2021 Desert Southwest Trip - Day 5 - Wednesday, April 14th (Valley of Fire, Nevada)

(On my last blog post, I was in the Valley of Fire campground after a long and issue-filled day. Issues with my lens, the low tire pressure, no power, no stove, etc. and said “I needed a break”. So today is a short day, short in the sense that I didn’t do much, and this story will be short (unlike the last 4 days haha).

I woke early as usual - nature called. It was still dark and I planned on going back to bed, I really wanted to sleep in today. But, on my way back to my ‘nest’, I peeked out the window to see if there was anything stirring about. Maybe some bighorn sheep? Maybe a mountain lion? Nope. But I could see a glow to the east. Oh boy, after seeing that, there was no going back to bed. I was up, might as well make the best of it.

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Pre-dawn on the Nevada desert.

It was a chilly morning, brrrrr. I had come to realize I was becoming more and more sensitive to the cold than I used to be - Florida blood they call it - I think it’s just part of getting old lol. I grabbed my camera, tripod, and a sweatshirt and headed down the road to a clearing toward the east to capture a sunrise. It was still and quiet.

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It was a pretty cloudless sky. I managed to capture a sun-star and what looked like fog on the horizon, but do deserts have fog? Perhaps it was just haze. I noticed the haze in the sky these past few days. Smog from LA? Las Vegas? Then I took some photos of some rock formations that were being bathed by the rising sun next to the road into Atlatl Campground. I kind of liked those. Too bad some bighorn sheep weren’t coming down off the mountain, that would have been REALLY cool!

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The Yabba-dabba-do rocks along the road into Atlatl Campground.

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Seems you can polish a turd. Beautiful sunrise light on Jezebel, the Rolling Billboard.

After returning to the RV, I made a coffee and went out for a walk. But not a leisurely stroll with my camera like last night. Oh no, I was on a mission, a mission to find an empty campsite in the RV section, or one that would soon be empty. I was NOT going another day without power. I found a few empty sites, but they still had pay stubs extending beyond today’s date. I started by looking at everyone’s pay stubs. Making mental notes at which sites were expiring today. I found one and the guy was outside. Looked like he was getting ready to head out soon. I asked him if he was leaving today, and he said he was. I then asked if I could commandeer his site-post with a new stub to occupy his site after he left, just so no one else would get the same idea as me. He said that would be ok, and that he was planning on leaving around noon. He told me to go get an envelope and stub. (I was way ahead of him.) I held up the one I already had filled out, just waiting for an empty hook-up site. I just needed to tear the stub off and deposit my money. I was READY! When I finished with the paperwork, I noticed some bighorn sheep just off to the side in another person’s campsite. I walked over, not too close, and was amazed how close they came to people. These rams and ewes were not afraid of people. Another camper said they were in that same spot every morning. Very cool, something to look forward to tomorrow.

Walking back to my RV, I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I was a happy girl. I made myself another coffee, had some breakfast, and surfed social media for a few hours with my remaining wifi. Today was Mom’s birthday so I texted her too. Around 11am, I started to stash stuff in sinks and on the floor for my 1/10th of a mile drive to my next campsite. It was short, but not flat. I didn’t want stuff flying all over the place again. I removed the front curtains and watched the man’s truck till I saw some movement. I jumped to action and drove over and parked next to my new site. It was only 11:30, but I wanted to be there when he pulled out. So I waited… and waited… and waited… He took an hour to leave! Sheesh - c’mon man! haahaa Finally at 12:30 the couple pulled out and I pulled right in. Site was level, and I was all set. Got out and plugged in my electric for the first time, hooked up my hose to the camp water system and grabbed my tire gauge to test my faulty tire. Yep, it was down again, at 60lbs now. Sh*t! Looks like I’m not going anywhere today. And honestly, it didn’t bother me that much. It had been a pretty fun and drama filled few days and I was ready for a day of nothing.

