At one point, a step-change in the colours of the rock is obvious - indicating a significant change in the chemistry of the strata being laid down millions of years ago - the brighter red has lots of iron in it, the whiter layers have none. And here's another balancing rock, this one with lots of holes in it and under it We had to leave before sunset - a**** the many many many signs telling you what you could or could not do was a sign telling you that the park is only open from sunrise to sunset and if you are there after sunset, then you will be treated as a tresp***er. Seriously, the place was full of signs telling you what to do and what not to do. It stood out because we hadn't noticed a small fraction of them at the other national parks, etc which we had visited. I think Nevada could lighten up a little bit.
Man you found some places I have missed. I guess I'll just have to go back. Just out of Moab there is a house a guy carved into one of the red rock cliffs. It is an interesting place to visit. Besides carving and blasting his home from solid rock he was an taxidermist so several stuffed animals are on display one of thin his donkey. He was a better rock sculptor than taxidermist. At the place in Mesa Verdi where you took pictures to the east and west into Utah I found this guy in July. He was about a foot off of the trail. At night Nevada does not want you in the parks it wants you in the casinos.
From Valley of Fire, we headed into Las Vegas, arriving around peak traffic time. Unlike Denver, everyone was reasonably well mannered - sure, they were in a hurry, but they weren't 'death-diving' in and out of traffic. Of all the places we have visited so far, Denver has the worst drivers - IMO. Anyway, we had to drive up and down the Strip, and managed a couple of photos
Cheers Six Ball. Your suggestions definitely helped us choose where we went through Utah, etc. We would have missed some of the amazing things we saw and I really thank you for your input. Just like Indiana Jones, I don't like snakes. We were lucky enough not to see any during our trip. We did keep an eye out for them though. (We've got quite a few deadly snakes back home in Australia - it's not unusual to see them out sunning themselves on spring days. People are taught to avoid them and not risk alarming them). Thanks again for all your help
It's very easy to see why there are two large power statins located along I-15 just north of Las Vegas - to power all these lights. So much neon.
Day 47 - Las Vegas, NV As they say in the travel brochures - At leisure. We've done nothing today (so far), though I have caught up on posting pics and letting you know where we've been and what we've seen the past few days. Cheers.
That is a lot of posting tonight! You fingers must be tired. Those drivers in Denver were probably heading for the Retail Marijuana store. They are a lot more mellow on the way back home. I've killed 5 rattle snakes around the yard this summer. Only one dog was bitten this year. We have springs on our place. Where there is water there are rodents and where there are rodents there are snakes but water running out of the ground is worth it.
Yeah, catching up was kinda important - missing out on not having internet for a couple of days and visiting lots of places, taking lots of pics meant there was lots to do. Trying to provide some meaningful commentary so it's not just a bunch of random photos means lots of posts. You're probably right about the Denver drivers - maybe I just got very unlucky and found the two dozen knobheads intent on carving up the traffic. We live in suburbia at home and while there are plenty of snakes around, they are found more often in basking on paths in parks or golf courses. There's quite a toll on dogs and cats with them, but even though so many of them are deadly poisonous, you don;t hear of many people getting bitten. (Unlike the shark attacks - you hear about all of them). Cheers.
Oh yeah, tunnels and loud exhausts go together like ice cream and pie .................. only betterer.
Great thread. I've been to some of those places but you've inspired me to see more of them. If you're coming down to Az., one of the biggest shows of the year is this Saturday. The Cruise on Central
Thanks markyac - I'm really glad that you would say that. As for heading to Az, we're already booked into LA for tonight, the SD for the next couple of days. I hope the Cruise on Central is awesome and look forward to seeing some pics Cheers.
Welcome back to California. I sure hope your hotel has a pool because today Saturday is simply blast furnace hot in SoCal. It's the kind of day to just sit with a cold drink and watch sports on TV. The power transformers will be popping tonight.
