign, at the start of the portion after Ash Fork:
Driving Route 66:
There were several series of dark-humor Burma-Shave signs along the highway:
Seligman, AZ:
We stopped at the Roadkill Cafe for lunch:
A very interesting menu:
Jenn had the Fungi Burger, I had the Swirl of Squirrel:
Route 66 sodas:
Back on the road, more of Seligman, AZ:
Continuing along Route 66:
Having done a guided tour of the Grand Canyon by train and bus, we visited it again a couple of days later in our truck; just an hour drive from the campground. This time, we went later in the day, to catch the sunset.
Here’s the canyon from the South Rim Village area:
The Hopi House, an Indian gift store:
The El Tovar hotel:
Views of the Grand Canyon from Mather Point, near the Visitor Center:
Several miles further east, the Desert View Watchtower and viewpoint:
Heading back west, from Navajo Point (with a glimpse of the Watchtower):
From Lipan Point:
Back at Mather Point for the sunset, and some nice alpenglow:
A magical experience.
We visited another national park: the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona:
The park consists of two sections joined by a narrow portion; in the north are painted hills, and the south has petrified trees. Click the map to go to the NPS map page:
The northern visitor center was being renovated, so they had a temporary one set up:
Jenn peeking over a stand, with clocks showing Arizona time (which doesn’t observe Daylight Savings time), Navajo Nation time, New Mexico time, and California time:
Jenn bought and stamped a National Parks passport as another keepsake of our park visits. Though later decided to switch to a larger one:
A cafe and gift store:
More clocks and other decorations:
As mentioned, the north part of the park has desert painted hills:
The Painted Desert Inn used to have food and accommodations back in the 1920s, but is now a museum:
More painted hills:
Where a discontinued part of the famous Route 66 crosses the park, there is a rusted 1932 Studebaker (the only national park that includes part of Route 66):
Rocks:
Petroglyphs:
More painted hills:
A petrified log:
An interesting trailer in a parking lot:
A random structure; nothing inside, so kinda just a fancy arch:
A petrified log bridging a canyon, supported by old concrete:
Painted hills:
Petrified logs:
An amusing sign:
Petrified logs:
The southern visitor center and museum:
Petrified logs behind the visitor center:
Having visited the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks, we added a couple more stickers to our coach:
