December 1, 2013 Lake Havasu/Apache Junction, AZ

December 1, 2013  Lake Havasu/Apache Junction

Well, it’s really Dec. 2 and we got into the Superstition Buttes Park on December 1!  I am really lagging on getting the last of our blog done.  I don’t know if I’m just plain wore out, or if I hate to see it end!  It’s been a great trip, and we are glad we were able to do it, without any problems.  I guess I didn't post much of anything on our two day stay in Pahrump, which was 'interesting'.  It's a very strung out town, and for a desert town, it was quite clean and neat. Every campground is connected to a casino in that town!  We did some geo-caching in Pahrump on Friday to gain our Nevada souvenir, so we were glad about that.   On Saturday, we arrived in Lake Havasu for an overnight, and to see the London Bridge.  We watched the Badger football game until we couldn’t stand to watch it anymore, as the team didn't show up to play!  We left at the end of the third quarter to go downtown to see the London Bridge, as it is something we have wanted to see ever since we have been coming to AZ.  It is a fabulous bridge, but we didn’t care for the ‘carnival type things’ going on around that area. It's definitely a tourist town.  If you don’t know the background of the bridge, this is a good website to go to and read about it. 

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_City) 

So, with that being satisfied, we were ready to leave Lake Havasu on Sunday.  The drive from Lake Havasu to Parker is beautiful, with the mountains and the Colorado River, it made for a very pleasant drive.  We arrived at our park at noon on Sunday, and it will take us all week to get settled in!  It feels good to be back in The Valley, and we’ll be here until May 1, 2014.  This ends our blog, and we are glad to hear that so many of you have ‘traveled with us’!  We have no regrets and feel very enriched with all that we have seen and learned on this trip.  

The London Bridge in Lake Havasu, AZ

Hwy. 95 to Parker, AZ from Lake Havasu

Toy Hauler - this was painted on the back of the trailer!

This was a very welcome sign!

November 28, 2013 Death Valley/Pahrump NV

November 28, 2013  Death Valley/Pahrump, NV

We left Death Valley today, only knowing that we will return again someday, as we didn’t get all the things done there that we wanted to do.  Upon our arrival, we were wondering what we were going to do with all of our time!  We were pleasantly surprised at all the things to do, see and learn about.  One thing I haven’t touched on is the mining of borax in Death Valley.  We have all used ‘Twenty Mule Team Borax’ in our lifetime, and this is where it got its name.  In the 1870's and 1880's, F.M Borax Smith started the Harmony Borax Works Mining Company in Death Valley.  He had Chinese laborers gather borax salts for $1.30 a day, and the 20 mule teams hauled the filled wagons to the railheads. The wagons weighed 36 tons, and always had a 1200 gallon water wagon connected with it, so with the 20 mule team to pull them, it was about 100 feet long. They journeyed 165 miles to market from Death Valley. So we leave Death Valley feeling a little more enriched in knowledge, and we got some very scenic hiking done in the beautiful landscape of the valley.  We arrived in Pahrump, NV around noon today, got settled in, watched the awful Packer/Lions game and went to the casino for their turkey dinner.  Tomorrow we will geo-cache in the area and be ready to move on Saturday.  We are at the Saddle West Campground and Casino and it’s very nice here.  Pahrump is a neat little town nestled in the foothills of the mountains, and they seem to have everything a person would want. We hope everyone arrived at their destinations today for their Thanksgiving Dinner, and have a safe return.