So, what to do?? I cleaned up the RV a bit; took out the trash and recycling. I went online and ordered a long lens from LensRentals to replace my kaput 100-400 for the rest of my trip. I scheduled it to be delivered to my campground in Kanab on Friday. And now that I had power, I plugged everything in and edited photos on my laptop all day, all while dealing with Cruise America trying to get someone out to change my tire. Between poor cell service, missed dispatch calls, and stupidity, it was an all-afternoon job. Finally, a guy from Overton came out and changed my tire. His actual shop was very near where I was when I first called Cruise America yesterday asking about the low tire pressure to begin with. Had the dispatcher sent me to this guy’s shop in the first place, it would have saved Cruise America a lot of money, and me a lot of hassle, and given me an additional day (and peace of mind) to explore. But… hindsight. I asked him to make sure the spare had enough pressure too. He assured me it did. I didn’t see him test it, but I trusted his judgement.

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This was the extent of my photography this afternoon & evening. View from my work station/dining room/rest and relaxation area haha.

After all that drama, I had dinner, egg & avocado salad and a few slices of summer sausage and cheese, and edited some more photos. The wind was whipping up a storm again today, lots of dust. Good day to sit and do nothing. I went to bed early for a change. Tomorrow I’d leave Valley of Fire and head north to Arizona and then Utah, and back to Arizona and Utah again (the highway dips south into AZ after St. George before heading back north). Final destination, Kanab, Utah.

2021 Desert Southwest Trip - Day 4 - Tuesday, April 13th (Valley of Fire, Nevada)

(On our last blog post, we left off at my plan-B, camping at Poverty Flats, near Overton, Nevada…)

Morning… around 5:30am

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Loving this early morning weather!

Ahhh, finally had a good night sleep. It was quiet and there was a nice cool breeze. But damn, I was up early! Again, up before the dawn. Grabbed a coffee and my camera and went out to shoot the sunrise, or what light there was on the distant mountains. Good or bad, I made the most of it. It was such a unique area. Yeah, there are more “epic” areas (like the state park), but they were full of people, and noisy. I really prefer these lesser-known areas, quiet, unique. Areas that if they were anywhere else, WOULD be epic in their own rights.

Barrel cactus at Poverty Flats

Valley at the Poverty Flats camping area.

I walked around the ridgeline like I did last night. As is happening everywhere, lots of trash strewn about. Someone actually threw a mattress down the hill! Why do that? There’s got to be a dump in Overton. I just shook my head…

Anyway, I wanted to get a move on early so I could get a campsite at Valley of Fire. I headed out before 7am, before anyone else was stirring about. I headed into Overton to make sure I had plenty of drinking water before setting up. My new friend KP from last night told me to stop at the Dollar Store, so that was my first stop. They weren’t open yet, of course. But… there were these cool water machines just outside their door. Only 40 cents a gallon, imagine that! So I grabbed the big 5 gallon container I bought from Walmart when I first arrived and filled it to the top. Then I thought, why not fill up my now-empty gallon jugs too? I was so amazed at this machine (I’m so easily amused lol) I took a video of the water fill. I didn’t realize these machines were all over the place. I guess I never bothered to pay attention. Thought all those machines outside of grocery stores were video movie rentals or something. Haahaa 

Now that I had PLENTY of water, I headed back to the Valley of Fire to look for a campsite. I was tickled to be on the road so early, I just KNEW I was going to get lucky. But then… I noticed a warning light on my dashboard. Looked like a tire with an exclamation point. I wasn’t familiar with it, but it was yellow so I wasn’t overly concerned. I’d check the renters guide when I found my campsite. Probably just some tire traction issue from driving on gravel, maybe, or heaven forbid, a tire is low on air. I’d give it the rest of the day and see what happened. Maybe after a couple of starts and stops, it’ll turn itself off.

As I pulled into the campground, mindful to avoid that big pothole on the road, I found a campsite! YAY! Site # 2, right as I drove in. I spotted it right off and grabbed it. Hindsight tells me I should have circled and looked for a better site, but I was happy to be in an established site with a bathroom, and better yet, showers! (Yeah, I hadn’t showered since Miami Saturday morning! (let me clarify, I did “clean”, and used my dry shampoo, but that can only take you so far…) So I pulled into the site, got level, and went and filled out the self-pay envelope and dropped $40 in it for the 2 nights. Seeing the utility-like post on the side of the site, I assumed I had hookups. ‘Assumed’ was the apropos word here.

