Sparks/Reno Nevada – the last stop on the Wraights’ Southern Safari 2011

Friday, May 27, 2011, Day # 92; we are at the final stop of our 3^rd in a series of Mike & Karen’s Retirement Adventures (Return 2 Oz, Our American Safari & of course this, Our Southern Safari). We arrived at the RV park mid-afternoon, Mike having a long day’s drive of about 325 miles, was glad to have a couple of “unwind” days before getting back to our real lives. A surprise awaited us, my brother Eric and his wonderful wife Carol, came up from Sacramento to meet us at the end of our cross country trek. We enjoyed having them with us, nice to see some familiar faces again.

Saturday morning we explored the Sparks/Reno areas, taking the “Boys” and Carol & Eric’s “Girls” to a nice dog park. A nice place right on a lake, the dogs enjoyed chasing their balls and each other into the water; despite the cool, windy weather we were having. The K-9s all enjoyed some good running and romping and were happy to spend their afternoons snoozing, while we did a bit of sightseeing. It has been quite a few years since Mike and I have been here, the area seems to have spread out a bit, some places appear to be the same, but many have changed names, re-modeled, or now have closed down.

We drove out to Carson City first thing Sunday morning; our first stop was the Nevada State Rail Road Museum. This was a great place to visit; it presented the history of the northern Nevada’s railroad during the late 19^th-early 20^th century. There were many beautifully restored train engines and cars from the Virginia-Truckee Line. This was one of the lines that were established in part because of the Comstock Load (the discovery of gold and silver in the area). The touring then continued over to Virginia City. We dodged a few snowflakes (is this really spring?), but enjoyed a couple of hours seeing the infamous sights of this old town. We ended our day with dinner at the El Dorado Casino in Reno, all enjoying a relaxing evening and some good laughs together.

The day has finally arrived – the last one out on the road for this trip, for these intrepid travelers. We said “good bye” to Eric and Carol, they had to get home and back to work tomorrow, (work, what is work??). Mike and I spent time enjoying some reading, playing Sudoku and taking the “Boys” out for a stretch or two. In the evening we treated ourselves to a nice dinner out and contributed a few dollars to the Reno economy. A bit sorry that this is all coming to an end, but also sort of ready to be home and back to seeing more of our family, friends and doing some of the things that we have missed during our 3 months on our Southern Safari. Mike is already talking about our next “Big Adventure” Does the fun ever end?

Death Valley experiences:

Our next stop was the small town of Pahrump, Nevada, nothing much in the town, a few small casinos and light industry, quite a few people trying to eke out a living in the mining industry but it was a good ½- way stop to our next destination. We stayed at the local Elks Lodge, met some friendly people and were able to enjoy a safe and inexpensive night.

Day # 91 – We arose with the sun and got on the road to Death Valley, we had heard that it had been about 103 degrees and windy the day before, so thought an early start would be good, get in our visit and get out of the heat as soon as possible. We were into the National Park by about 10:00am and enjoying some incredible sights. This area covers 3,336,000 acres; it is the largest national park in the lower 48 states (only Alaska has more park area). The variable terrain runs from the 11,049 foot Telescope Peak to 282 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin, driving through it, really was a grand experience. Our first stop was Zabriskie’s Point; boy what a view point, the amazing contrast in color of the peaks was like a post card. From there we went on into Mesquite Springs, a primitive campground down in the valley. Being the only ones there we took a nice big site with a great fire ring. After a bit of a lunch break, we headed out to see Ubehebe Crater, ½ mile wide crater formed 3000-5000 years ago when groundwater became trapped deep inside the earth and surrounded by molten rock was super heated. Instead of the magma erupting; the steam exploded forming a crater rather than a mountain. A pretty big hole in the ground! Scotty’s Castle was the next point of interest. This beautiful place really is named the Death Valley Ranch. It was built from 1922 to 1933 by the Chicago millionaire Albert Johnson as a winter retreat. The Mediterranean-style hacienda (not really a castle) is set on an oasis with a spring that provides more than enough water for the home and its grounds. The tour that we took gave us an overview of the Johnson Family who owned the property and the incredibly colorful character Walter Scott aka Scotty. We spent about an hour walking around and through the beautifully appointed “castle”. Certainly is amazing what a bit of money can buy you, in the 1920’s out in the middle of “No Where”.