Hey tom124, you're right. We get 100-105 deg temps back home in Perth, so it's not a killer for us, but hot is hot, and it's a good day to find some air con. We normally get a bit of a chance to get used to some heat in teh lead-up to summer - but last Monday, we were worried about snow in Utah! BTW, I called into the Donut Derelicts catch up this morning - saw your mate's car, the 66 Chevelle wagon but didn't see him. I kept looking around for him but no luck. Saw lots and lots of cars though, some were great - some cool old cars, and plenty of guys with lots of experience. I enjoyed it a lot - shame I wasn't able to catch up with Larry. So be it. Cheers. (P.S. the cinnamon rolls were terrific too) Thanks for suggesting that I drop in. Well worth it
On you last day in the USA, before you return the rental car, try to get to the Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo. The address is 610 Lairport Street. The museum is about 1-mile South of the LA Airport. Also. try to find a In N Out Hamburger joint. I can't think of a better place to eat before leaving the country. I've enjoyed the ride-a-long. Thanks for the ride.
It's been a while since my last post - we spent more time 'holidaying' than touring over our last week and we've now arrived home. Lots of things to do at home, but I've started this and want to complete the journey, so........... Day 48 - Las Vegas (NV) and environs After a day of rest, which was much needed after all of our travels over nearly 7 weeks, pushing to see as much as we could, we decided to have a look around the area close to Las Vegas. This meant a trip to Hoover Dam just out of town. We were staying on the east side of town, so a quick trip down through Henderson and Boulder City. The sun was beating down as we arrived. First up, we drove across the dam to the Arizona side and took a few photos from the carparks located on the hill above the dam The water level was down a very long way, which is not a surprise given the long drought as well as being at the back end of summer. The water intakes are Art-Deco architectural masterpieces in their own right and this image reminds me of an old '60's Thunderbirds set with the power lines and the new bridge over the Colorado River in the background. You can imagine Virgil dropping Gordon in TB-4 into Lake Mead to rescue the day while Scott hovers overhead in TB-1 giving updates back to John and his Dad and Brains back on Tracy Island............................. hmmmm, I think I just showed my inner-childhood geek. Ah well. We did the tour of the dam and looked at the story of the construction of the dam. It reminded us so much of Grand Coulee Dam in Washington that we had visited about 6 weeks earlier, which was not quite as high as Hoover Dam (550' vs 730') but was much wider (about 4 times wider, in fact) and would have had many of the same construction challenges (other than the extreme desert heat, of course). Hoover Dam is the iconic dam that is known throughout the world for the influence it has on Las Vegas and Southern California, providing water and electricity to literally millions and millions of people. It is a hugely important piece of American Infrastructure that is mostly hidden inside the enormous concrete structure.
The power halls are located either side at the base of the dam wall. Arizona's generating plant is on the left and Nevada's is on the right, with the new(-ish) US-93 bridge, taking traffic away from the dam, sitting in the background around 1000 ft above the Colorado River below. During the construction of the dam, in order to convey materials (and in some instances, workers) across the Colorado River, as cranes were simply not an option, an elaborate cableway system was used. Some of these were fixed at each side, while others were on rails, allowing movement of materials along the river as well as across. After construction was complete, one of the cableways was retained, and maintained in working condition, to allow the on-going maintenance of the generation plant. The cableway extends off to the right. You can see the original roadway and powerlines with their steel truss towers behind the cableway tower, and the south facing dam wall providing the backdrop along with the hills. Considering how large the site was, there is a heck of a lot of elements stuffed into it. It must have been a hell of a job planning and executing the construction, which came in ahead of schedule. Awesome job.
In 1971 our family took the Hoover Dam tour. We took an elevator down inside the dam and it was breathtaking, so incredibly interesting. Plus, IIRC, we walked the floor around the giant generators. The whole experience was outstanding. Years later, in 2007, I took the tour again, and all I got for my money was a overhead looking down view of the generators. Post 9-11 security I guess. Paid a lot of money to see very little.