My first campsite at Valley of Fire

So now I had drinking water and a campsite, I was happy as a lark and wanted to go out and explore! Off to the Visitor center I went. I wanted to pay for the next 2 days. I didn’t realize I could have paid right there in my campground envelope. The park ranger was less than helpful. I asked for change for my last $20 bill and a trail map. She gave me a $10 bill and 2 $5s, pulled out a piece of paper (trail map) and handed it to me and walked away. What a wonderful welcome!

I paid her no never mind and went on up the Mouse’s Tank Road, the road which heads north to all the trail heads. It was about 9am now, and the light was pretty harsh with blue-bird skies, but I was going to see and photograph as much as I could. Tire warning light was still illuminated. Hmmm, I was beginning to get concerned. But, I went on. Saw lots of people pulled over at many of the popular trailhead parking lots. I kept driving. Seemed the really beautiful stuff was where you weren’t allowed to park. Then I came across this parking area #2. No cars. I pulled over. Jumped out for a few quick shots, but kept walking further and further in. There were so many cool little vignettes. Eventually, I was near some rock formation, and I had to explore more. Dare I say I ‘scrambled’? I didn’t really crawl, but I went up a rather steep piece of slickrock to get a better view. Wasn’t really that high, but enough to fool me. Haahaa I came back down and found some mini arches in the rock. I just pointed my camera and shot everything. It was then that I realized I left the RV unlocked (I think the keys were still in the ignition too). I had only meant to wander a few feet away, not go trekking through the desert. I felt I saw what I wanted to see. Definitely made a note to come back here that night for sunset, or early the next morning for sunrise. How beautiful it must be in the golden hour light. I was excited.

After that I wandered further up Mouse’s Tank Road. This place was truly amazing. Like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Definitely prehistoric. How the earth’s processes molded itself to make these rock formations I’ll never know. I then came to the end of the road, the White dome trail area. It was FULL. I think I got the last parking spot because someone else had just pulled out. (One good thing about this RV, it was small enough to fit in normal parking spots, no waiting for extra long or wide parking. Helped immensely!) It would be a quick stop and then out. So many cool rock formations. I grabbed my long lens to pull some details out of the further away rocks, but it kept giving me issues. I had to keep taking it off and putting it back on. It would overexpose, then underexpose. I couldn’t understand what I was doing to make it behave like that. Oh well. I did my best with it then put the shorter zoom back on. Then this big group of tourists descended on the picnic area I was photographing next to. That was my cue to get the heck out of there. Peace and quiet was not to be had in this area, sun was getting higher and hotter too.

I headed back down Mouse’s Tank Road, the way I had come, and pulled over at Parking lot 1. There was a big line of cars behind me (everyone’s in a damn hurry!). As I watched the cars go by in my side mirrors, I saw this awesome S curve in the road. I grabbed my camera and shot it in the mirror. I had seen similar shots on YouTube videos of the park before. I didn’t want to take the same exact shot, but I had to. The one looking at it through the mirror is cool. Perhaps I should have cleaned the mirror first??? I took several shots. There’s something about a curvy leading line into a beautiful scene of red rocks that draws you in.

After that I continued south and encountered another herd of bighorn sheep. Just munching away on the bushes, paying traffic no never mind. As soon as I passed, I drove down Fire Canyon Road, wanted to see what I could l see, and then decide where I wanted to shoot the sunrise tomorrow morning, or maybe a sunset later in the day. When I pulled over at a paved pull-out, my 100-400 kept giving me those damn Err messages. Over and over, Err. So I had to put the 24-70 back on. I was so frustrated by now. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the lens. I couldn’t shoot these mountains or rock formations with the small lens! Kept playing with it when I got up to the end of the road, but nothing. Nothing I did would make the Err go away. My lens was dead. Oh, I was soooo upset and frustrated. I tried photographing this epic vista, but all I kept thinking was “I’m going to have to crop the crap out of this to make it look decent!” That was enough to make me want to stop. Then I thought, “maybe the lens just needs a good cleaning”. I’d head back to the campsite, plug in, grab some lunch, and try to clean the connections with a nice clean lens cloth. So back to the RV I went, and that darned warning light was still illuminated. UGH! By now I figured that it might be tire pressure. I’d find out when I got to the campsite.