We returned to camp and enjoyed the afternoon; the weather was unseasonably cool, only mid 80’s, dry heat and very little wind, by mid afternoon. Sitting in the shade of the MoHo we took in the beauty of the desert. We enjoyed the peace, quiet and the wildlife??? We saw at least 3 roadrunner birds; they looked almost like the cartoon characters jogging ziggy zaggy from one little patch of sage brush to the next. Many jack rabbits and their little ones were running about our campground, catching Guinness’s earnest attention. The SSSSSSSSSNAKES caught Karen’s attention. Right outside our MoHo door there was a 4 foot (maybe not quite that long?) long sand snake was laying in the sand, it quietly slipped away into the bushes and I thought it was going to be gone. So while Mike and Guinness were off exploring the desert, Nigel and I settled down outside. The boys returned from their walk to see Karen having some sort of hissy-fit: crawling under her chair and right next to Nigel’s butt was the SSSSNAKE!! OMG: too close for this camper. It kept going, to the bushes across the way and we all relaxed; sort of, kind of. Ok, ok, I know this is the desert; this is their place, but what about being more afraid of me? All was quiet for a bit, we all settled back down. Then to bring life back into the party SSSSSnake # 2 shows up, now this is getting to be too much. Mike bravely goes over and coaxes this critter back into the bushes, but as the slippery dude goes in, he climbs up 18-24”, now Karen thinks, oh jeeze it can crawl up on my chair, into the MoHo ------- Oh well as you can see I am not a real outdoors woman (even thought I was a Girl Scout), as much as I might try, give me clean, critter free cement. But we all survived and lived to write this tale. Seriously after all the excitement we (Karen) calmed down, it was a wonderful evening, great campfire, lots of stars in the clear sky.

We are really bringing this adventure to a close, heading to Reno for our last 4 nights, spending Memorial Day Weekend less than 300 miles away from home. It will be time to do some reminiscing of all of the great experiences we have had, and I am sure that Mike is already starting to plan the next great get-away.

Nevada’s Valley of the Fire State Park

150 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs, these amazing red sandstone formations were formed from shifting sand dunes. With a complex uplifting and faulting in the region, followed with an extensive amount of erosion, we have today one of the most incredibly beautiful regions we have seen on our trip. The landscape of huge red rocks spread out in a variety of formations is really almost too much for the senses to take in. Our campground was nestled right in among the rocks.

We spent the next two days exploring the rugged area of about 42,000 acres, driving from view point to view point in the Prius and taking several nice little hikes to see the magnificent structures up close and personal. The many unique whittled rocks give your imagination a good run for its money, “there’s an elephant; oh look I see pig; that looks like an old panel truck crashing on to the road.” We also saw several places where the ancient residents had left petroglyphs etched on rocks. Our camp site was very relaxing; we spent both evenings out sitting in our lounge chairs enjoying the nature show. Monday night was a pretty good lightening review and Tuesday night we watched a clear sky and saw quite a few stars.

More Fun & Good Times: Las Vegas, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam & the West Rim of the Grand Canyon

It really does not seem possible that we are heading into the last week of the this amazing trip; The Southern Safari has been so much fun and we had done so much, we are lucky to be able to embark on these crazy adventures. We have been enjoying the Las Vegas area for the last 3 days. Always is incredible to come to this city and see all of the lights, actions and buildings that continue to sprout up between our visits. This visit is a bit different in that we are staying at Circus Circus RV Park in the MoHo, not quite the same as the more up-scale Casinos we have stayed in the last 2 or 3 visits, but still a lot of fun. The facilities were good, clean black-top, I am not missing the dust that has plagued us in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona; nice fenced K-9 play area for the “Boys” and the location is good, just at the end of the STRIP. We had fun contributing to the Vegas Tax Base, no big winners here. Of course we made our pilgrimage to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaretville for one of his “Cheese Burgers in paradise”.

