Baker CA

Boulder Bay, Lake Mead NRA

Valley of Fire SP, NV - Arrowhead Trail Hike

Sunday, 6 March, 2011

Just arrived in Baker, California on the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve.  We spent 3 nights in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area and 3 in the Valley of Fire State Park just north east of Las Vegas.  Both spectacular with great hiking weather – cool mornings with the temperature around 10 and warm days with the temperature just above 20 – sunny or partially cloudy.   Temperature seems to have fallen a bit today and the clouds have moved in but we have high hopes for the rest of the week.  

During our stay in the Lake Mead NRA, we stayed in Boulder Bay, just north of the Hoover Dam.   We had a bit of trouble with the bike when we got if off loaded and had to replace its battery too – that makes 3 out of four batteries replaced since taking the RV out of storage.     However, there was a nice shop just a block away from the Canyon Trail CG in Boulder City so we got the battery replaced there.   All is now well (well fine after an embarrassing attempt to start bike once we got it back from the shop – it started well, then died and wouldn’t restart, we tried pushing it to lots of jibes from the neighbors until someone asked me if the gas was on – it was’t.  

We spent a day at the Hoover Dam and the area around it, hiking the Historic Train Trail (which uses an old train track that brought supplies to the dam construction site and was one of three train tracks laid to build the dam.   The hike offers great views of Lake Mead and passes through 5 tunnels.  Fortunately for us the track was closed after the 5^th tunnel and we had to turn back after 2 miles.   Lake Mead itself is both beautiful and frightening.   The lake is seriously reduced since it was lased filled (1983).   Our campsite used to be on the lake side but now is over a half mile from the water.   In many places you can see 30 or 40 feet of white “bathtub ring” on places where the shore is a shear cliff.   I read in one place that the lake is only 40% full and that is believable when you look at the shore.   People here talk about a ten year drought and are waiting for it to end but you have to wonder.   Water allocations were set during the 1920’s when the Colorado had the most water annually that it ever has had.  

We took the Lake Mead Parkway north from Boulder Bay to Valley of Fire State Park.   Beautiful drive through Mojave dessert country with glimpses of the lake.   Valley of Fire was spectacular, probably the best state/provincial park we’ve encountered – it rates with the second level National Parks easily.   The park is in a valley with red Navaho sandstone  exposed in a variety of features with lots of holes, arches and curved surfaces.   The sandstone takes on different colors throughout the day as the light hits it from different angles.  At one point we could see rocks in an amazing array or colors: red, white, yellow, purple, brown and colors in between.   We did walks and great rides through the park and thoroughly enjoyed it.    

We had a great site snuggled against a red sandstone hill which the kids could easily climb and hide in the little caves and holes.   As we were there over the weekend the camp ground filled with people from Las Vegas coming out to get away into the country.  

Looking forward to the Mojave Desert and Joshua  Tree National Park (although we saw Joshua Trees in Death Valley last fall and more on the drive down today, but mostly smaller ones).   We have been seeing lots of desert plants and some great birds although we are still trying to identify them all from the pictures.