After getting to the campsite, and making sure it was level, I went to plug in my shore power plug, when I realized that the utility tower I saw earlier was just a water spigot, and not even a threaded one! It was just a faucet! Ugh… are you kidding me?! NO power?! NO water?! That about sent me over the edge. Bad enough my stove didn’t work and I had to (forgive me) microwave my hamburgers, but I couldn’t even do that now without electricity. I’d have to run the generator, and the generator ran off of the vehicle’s gas. I only had about a half a tank of gas, enough to get me to a cool sunset or sunrise point and back to Overton to fill up before heading to Kanab on Thursday. I didn’t know how much gas it would take to run the generator. Super frustrated by now, I decided to head into Overton to fill up with gas and check the tires. Maybe stop at a grocery store for some more ice, pre-cooked food, and a 12-volt USB charger (the kind that fit into car cigarette lighters).

So back to Overton I went. Stopped at the only gas station in town, filled up (yes, I remembered to turn off the propane!) and then went over to the automatic air compressor. This was a fancy compressor, even took credit cards! Good thing because I was saving my quarters for the laundry machine. So the trick was to enter the number of pounds of pressure your tire is SUPPOSED to have into the machine, then fill the tires, and the tire inflator thingy would sense when it got to that amount. When (and if) it reached the proper pressure, it would stop filling. The only problem with that was my tires took 80 lbs of pressure, the machine only went up to 70. The first 3 tires were fine, all at 80 lbs. But the last one, the furthest from the display (good luck seeing that number from so far away) was below 60 lbs (I think). I got it up to near 70lbs again before it shut off. Not liking that tire being so low on pressure, I called renters assistance. The guy I spoke with said “no problem, you can drive that down to 40, even 20lbs of pressure.” I thought, “what? Noooo that can’t be right”. But, what could I do? I decided to just do what he said. I headed back to the campground, knowing I had at least 60lbs of pressure and should be enough, maybe, hopefully. I stopped at the grocery store. Picked up a cheap tire gauge in addition to the other stuff on my list. I could at least check it before driving too far on too-low of tire pressure. Then, with a full tank of gas, a semi-full tire, and groceries, back to campsite I went.

Back at Valley of Fire, I parked and made sure I was level again, and fired up generator for the first time. Pretty simple, just push a button. But damn was that loud! I certainly won’t be using it for very long. But I had to cook my burgers, recharge my Anker backup battery, camera batteries, and my laptop. So I put my hamburgers on a plate and into the microwave, 30 second bursts, then flip. I did that, oh, half a dozen times till I figured they were cooked relatively through. No well-done burgers for me! Laid some nice Monterey jack cheese on them and a generous helping of mustard. Mmmm, a hot meal. I hadn’t eaten any thing hot since I left home. While nuked burgers weren’t ideal, they weren’t terrible, and I was hungry. As I waited on the burgers, I went to plug every charger I had in any outlet I could find. Wouldn’t you know it, I could only find two standard outlets that worked! There were 2 more back by the upper cabinets of the kitchen area that had no power whatsoever. I had one over the dinette and one in the closet that had the microwave plugged into it. I would have killed to have my Jackery along with me about now. But you can’t take them on a plane.

So while I sat there, eating my nuked burgers, the wind picked up. Holy cow, it looked like old documentaries from the dust bowl. It was horrible! I had to shut my door, and then my windows as my RV and burgers were being blasted by blowing sand! It was hot and windy, and miserable. What else could go wrong?

I think I ran the generator for 2 or 3 hours. All my batteries and laptop were finally charged, so I shut off the generator. It was time for me to cool off, so I went to check out the showers and get clean! A nice shower would do me good. Not that the showers were anything to write home about (there would be an awesome one next week – so stay tuned for that bit of juicyness!) but it was enough to get me clean – and boy did I need it!

Finally clean and fresh again, and a bit more cooled off, I looked at the beautiful scenery just around the campground. My whining frustration of losing my 100-400, and all the other mishaps, went away. I decided to make the best of what was in front of me and just take the short lens out for a walk around the campground. There would be no going back to Parking Lot #2 for sunset or sunrise (not comfortable driving with a tire that may or may not have proper pressure). I figured everyone has shots of the “must see” areas, but how many photograph around the campground? Not many I would assume. Just taking a “stroll”, no hiking boots, no heavy equipment, no tripod, just me and my camera and short lens. Calm returned to me again as I walked around. There was a cool breeze now that the sun was lower, and I noticed many cool things right next to my campsite. Further into my walk I regretted not bringing the tripod as I had to stand VERY STILL to try and get some bracketed shots, some focus stacking, and even a pano (not sure how well that worked), but I did my best. As night was drew to a close, the sky turned darker and I couldn’t shoot hand-held anymore. Back to the RV.

