Lake Mead and Grand Canyon West

We just realized that we haven't blogged since arriving at Lake Mead National Park, just outside of Boulder City, Nevada.  Not even that busy till today. Kim of course had to check out the Quilt Store in Boulder City, where she bought some fabric and spent half of Tuesday sewing.  Now, why is this important? Well, it was the first time sewing on solar power. No Problem!!!!!!

grading the beaches at Lk Mead in anticipation of the 20 foot increase by September

For those who have been watching the falling levels of Lake Mead, there is going to be a release of 11.56 million acre feet of water from Lake Powell to Lake Mead, and this will result in the level to go up about 20 feet.  The beach 'outhouse moving' and beach grading were taking place this week.

Railway Museum, Boulder City

We thought we would drive up from Tucson to Flagstaff and Williams to see the Grand Canyon, but it was so cold up there! Well, not real cold, but who wants 50F when you don't have to? So, we made a day trip to Grand Canyon West, and area owned by the Hualapai Nation, rather than a National Park.  It is also the home of the www.grandcanyonwest.com " Skywalk".  This is a glass floor viewpoint that hovers over the edge of the canyon.  Nope, no way Kim would do it.  It was an awesome day, all except the 11 miles of twisty rough dirt road.  Why? That part of the road has been privately owned and the Hualapai Nation has just bought the land from the rancher in order to widen, straighten and pave it. Once that is done, they will get more drive in traffic for sure.  We took lots of pictures, but none of them could match the grandeur and awe inspiring views. There are three areas there: The ranch ( home of Norman the cow ), the Eagle Point viewing area and Guano Point Viewing area.  Each area is very different and each has a restaurant, eating area and shop.  All were excellent.

Donald, get away from that edge - did you not see the sign and those cones?

Guano Point, with tram tower owned by a Canadian company who mined bat guano - it stretched 8,800 feet across the canyon in the 1930's

A great shuttle system takes you from one area to the next as much as you want, and is included in your package pass.  There were only about 60 vehicles in the parking lot there, but there were at least 20 tour buses and various other tour operators, and the helicopters and small planes were incredibly busy, even with the winds!  We thought it was well worth the trip, and the Hualapai people have done a very professional project, with more building taking place.  They were also extremely welcoming. So, in the language " Gamyu!" ( welcome ). 

wild wickenburg to mild lake mead

From the Tucson area, we travelled up to spend a few days at North Ranch, near Congress, Arizona.  We were pleasantly surprised by the Wickenburg Museum, as it was very professionally done.  The cactus around the park were also in bloom and the rain we had on Friday and Saturday probably helped!

beavertail cactus - favorite food for desert tortoises

The town of Wickenburg has been fortunate to have bridge and roadwork done, with lovely statues added on the traffic circles and at other places.  We also enjoyed the life sized character statues around the town, depicting early life of the wild west.

The Jail Tree, Wickenburg

We are now in Lake Mead National Park, enjoying some day trips to Valley of Fire, maybe Grand Canyon West and whatever else trouble we can get into. Oh yea, we went over the new Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge near Hoover Dam. Can't see a thing, and that's a good thing. Kim would have freaked. We saw the bridge from the old Hoover Dam when we took the tour in February. It was interesting that RV's and trucks have to drive on the left lane, near the middle of the bridge.

North to alaska...but stopped at North Ranch

We are slowly making our way back to the north land, and now due to high winds coming here and even higher winds and cold temperatures in Utah, we will stay for a week here at Escapees Park, North Ranch near Congress, Arizona.  The skies have clouded over this morning, so we know the weather is changing.  The smart move might have been to brave the LA traffic and do the coast, like Rick and Paulette. 

Some of the desert flowers are blooming here in the park, and it is lovely to see.  The other lovely item we have seen is an ultrasound picture of our first grandchild, due in September.  Whoo hoo!

science day

Yesterday was a quiet day around the RV, trying to keep out of the heat.  Sometimes you rent a movie for a rainy day, but this was the first time we rented a couple of movies on a sunny day. A HOT sunny day.

Today we left our tour of Biosphere 2 for a hot windy day. The tourist information office in downtown Tucson was selling Tucson Passport booklets at a cost of $15.  In the passport was a 2 for 1 deal on entrance fees for the Biosphere.  Since the entrance and tour was $20 each, we saved $5 by using the passport. We both felt that $40 for 2 was high for what the tour was.

Lower Habitat

You have to take the tour in order to have access to most of the facility, and the tour does not lend itself to anyone with special needs like wheelchairs or strollers.  The University of Arizona is presently managing the facility under a lease agreement with the private owner.  They operate the tours and of course have their own science experiments ongoing,  as do visiting schools and scientists.  It was opened to the public in 1990. There were two periods in the early 1990's of isolation habitation by scientists in the Biosphere - one time for a 2 year period, and another about 6 months.  The interesting fact to us, was that just shortly after the 2 year period began, there was not enough oxygen to sustain the inhabitants.  They had realized that the massive amounts of concrete used for the buildings and 'rocks' inside had not fully cured and was using up some of the oxygen. A sustainable normal amount of o2 is 21%, and they were at 14% when it was decided that oxygen from the outside needed to be added.  Donald and I are not scientists, but having built a house and other things, we do know that concrete takes time to cure, and in that time, it needs certain conditions and will use air.  So, our little theory is that they were rushed in the initial building of the facility and rushing the 2 year Experiment, and as such, made an error.  However, errors are also interesting and a learning thing.

The ocean dome

It was good to do something different other than a desert museum or activity of the 'southwest'.  There were neat new experiments that we found interesting to us, one of which was solar. There were different solar panels up and running, and by covering part of the panels, you could see how efficient they were, based on their type of manufacture.  Turns out our own solar panels are fairly efficient!

So, now on the agenda is some time for a couple of personal decisions we have to make and tomorrow, we hope to meet fellow bloggers Jim and Gayle.
They are hopefully moving back to Catalina State Park in the morning - yes there are spots here!!!!

4th Avenue Street Fair of Tucson

Man it was a hot one today!  An early start to the day with taking on the Catalina Farmers Market nearby and then heading off to downtown for a walkabout and then the Street Fair on 4th Avenue.  There is a Visitors Bureau downtown and we thought it would be a good idea to ask a couple of questions ( namely parking for the fair ).  The Tourist Information Centre is in a beautiful little square, but hard to find with poor parking - good thing we didn't have the rig with us.  While Don went for a coffee in a shop next to it, I sat under a tree in the square.  While waiting a young woman came up to me, with big expensive cameras, and showed credentials that she was a photographer with National Geographic. She asked if she could take my picture - what mine???? She ended up taking about 25 pictures.

On our walkabout, we found a little museum of the early settlers and natives of Tucson, right in the midst of new modern downtown office buildings. How cool was that? Well, wish it was 'cooler' as the temperatures were climbing to 96F!!!

We thought Quartzsite was a crazy big street fair event, but The Tucson 4th Avenue Fair is huge, with about 6 city blocks closed down and two rows of booths down the middle of the street.  There were the stores, art galleries and restaurants open on each side of 4th Avenue and then an additional 400 vendors as well as music stages and more food vendors.   We quite enjoyed it, but with the temperatures that high, no breeze - where is that howling wind when you need it?- and walking on blacktop streets, whoo weee it was quitting time by 3 pm.  An iced coffee sure hit the spot before we made our way back to the shuttle.  Sky Bar, on 4th, is entirely run on Solar power with big screens on the wall inside showing their current watt input and some other data.  Again, cool stuff with cool coffee!

Tomorrow is to be equally as warm ----