Googling the Valley

Way back on November 3td I promised some Google Hiking. Well I went and it turned out somewhat different from my expectations.

I set up my tent just below this terradactyl rock and next day set out for Fire Canyon. There had been a heavy rain a week earlier and I expected some flat washed sand.


I used Google Earth to plan a route and that worked well except that it wasn't needed. A bunch of people had beaten me to it and they and their dogs had tramped a path that needed no map to follow. Still Google worked as a route planning tool and got me on the right track.








The views along the Canyon were spectacular. Arches are everywhere. Little ones, big ones and ones on the horizon.










I was there in early November and it was a great time to be out in the desert. Blue sky, moderate temperatures and no wind until the last night when my tent was blown down twice. It was nice to hike in the 70's but I missed the look of the Mohave in summer heat.








I really never tire of exploring beyond the edges of the beaten path. There is always one more hill to look behind and one more canyon to explore. Alone and quiet there is almost always some creature in motion.

The people and dogs had ripped up the flat patches of sand and sandy mud, probably not on purpose but just because it was there. Finally towards the end of the day I found two patches of unbroken earth.



One sundried patch of sand and clay that had baked in the sun,





and one patch of sand that had been under fast running water. If you look carefully at the lower left corner of the photo you can see a small mound of disturbed sand. It was the opening for some creature's home and I couldn't identify what had made it

Last time Alex and I were out in Red Rock Canyon we found a burrow for an Owl. Tough to believe but everything out here has found a way to escape the heat and underground is very efficient.

By the way the links on the first page are

The Cold Front - Alex
Beacon Bee - Melissa
heyjud - Judy Hourihan

They are all worth trying out.

Bob

Little Baja

On Saturday, in between a class given by the Master Gardener of the Spring Preserve, Lynn Mills, and a fantastically challenging play at UNLV, Trudy and I went looking for backyard pots. We didn't find exactly what we wanted but we did find a real treasure, Little Baja. Along the interstate, just south of the strip is five acres of eclectic pottery, sculpture, fountains big enough for Versailles and goo-gaws beyond description.

As Deiter on "Sprockets" said, "You want to touch my Monkey."

There are mounds and piles of Mexican pottery and wood and metal and I supose a complete mixture of third world crafts. All for outdoor and garden decoration for every taste or no taste.

And, of course if one wanted to start a small casino, all the loby decorations are here.

The payoff came for us with the decorated pottery steer that is now on the garden wall.

And, bye the way, the garden out here stays in bloom almost all year.

Texas Yellow Bells are actually a legume. They fall in place with our plan to stay as "green" as possible. These beauties fix nitrogen and help to fertilize themselves. Goes along with the bamboo floors and drip irrigation.

Bob

The Lake of Illusion

Yesterday we took a friend to "Lake Las Vegas." This 320 acre lake with a 10 mile shoreline about 15 miles east of the strip may be the largest Farm Pond ever constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. If I were cynical I could say that the work was "hidden" under the title Virgin River and Tributaries-Utah, Arizona and Nevada Comprehensive Analyses of Multi-jurisdictional Use and Management of Water Resources on a Watershed or Regional Scale which might make the cost ($350 million) and and the end use (speculative resort development) a bit difficult to explain as a "pork."

Anyway it's a very classy place where Trudy and I go for music, ballet, opera and fine food. The multiple signature golf courses, the multi million dollar condos, and the neighbors like Celine Dion are a bit beyond us but it's arguably more fun than anything on the Strip.

The five-star Ritz Carlton has a great garden and a restaurant we need to try.

They put up a huge Christmas Tree and we will be bringing Sofia here for Ice Skating on the floating stage in the bay. This all does lead to a point. There are goofy things in Vegas but yesterday was among the goofiest.

A group of probably normal adults in "outdoor" clothes and helmets on Segways. I usually have to restrain myself from pointing and laughing but I was just stuned.

They were all so serious in a perfect line. Spaced out like a graphic designer had placed them in a sci-fi photo of a new "Westworld" there was no conversation, only solem concentration. It was only after I found out that they were on a "tour" that I fell down laughing.

When they make an "off the road" Segway I'll stop laughing.

Bob

A Walk in the Desert

Sometime ago I (in perhaps my last e-mail before the Blog) I talked about Google Hiking but didn't get the chance to go.

Google Earth shows a dry wash near "Mouse's Tank"that looks like a challenge for both feet and navigation. You can see a faint mark that is the wash bed (actually my printout is a bit bigger and clearer) It seems to be called both "Hidden Wash" and "Fire Canyon." I will be going out to tent in the Valley of Fire next week. I'm going to try follow the route from what I can find on Google.

The Valley has thousands of petroglyphs. Perhaps I will get lucky and find some more.

Bob