This made me stop and pause, looking at this, wondering where I had seen this or what it reminded me of. The cover art of the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald! Of course.

Post trip research tells me it’s called ‘Celestial Eyes’ by Francis Cugat. You be the judge. Similar? Ok, it’s a bit of a stretch of the imagination.

Desert Globemallow growing next to the rock wall.

I had to throw in a shot of this campsite. It’s in the walk-in section. The rock arch behind the tent is the same arch in the 2 photos above. How cool to sleep among this?

The rock formations found here are astounding. How they were created boggles the mind.

I made myself a little nighttime snack, downloaded my images, and went to processing. I even bought their daily wifi for $8. I was sure my friends back home were wanting to see some of the spectacular scenery. The wifi speed left a lot to be desired. Photos took forever to upload. Some wifi it was... But, that processing and uploading session drained my laptop battery, again. Its only good for a couple hours anyway. Oh well. Tomorrow would be better. I decided I would scour the RV section of the campground for an empty spot the next morning. I had to have electricity!

So off to bed. The wind had died down some just before sunset so there was just a slight breeze blowing in the windows now. Nice sleeping weather. Sure beats the dustbowl of the afternoon. Time to put this awful day to bed.

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Snack of champions. :)

(Don’t miss my “Nature First” rant from today in my post script to follow.)

2021 Desert Southwest Trip - Day 3 - Monday, April 12th (Overton, Nevada)

(On my last blog post, I talked about my first morning photographing the desert in the sunrise, the tour of the abandoned gold mine, and explosion of color during sunset.)

Another night of tossing and turning. I have to admit was a bit spooked being all alone out in that empty lot in Nelson near the old gold mine. I woke up in the middle of the night and looked for stars but didn’t see any. Probably clouded over again. Figures. As I lay there, I thought of what the day would bring. Will I be able to drive this RV through more mountainous terrain? Will I run out of gas, propane, water, food? Will my grey or black water tanks get full too fast? Irrational fears, I know, but until I knew what was ahead of me, I worried about it. I finally fell asleep. There would be no sunrise shooting today, well, maybe with my phone. I opened my tiny window and stuck my phone out to snap a few shots. That would do for now.

First light, from my cab-over bed window.

Getting lighter! You can see the old mining ghost town.

Ahhh, there’s the sun. Time to get up!

Slept in till 7am! Yay! Got up and had some breakfast; what a beautiful morning. Packed everything up for the long, long trip, to Valley of Fire (a whole 90 miles lol), and made myself one more coffee for the road. Before leaving I went outside to take a quick video of my campsite. I decided it was something I should do, record my surroundings, give everyone the layout of the land. For the cool campsites anyway. 😊 

My first BLM campsite near Nelson, Nevada.

Then I thought maybe I should take a quick video of the inside of the RV. So I did that too! Then when I was able to get a signal, I could upload it to IG or Facebook. Not even sure if I did that or not. But here it is.

My Cruise America mini RV rental, Jezebel, the Rolling Billboard.

I wanted to visit Nelson’s Landing (the area at the end of the road at the Colorado River) one more time before leaving. Shortly after 8am I was on my way. As I passed the mine store, my tour guide from yesterday was outside and waved. It did make me feel a bit more secure last night knowing there were people living across the street. Anyway, the drive down to the river was better than I remembered. Perhaps the light was better, perhaps a bit more relaxed this time out than I was 2 days prior. But it was gorgeous! I pulled over at a few pull-outs where the shoulders were paved. Took some reconnaissance shots, nothing earth shattering more snapshots, just for me to remember what I saw.

Looking down at Old Nelson’s Landing Road, which runs back up into Eagle Wash Road.

Looking east from NV-165 towards the Colorado River and the Black Mountains of Arizona.

An interesting card I saw hanging from one of the bushes where I pulled over.

For the sake of connection,
Let us always aim
to choose
Love over Fear.

d.s.weave #15 (Dead Spiders Weave) (She’s on Facebook & Instagram if anyone wants to check her out.)