Twenty mule team feed wagon

Processing area for the borax

Two large wagons and a water wagon

A picture of the mule team and wagons

  

November 27, 2013 Death Valley, CA

November 27, 2013 Death Valley, CA

This was a day that we were truly inspired!  We went back to Golden Canyon to hike the Gower Gulch Loop Trail.  We had just started when we approached a foursome, and they had a service dog with them.  We assumed the elderly lady with the dog had a stroke at one time, as it was obvious to us, that she needed assistance.  We didn’t go much further and we met a twosome.  They appeared to be father and son to me, and we stopped to talk to them.  We watched them as they walked toward us, and the elderly man had his hand on the younger man’s shoulder, and it stayed there, all the while we talked to them.  We assumed that the elderly man was legally blind.  Both of these people loved what they were doing, and we left them thinking that tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we definitely have so much to be thankful for. God bless them, for pushing themselves to do things that they so much enjoy.  We took pictures of both ‘sets of people’ and I’ll post them on the blog tonight.  The loop hike offered much in terrain change and beauty!  Pictures just don’t show how gorgeous it is out there.  It was strenuous early on, but once we reached the top, it was all downhill from there!  We met so many different people on the trail…..a young newlywed couple from Brazil, a young family of four, and the two boys, about nine and eleven years old didn’t want to do the loop hike.  We encouraged them to do it, as we could see the parents really wanted to go.  They ended up going, and we had fun with them.  I know those boys will be proud that they made the whole loop.  We met another couple from Washington State and we stopped and talked to them for quite a while.  She was born in Luck, WI and they winter in AZ.  You just realize that there are so many nice people that you encounter in your life.  We drove to Dante’s View, which overlooks a good portion of Death Valley, and we stopped at Zabriskie Point, which is the peak that we saw from below when we hiked the Gower Gulch Loop.  We ranked this day a TEN!  Tomorrow we leave for Pahrump, NV and hope to have turkey dinner in the casino there.  It’s been a great stay in Death Valley, and we feel we saw and did a lot here, in the four days that we were here.  I know we’ll be back.  We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving Day, and hope your travels are safe ones! 

Foursome with service dog

Father and son

Zabriskie Point

View from the top of the trail 

And our trail goes where?

Looking back is awesome!

November 26, 2013 Death Valley/Scotty's Castle

Nov. 26, 2013  Death Valley/Scotty's Castle

We checked in with the visitor center this morning, about the road into the coke oven area, and they are closed and will be for some time.  That was our plan for tomorrow, was to drive over there to see them.  They are believed to be in the best shape of any coke ovens in the west.  I guess we'll be coming back, as we have some unfinished business here.  We had tickets for the tour through Scotty's Castle and the basement tour, also.  It was quite elaborate and interesting.  Scotty was a prospector who claimed to have struck gold and built this immense castle out in the middle of the desert.  Instead, it was the vacation home of his wealthy friends from Chicago.  We also drove over to see the Ubehebe Crater, which was not far from Scotty's Castle.  It was a volcanic explosion that thrust rocks in a six mile radius and in some places, the rocks were 150 feet deep.  The crater is 600 feet deep, and is 1/2 mile wide.

Ubehebe Crater

Living area of Scotty's Castle

Courtyard of Scotty's Castle

Music room

Outside view of Scotty's Castle

November 25, 2013 Death Valley

Nov. 25, 2013 Death Valley, CA

Death Valley is very much ALIVE!  We had a wonderful day scouting out several high points of the park today.  We did three different hikes and got in about six miles total, so it was good!  We drove down past the elite Furnace Creek Inn that is run by Xanterra, the same company that runs the Grand Canyon (Phantom Ranch), so I can imagine how expensive that is.  They had mega palm trees surrounding it in this very arid land, so you can guess what their water bill is!  It looks fabulous! Then we went to Golden Canyon and hiked back to the Red Cathedral, a famous landmark in the park. This particular hike reminded us of Box Canyon in Florence, but on a more elaborate scale.  From there we drove the nine mile loop through Artist's Palette, which was so stunningly beautiful!  At one spot the colors were so intense and it reminded us both of the time we took our children to Ella's Deli in Madison, WI and had a kazoo!  That consisted of 32 scoops of ice cream and sherbet and it was to celebrate our oldest daughter's birthday!  Well, we got to enjoy that 'kazoo' again, only it didn't cost us any calories!  Next on our list was the Natural Bridge hike, and that didn't disappoint us, either.  The road back to hike this trail was terrible and we are so glad again, that we have a truck!  We would have never made it with our Malibu, and it was well worth the drive back.  It was getting near sundown, but we felt we still had time to drive down farther to Badwater, where it is the lowest elevation in the park.  Our altimeter lied.  They say it is 282 feet below sea level there.  We did five earthcaches today, and they always educate us on the area.  We know we are still learning!  We feel we made headway in seeing what is here, and think now that our time will go too quickly.   We have more to explore tomorrow and know it will be interesting and pleasing to the eye.