The bright lights of Las Vegas have attracted lots of people over the years. All the gamblers, which were the original reason for the city in the first place, are the obvious grease that provide the money to make the wheels turn, then there are all the people who work at the casinos, and then there is a whole other workforce who provides everything needed to a town to support those who live permanently in Las Vegas. There are also a bunch of people who don't fall into those categories. Some of these Las Vegaseans have achieved national and international notoriety thanks to reality TV. Some of them come across as jerks who only think about themselves and care for what they want (generally money), but some of them also come across as decent people who like other people. One of these is Danny Coker of Count Kustoms and TV show Counting Cars fame. His shop is located just west of the Strip and he has a museum with some of the cars he has bought and/or built. Some of his cars come across as 'ratty', but a**** the un-HAMB-friendly collection are some interesting cars. His focus is mostly on flash and glamour, with outrageous paint jobs and lots of chrome. The above (?) '41 Ford (?) Convertible custom has suede black with white flames and a Carson style top. This Buick Riviera is mostly stock but with a wild paint job that you can look at for hours (It looks like this all over - real pretty!)
After a quick look around at Count Kustoms, we headed down to Fremont Street on the Old Strip. The street has been closed to traffic for a long time now, and they've built a roof over the top to protect people and the businesses from the harsh sunshine in daylight, as well as provide something of a closed environment that they can cool. Even if it's an evaporative spray cooling system, that's quite an undertaking. Above the street is a zipline which you can ride part-way or all the way from one end of the old strip to the other. We saw a number of people flying along, all looking like they were having fun. Access to the zipline is via a large structure at the east end of Fremont St You can hang the iconic Welcome to Las Vegaas sign anywhere. One thing we did notice while we wandered along Fremont St is that the bright lights there seem to attract a very wide cross-section of humanity. Some were hard-core gamblers, looking to squeeze every one of those 24 hours into a chance to make that big win they are dreaming of. There were also plenty of panhandlers, looking for a handout from the winning gamblers or those who took sympathy on them. Maybe they were life-long gamblers who were down on their luck. Then there were the 'freaks' - you know the type, when you look in their eyes, there's nothing there. One was an 'unfortunately fat' 50-odd year old guy who was wearing skin-tight trunks............... and roller-skates............... and nothing else! FFS! Another was a similar size and age woman who was wearing exactly the same (no wheels though) - ******* save for a bit of body paint as pasties. Oh My God! The brain cannot un-see what the eyes have seen.......... even if I put my own eyes out. Oh the horror!!! We thought about sitting in one of the outside bars, watching the m*** of humanity wander past. We left instead.
Yeah, they are very security conscious. Personnel scanners as you walk in, and they had the sensors turned up to 11 meaning you almost had to strip (wouldn't have been a pretty sight for many of the patrons). The rivets and ****ons in jeans set them off! Worse than an airport! BTW tom124, we took your advice and visited the Automotive Driving Museum as well as In-N-Out. More of that later. Cheers.
Just down Las Vegas Blvd from Fremont St is the pawn shop made famous in the Pawn Stars reality TV show. It looks so much bigger on the inside on TV (not that I have watched too many episodes). We had a quick look - mostly junk and all the prices had an extra zero on them to what I thought would be fair prices, but hey, they've been there for decades, so they must be doing something right. They've also turned their newly found fame into a bit of a sideshow - just the other side of the parking lot. They've created a bunch of micro-businesses in high-density shops, including a couple of their own - Rick now has a BBQ place as well as a small bar with caricature images of his smiling face beaming down at you. So-Cal Speed Shop were stocking up a new booth to sell t-shirts and hats, etc. Their opening day was another day or two later. I expect they will do OK (all the businesses there), as the tv show will attract plenty of people. After a couple of cool drinks to help us after what had been a pretty hot day (it felt especially warm after the couple of really cool days in Utah), it was time to head down to the new LV Strip to find somewhere for dinner. It was Mrs DB's birthday. It was her 35th birthday.......... though she's had a few 35th birthdays, but in my eyes she's the same beauty that I married over 30 years ago. We went into the Venetian to look for a restaurant that had been recommended to her. Wow! What a place! We've been to Venice, and it is nowhere near as nice as the Venetian. Sure, the real Venice is the original, blah blah blah, but it is showing its age compared to the LV version. It's channeling a lot of parts of Italy, not purely Venice, with the Sistine Chapel a**** the places it is trying to evoke. To some it would be pure cl***, to some others it would be cr***, but it sure is of the highest quality in terms of finishes. I am impressed at how much effort they have put in to try to make it something that attracts people. The front desk We had a lovely dinner - a bit more spendy than I expected, but it was Mrs DB's birthday after all. After dinner, we walked down and back up the Strip. Turns out it's a long way, a loooooooong way. We turned around at MGM / New York New York After about 3 hours of walking and looking, we were beat and had sore feet. We were glad to get back to our car and head back to our hotel.