Looking down Eagle Wash Road at the Colorado River and Black Mountains of Arizona.

On my way back up the canyon, as I scanned the mountains to the left and right, I fantasized about my next trip to Nevada. I wondered if my tour guide Joe, from the day before, went 4-wheeling (of course he had to, right?) and if I asked nicely, if he’d be a tour guide for my next trip? Maybe take me out on some of those remote mountain roads to see things most others never get to see? Maybe he’d let me use his shower too. lol. Hmmm… I’m sure I’ll never do it, but it WAS fun to think about. Then out of the blue, a bighorn sheep, a big bull ram ran across the road in front of me! WOW. I looked in the rear-view mirrors and no one was coming so I grabbed my phone and fired off a few shots, then went for my camera which was still on the floorboard next to me, and fired off a few more shots of it running up the mountain. That was amazingly cool. So close. Good thing he didn’t hit me, or I him. Phew…

See him now?

Tried “zooming” in with my phone. Quality is awful. But still pretty incredible.

Finally, with my Nikon. By the time I got my camera up to my eye and able to fire a shot, it had climbed all the way up there. What an amazing animal.

I stopped a few times in the middle of the road to grab a few quick phone shots. It was just beautiful.

Looking back west from Nelson’s Landing Road (finally grabbed my Nikon, again).

As I drove back past the mine on my way out, tour-guide Joe was taking another group on a tour. He waved again, I beeped goodbye. Gotta love a small town and small-town folks. I know, I used to be one. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows everyone’s business. Sometimes I miss the familiarity of small town, but then the days when you want to be anonymous, there’s no better place to be than in a big city. But, I guess inside I still am that small town girl. Wait… didn’t Journey sing a song about that? haahaa

About half way back to US 95 on NV 165, I heard one of my phones dinging like crazy. My Boost Mobile phone had service! Yay! I quick texted Mom, let her know all was well and I was heading into civilization, for a little while anyway. I pulled over before turning onto the highway to look up “grocery store near me” in Google maps. Yeah, I needed to restock supplies, and I needed directions. Found an Albertsons (score!) in Henderson only a block or so off my route; perfect. Onward!

Here’s a photo of an historical marker in the pull off lot at the intersection of Hwy. 95 and NV-165.

1864 – 1964

Eldorado Canyon Head of Steamboat Navigation in Nevada

Eldorado Canyon, the site of a mining boom, runs east from here to the Colorado River. Prospectors began digging for gold and silver here about 1859, forming the Colorado Mining District. The three largest mines, the Techatticup, Wall Street, and El Dorado Rand Group yielded over $6,000,000.

This portion of the Colorado River was navigable before the construction of the Hoover Dam, allowing steamboats and barges to freight goods 350 miles from the Gulf of California to the mouth of Eldorado Canyon and upriver. The steamboat era peaked in the 1880s, but continued to the turn of the twentieth century.

In 1867, the US Army established an outpost at Eldorado Canyon to secure the riverboat freight and to protect miners in the canyon from Native Americans. The military abandoned the camp in 1869. In the 1870s the mines flourished again, producing ore until World War II.

Centennial Marker # 6.

State Historic Preservation Office

Albertsons was easy to find. Picked up a few more groceries, grill lighter, ice and other essentials. Bought a birthday card for Mom. I always seem to be on vacation on her birthday. Lucky there’s a post office on my way. I’m sure the card will get there late, which means it’s right on time, from me. Haha - always late. Then I stopped to fill up with gas. I remembered to turn off the propane, very important. We don’t want any explosions so early in our trip. We’ll save that bit of excitement for the end.

Time, today, was not on my side. I wanted to get to Valley of Fire early to get a campsite in the park. It was a little after 11 now and I wasn’t even close. Oh well. Good thing I have a great backup plan. I headed out from the gas station on Boulder Highway and turned onto East Lake Mead Parkway. As that road headed out of town, the scenery became more and more stunning. I thought to myself, wow, I could totally make a trip never going further than a couple hours outside Vegas! Then I made a left onto Northshore Road which soon became Hwy. 167. The most stunning scenery was near Callville Bay. (If you’re ever in the Vegas area, get out of town, look for Northshore Drive on a map and just drive it, make a left at Valley of Fire Highway, drive through the park, and then round trip it back to Vegas. You won’t regret it.)