Elegant Furnace Creek Inn

Red Cathedral in Golden Canyon

Ella's Deli - Artist's Palette

Artist's Palette Scenic Drive 

Natural Bridge Hike

This says it all! 

November 24, 2013 California City/Death Valley

November 24, 2013  Death Valley, CA 

              

We had a very scenic, drive from California City, CA to Death Valley and the roads were quite good.  The thing we had to deal with, was elevation climbs.  We went over 6,000 feet elevation climb on the first mountain range, down to 2,000 feet and then back up to 4,000 feet elevation. By the time we reached the bottom, where we are staying, our altimeter says -315 feet, so we are below sea level.  They had quite a bit of snow accumulation during the storm that is now going through the south and lower Midwest. The Phoenix area has had plenty of rain, too, according to our friends there.  The roads today had been plowed, so they were dry, and we are in for four sunny days.  They welcome the rains here, as it gives hope for flowers in Death Valley in the spring.  I always said I wanted to come to Death Valley in the spring when the flowers bloom, but after we spend the next days here, I’m not so sure we will want to come back.  I know we’ll approach it from the east next time instead of the west, if we do return. The snow covered mountains were pretty, and gave a sharp contrast to the rough terrain in the lower elevations.  We were glad to get out of Central CA, and spent two nights in the Sierra Trails Campground east of California City.  If nothing else, we will enjoy a little rest and relaxation.  The campground sites here are nice and spacious, and we’re seeing a lot of families here already.  They must take their children out of school for the week, as we took the last site available.  We saw online that business picks up here starting with Thanksgiving Week and continues through the winter months.  I think we are going to like it here, but we are getting anxious to plant our feet for several months in Apache Junction.  My posted pictures show a lot of snow, but it looks good on pictures!!!!

Beautiful drive on Hwy. 395

Snow capped mountains on Hwy. 190

Road to Death Valley Hwy. 190 

Plowed snow at 6,000 feet elevation

View from higher elevation - that's where we're going!

We made it to Death Valley! 

    

November 21, 2013 Fresno/Sequoia NP

Nov. 21, 2013  Fresno/Sequoia National Park

We stayed two nights in Fresno, with the thoughts of visiting the Sequoia National Park, so we did that today.  It turned out to be a bad decision, as when we got there, they told us that the area that we thought we could go to, was closed to anyone without chains.  It was 32 degrees up there and raining, so they worried about icing roads.  We didn't get to see the tallest tree in the world, but we did get to see the second largest tree in the world!  It's called the General Grant Tree and it is 268 feet tall, 40 feet wide and 1700 years old.  We thought the Giant Sequoias had been thinned out, probably many years ago before they felt they needed to preserve them, as it wasn't as thick as the Redwoods were, by any means.  It was a quick visit there, as the fog was rolling in as we left.  It was very thick at over 5,000 feet and it didn't clear until we reach around 2,000 feet.  It made for a tense and careful drive down the mountain.  We leave Fresno in the morning, and probably won't post again until we've arrived at Death Valley on Sunday.  We'll be there until Thanksgiving Day, when we leave for Pahrump, NV.

The Famous General Grant Tree

Gamlin Cabin 1872, located near the Grant Tree

Easy hiking trail in the Sequoia NP