When you open yourself up to life, Life opens up to you!: Lake Mead National Recreational Area and Valley of Fire

May 16 – 28

Continuing our journey westward we made for the Lake Mead National Recreational Area where we would be spending the next two weeks. Probably the least noted drive thus far, going through the starkness of the desert with the hills and mountains in the background. Has it's own beauty but a lot of vast nothingness.

Our first stop in was at the south end of Lake Mead Nat'l Rec. Area: Katherine's Landing at the marina of Lake Mohave. Both Lake Mead and Lake Mohave were created with the building of the great Hoover Dam and the Davis Dam to the south as the Colorado River is harness in its southward flow. Rather mind blowing to experience these immense lakes in the middle of the Mohave Desert.

Katherine's Landing RV Village was a disappointment. Billed as a campground at the Katherine's Landing Marina is in reality a good quarter mile away from any water and, well, basically, a parking lot in the middle of a Mobile Home Village. About twenty sites around a dirt loop, granted it did have full hookups and that is about all it had going for it. As we had reservations for the week, we made the best of it. I will give that the surrounding area gave us lots to do and we took advantage of that.

This campground is concession run, there are two other campgrounds run by the park system. What a contrast, those two were lovely, with roomy sites and vegetation between each giving a sense of privacy. Unfortunately, there are no hookups in either of those. Great for a couple of nights in cool weather but given the temperature each day, yeah, we like electric at least.

The roads were good for biking so we did a lot of that. Rode out to Davis Dam, this, having been built in the 1950's, is getting a much needed facelift so while we could ride bikes or walk , no cars are allowed across at this time. Even better for biking! One day, we headed in the other direction and explored the lake and hills in that sections. Very low traffic, which is a good thing as some of the hills are rather steep, letting you get a good head of steam coming down. Those hills are one of the many reasons we love our E-Bikes. Makes going up so much easier. I was so tickled while riding in one section as a butterfly decided to join me and flew by my side for a good quarter mile or so, truly had me giggling. Also rode down to the marina several times to sit and contemplate the water, As I said, we made the best of it. Oh, and it did have Road Runners and Gamil Quail so Hey it wasn't all bad.

On the 21^st, we made our way up to the north end of the park system to Lake Mead RV Village at Echo Bay. Much better than Katherine's Landing. Here we got to do some great hiking and more bike riding. Got to see a large herb of Bighorn Sheep, lots of lizards, and more Jackrabbits. Of course, we just had to do one of our “ooh let's try this trail” hikes that started out as a easily defined, wide trail that slowly became more of a goat trail with some entertaining scrambles up and down the hills leading eventually to the waters of Echo Bay, with no obvious way further. Did that stop us, of course not. We scrambled ever upward and onward following an unmarked path of least resistance. We got to the top of that hill and what do we find, ha, a service road leading back to the main road and campground. After eating our lunch and having a good chuckle we thought it best to follow that back.

While Lake Mead is beautiful, it is also a place of sadness as the water levels are at historic lows and are threatened to get even lower as the droughts of the north continue. It is in places such as this one get a true view of Climate Change. The all but constant winds and arid temperature does nothing to help the situation. And, yes, those winds did blow sending Dust Devils across the area.

Fun, relaxing week was had and then we were once again off to parts unknown. Well, actually to parts known as we were going to play for the morning in the Valley Of Fire State Park. Fell in love with this area when we were here in the past and my love for it continues. There is such beauty and energies here, one must experience them to truly appreciate them. It is a scenic drive with lots of pullovers in which to do some hiking. Being a very, hot, sunny day, we only did several of the shorter hikes. Found a cool shady indented rock in which to have lunch before heading onward. Here, I will let some of the photos we took speak for the area.