Soon I came upon Valley of Fire Highway. Traffic was building behind me. Yep, I was the slow, old-ass lady on the highway, so I pulled over. Some twitty girls passed me in a convertible as I pulled over, and then skidded to get in front of me. I just shook my head, all that drama to get in front of me at the VOF sign. Bitches… Anyway… haahaa, I pulled out again, spun my wheels a bit for effect, and went on my merry way. Up on the other side of big hill was a herd of bighorn sheep, desert bighorn to be exact (I had to look it up). (Little known fact, there are less than 70,000 bighorn sheep in North America. Herds of bighorns live with up to 15 ewes (ewes are females – males are rams), lambs, yearlings and two-year old’s. Remember that for the next episode of Jeopardy.) Snagged a great photo of the herd through my semi-clean windshield. Two more shots of bighorn sheep today. YAY!

More bighorn sheep! This herd was having some lunch in the Valley of Fire State Park, near Overton, Nevada

Say cheese!

I passed the road to the visitor’s center, wanted to get to Atlatl campground first to see if there were any open sites left. It was a little after noon now. My chances were pretty slim, but I had to check. As I turned down the road to Atlatl I hit a pretty big pothole and heard something bang in the back. Uh-oh. As I continued on I could hear things continuing to crash to the floor. It was in the bathroom. Oh boy… Whatever it was would have to wait till I stop. Every few minutes and more bumps in the road, something new dropped. It was pretty funny actually. The joys of RVing.

Driving through the Atlatl campground I found nothing. Some empty lots, but only to find tags, reminders that they’ll be back. Disappointed. I tried the Arch Rock campground. Again, nothing. More crashing in the bathroom. I giggled and shook my head. Can’t wait to see the mess in there. So I headed out to the Visitor’s center, maybe they had an ‘in’ to what was going on in the campground. When I got there, the park ranger was at lunch. Of course. So, I looked around and stopped in the gift shop, bought a T-Shirt. “Valley of Fire - adventure awaits”. (Reminded me of this video tutorial I bought last year; they called it edu-tainment. The video series followed a motley quartet of photographers on a roadtrip in a vintage travel trailer stopping at some of the most beautiful areas in the west, teaching valuable photography techniques and theory – and hilarity ensued. They called themselves the F4 group (a spin on a camera setting - aperture). One of the guys in the beginning emphatically repeats a supposed text from another saying “adventure awaits”!) I had to have this shirt. Adventure indeed awaited!

Getting nowhere in the visitor’s center with respects to the campground situation, I headed back out to the RV. It was hot and I needed to check out the mess in the bathroom. Oh yes, the contents of the medicine cabinet, which I so carefully packed with my toiletries and unmentionables, were emptied out on the floor of this phone-booth sized bathroom. I shook my head and laughed. Put everything back in the medicine cabinet, and discovered my nearly empty travel size perfume roll-on, broken on the floor. Glass was everywhere, teeny tiny shards. But let me tell you, the bathroom smelled fabulous the whole trip! (Who needs Febreeze when you have Pure Grace!!?) I picked up the big pieces and went on my way.

After leaving the visitors center, I decided to try the west entrance gate to see if they had any info. I knew it wasn’t far. When I got there I asked the attendant about camping and she said campground was full (I knew that…). I asked if they took reservations or put people on waiting lists if they’re already in the park or anything similar, and she said no. So I tried to buy a 3-day pass, something that would allow me to be there for three days and she said “we don’t sell three day passes here, you have to go the visitors center for that”. Shaking my damn head now, that made no sense, but then everything about this park made no sense. Including the scenery. As I pulled away, I was frustrated, I was hot, and said F… it, I’m just going to find my plan B campsite and cool off and relax. Tomorrow would be another day.

So, heading back east toward the eastern entrance of the park, I didn’t even stop to pay. Not like I saw anything anyway. Just a lot of runaround due to incompetence. When I got to the end of Valley of Fire Highway, I turned north toward Overton and the Moapa Valley. On the way to Overton is what’s called Poverty Flats and then Snowbird Mesa. Its basically one HUGE parking lot of BLM land, on a mesa. Best thing, it was free and relatively flat. Poverty Flats, haahaa, yep, that name suits it to a T! Lots of old dilapidated RVs. Some new, but most are really ‘vintage’, Breaking Bad-esque. A place where old RVs go to live out their ‘twilight’ years. Can’t say I’d hate it, to be honest. Weather here is unbelievable, at least it is in mid April. Nice and warm during the day, cool breezes at night. I could definitely get used to this!