Sunday morning, early (5:55am) we were picked up by “our” big black stretch limousine and taken to McCarran Airport where we boarded our helicopter out to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. The weather was very cooperative; a smooth flight of about 45 minutes out to the Grand Canyon West. We had a bird’s-eye view of, Lake Las Vegas (a very exclusive area where Oprah and Celine Deon both live) Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, some extinct volcanoes, and of course some more beautiful canyon and Colorado River views. After landing we were taken by van to the Hualapai Indian Nation’s world famous Skywalk. Fantastic cantilevered Glass Bridge; you walk about 70 feet from the rim and about 4,000 feet above the floor of the canyon. The construction of this amazing place was very interesting, our guide, explained about how it was planned and built, there are 6 layers of laminated glass that you walk on (wearing stylish little paper booties), it can withstand the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes, is immune to winds in excess of 100 miles per hour and supposedly will withstand and 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Walking on it was not scary at all, and very enjoyable, quite an incredible feeling viewing the canyon between your feet. The rock walls surrounding the bridge give it a very natural feeling, despite all of the modern materials and methods used. You could not take your camera out there, so we had to make do with some not great “professional” pics that they take for you. After what seemed like just very few minutes they usher you off the bridge and you can walk down and see the bridge from a distance, take pictures, have a snack etc. Definitely glad we went; check another one off the ol’ Bucket List. Our flight back to Vegas was good, we flew over more of Lake Mead, saw where the Colorado and Virgin Rivers, enter the lake, this area like so many are in a pretty severe drought, you can see how low the lake has gotten, our pilot John said it was only about 2/3 of its normal depth. The final flight pattern took us back over Las Vegas. We flew over the old downtown, Freemont Street and then right over the Strip, a great vantage point to view all of the unique and colorful structures that make up Las Vegas. Would love to do this at night when the neon lights would really illuminate the ride. We completed our Vegas stay with a run into the old part of Las Vega. We wandered around the Fremont Street Experience; light, music and some very interesting people were there. For dinner we enjoyed a great pizza at the Lucky 777 Brew Pub, Mike liked their beer too. Tomorrow we are off; back into nature, get the cigarette smoke and bright lights out of our systems for a few days.

Arizona Adventures:
The westward travel continues, we left New Mexico behind and made our way into Arizona. We stopped our first night in Windslow, “boon docking” (staying in a parking lot) behind a McDonalds with many other gypsies; truckers and the like. After a short drive in the morning we arrived in Flagstaff. We explored the interesting old down town and spent the afternoon and evening at the Lowell Observatory, where Pluto (formally the planet) was discovered. They had an informative tour of the telescope and some of the equipment actually used in the discovery. That night we waited to see the evening show, but clouds sort of limited the visibility.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011, day # 81 of our Southern Safari we made our way to Williams, AZ. Here we had our trip to the Grand Canyon scheduled. We arrived mid morning and got camp set up, ran a few errands and got ourselves ready for our next days’ adventures. Early Wednesday morning we walked the “Boys” over to the Grand Canyon Railway Kennel, where they spent the night while “Mom & Dad” were off playing. The trip started with a Wild West Show out in an open arena, unfortunately, the weather was rainy, windy and cool, so standing and watching was chilly and when they called to board the train we all were ready to get inside. We had nice seats with big windows to watch the 65 miles of old west territory, including high desert plains, endless vistas, and portions of the world’s largest ponderosa pine forest. We sat back and enjoyed the scenery. During the 2 + hour ride we had snacks, beverages and western entertainment. The train arrived at the canyon right about noon, we were met by a bus, that took us to lunch and then on a driving tour of the south rim, we got off and took quick looks at the amazing views, but were anxious to get back on board and out of the wind and rain. We got to our little cabin at the Bright Angel Lodge about 3:30pm and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening taking walks along the rim, and exploring the historic buildings along the rim village. When we went to bed it was trying to snow and we were pleasantly surprised with a light dusting of fresh snow the next morning. We got up and were walking along the canyon rim by about 7:00am; the sun was peeking through the clouds and giving us an incredible morning lighting of the canyon. It was almost too beautiful to capture, but we did our part by taking 100s of pictures between our two cameras. But the best was yet to come. After a great brunch at the gorgeous old El Tovar Restaurant, we went out to the airport for our helicopter flight over the canyon.
AMAZING, FANTASTIC, INCREDIBLE: Mike and I are fans of helicopter tours, this one did not disappoint, it simply took our breaths away, we flew for 45 minutes over the Kaibab National Forest and over and in canyon, what a way to see something so spectacular. Really had to pinch ourselves to believe that what we were seeing was real and not one of the many pictures one sees. We were so lucky, because the weather had really improved, a few clouds and bit of wind, but it only seemed to add to sights we saw. After the flight we returned to train depot and caught the train back to Williams; this definitely was the way to see the Grand Canyon. This was definitely one of our top ten adventures of this trip so far.