Day 49 - Las Vegas NV to Huntington Beach CA Instead of the usual direct route from Las Vegas to LA, which would be around 280 miles, we had decided to go through Death Valley which meant it was going to be quite a big day ahead, so we left kinda early. We went over the mountains behind Las Vegas, through Mountain Springs As you would expect at the end of summer and in the desert, it was dry, dry and hot - damn hot. In spite of the heat, there was still some snow on the top of the higher peaks.
As we headed to Pahrump, we p***ed along beside lots of rugged hills and mountains. The sloping bands of sediment attest to the Tectonic forces between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate that shaped the western third of North America. These same forces created Death Valley
For decades after Europeans first discovered Death Valley, people sought to exploit its mineral wealth. The harsh water-deficient conditions made even mere existence a struggle. The abandoned Borate Mining camp, Camp Ryan, sits just outside the Death Valley NP boundary along the road to Dante’s View. A narrow gauge railway used to carry the ore away and bring essential supplies to support the crews who worked there. The road to Dante's View was covered in a few spots due to the heavy showers that had fallen the day before which had washed lots of material across (and onto) the roadway. When you get to the viewpoint though, high on one ridge of the mountains to the east of Badwater You are treated to views of both the lowest point in the USA (Badwater at -282' below Sea Level) as well as the highest point in the 48 US States - Mt Whitney, at 14505' above Sea Level. Badwater actually had water in it from the rain the day before. Mt WHitney is in this photo, but even I had to blow it up (yeah, yeah - kapow!) to glimpse the white peak. Anyway, it is definitely worth the small detour to see from Dante's View.
From Dante's View, we headed back down to the main National Park Visitor's Centre at Furnace Creek. When we got there, the temp was 110degsF, or about 43degsC, which was pretty warm compared to the near freezing conditions around Cedar City just a few days earlier. Ah well, no matter what, we can't change the weather - all we can do is put up with it (and use the heater and a/c in the rental car, of course). We looked around the visitor centre for a while and then headed off again. The road out of Furnace Wells heads north-west, rising very gently. It's hard to imagine the flash-floods that washed through the area just the day before. There was only around half an inch of rain in the storm but the roads were still littered with gravel and dust at the washouts suggesting that the ground is so hard and dry that the water doesn't 'wet' it but simply runs down the slope. The large area channels any rainwater down towards Badwater scouring the land along the watercourses. We turned left and p***ed through Stovepipe Wells Village and Enigrant, up the very long gradual rise to Towne P*** at just on 5000' above Sea Level in around 15 miles. I understand that many auto manufacturers use this exact stretch of road to stress test the cooling systems on their new vehicles. There are numerous 'helpful' road signs along the rise advising people to turn off their a/c to save any marginal cooling systems from overheating.
Towne P*** takes us over the Panamint Range and down the other side into the Panamint Valley. The road down the other side is much steeper and lead us down to a low-lying area where the previous day's rainwater had collected. Not its real name, but for the sake of it, I called it Lake Panamint. It wasn't very deep but it covered quite a large area (probably about 1/2 a mile square). Looking back up the hill we had come down.... ... the road winds down from the p*** high above.
Dad-Bud, what a pleasure following your adventure and travels. And your do***entation!! I pushed a semi-truck over these States and part of Canada for 40 years and didn't see half of what you have. THANKS. Ben
The Jalopy Journal