I grabbed a wet paper towel and tried to get the last of the glass shards in my bathroom. Tidied up a bit and relaxed. Then I saw this older woman and her dog walking toward my RV. She knocked and asked if she could see the inside as she was considering buying one herself. I took one look at her and her well-past-its-prime dog and knew she was no harm. I let her in. We sat and chatted for a bit. Very nice lady, KP was her name, and her dog Zippy. She told me about all the campers that were out there. Gossip, even in the desert. Haahaa I gave Zippy a bowl of cold water. Sweet thing, blind, deaf and probably had some sort of stroke as she held her head cocked to one side; tongue hanging out. But she didn’t seem to be too bothered. After a while, my new friends left.

I was getting hungry so I went to cook up some tasty burgers for dinner. Got out my new lighter, turned on the stove, clicked the lighter, and… and… nothing. No flame, no fire, no burgers. Grrr… what the hell is wrong with this freekin RV?! So I called renters assistance – yeah, had a bit of Verizon signal. They said I could go back to Las Vegas to get it fixed or get it fixed in St. George or Kanab Utah. I told them to schedule Kanab. I’d be there on Thursday. So now what to eat till then? It was only Monday?! So I sliced up a few pieces of summer sausage and some cheese. Mmmm, mmmm. Grabbed my lawnchair and sat outside to eat my gourmet dinner. Haahaa, my meal may not have been gourmet, but the view was 1st class. KP saw me sitting outside and invited me over. I told her I’d be over after I finished eating. Afterward, I went over and sat with her for a bit. We talked and I regaled her with my story of my trip so far. How I planned it, etc. She thought I was testing out RVs to retire in. Haahaa! No, I told her I was just on vacation. I told her about my difficulty finding a level site and she gave me an old 2 x 4 she had in her RV, about 2 feet long, in case I need to elevate one side or the other. Very nice lady. Been everywhere and done everything, even lived in Wisconsin for a bit, not far from where I grew up. Small world.

After a while, I could see the light was getting warmer and lower in the sky, the sun would be setting soon. I told her I had to go and photograph the sunset. She wished me luck and gave me her business card, a piece of paper with her email on it. (I need to send her a message with some of my photos. Thank her for her kindness. She was very nice, maybe a bit lonely out there by herself, her and Zippy. Sweet thing.)

Camera in hand I went out and explored the area near a gulley or ridgeline, I guess? Not sure of the terminology, but the area of mesas and foothills just east of Valley of Fire, near the Overton Ridge. Just as beautiful as VOF, maybe not as dramatic; who needs all that drama anyway? The photos were soft and pastel-y. I had trouble with my long lens again. God I hope it lasts the rest of my trip! Kept giving me error messages. This was frustrating. I put the 24-70 back on. I’ll just have to crop after the fact.

Sunset view from Poverty Flats, near Overton, Nevada.

I couldn’t get enough of these creosote bushes.

Blue hour view of the mountains from Poverty Flats, near Overton, Nevada

Another of the same view, showing several RVs off in the distance.

Ok, I got a little Hollywood on the editing of this shot, but isn’t it cool!? This was facing west toward the setting sun right after sunset.

After the sun set it was time for wee bit of a snack. Made a cup of tea and indulged in a few chocolates. 😊 I found some more sugar free Hershey’s minis at the store today. Yum! Settled down with more Edward Abbey and wrote the day’s antics in my travel journal. Before going to bed I checked my work phone and found I was getting a bit of spotty internet. YouTube was working! Tell me why YouTube worked but Instagram didn’t? Crazy, anyway, I saw that I missed a post-processing video from Adam Gibbs the day I flew out. Sweet! I scaled the heights of my cab-over bed, settled in, and pressed play. Ahhh, tethered back to civilization, if only for a few minutes. I think I fell asleep before it was over. (But I did wake again long enough to finish the video and leave a comment. 😉Haaha) I slept like a log that night.