ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
January 23, 2023
We left Portland at 10 am on Sunday, January 8, and headed south on I 5 into a 15 MPH headwind to our stop that night at a Harvest Host site - Harvest Host is an organization that you join, and then can stay at farms, wineries, breweries and even some museums all across the U.S.and Canada - we stayed at Eden Vale Winery just south of Medford Oregon. We did a wine tasting there and had a fun time talking to the hostess and the 2 other camping groups
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Harvest Host Eden Vale Winery
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We left Medford the next morning and headed into California. We passed lots of flooded fields all along the way south from all the recent rains here, but did not run into much rain while we were driving. Our Harvest Host Monday night canceled our stay because their parking lot was flooded but we found an RV park south of Stockton to stay in. The next day we continued south to another Harvest Host farm near Hanford California called Rancho Notso Grande. They grow berries and fruit and raise chickens and lambs. The owner, gave us a tour of the property on a golf cart and we also spent a lot of time playing with their dog Luna. Our fourth night, we spent at Kern River County Park near Bakersfield. We stayed there a couple of times before and it is a nice quiet place. We walked along the river and part way around the little lake and spotted 30 different bird species. |
Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron at Kern River
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Our first major destination was Death Valley National Park taking us five hours to get from Bakersfield to our campground at the Furnace Creek area of Death Valley and our trip took us as high as 4,956 ft and as low as -200 ft. Death Valley is the largest National Park in the lower 48 states, is in the middle of nowhere, and you can go for miles and miles without seeing any signs of life. There was a big rain storm last summer which washed out many of the roads and many of them are still closed. We were there for 5 nights and saw all of the highlights that we could. We went to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at -282 feet.
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| Salt Flats Badwater Basin |
It is very flat and lifeless with vast salt flats as far as you can see. We took a nice walk to see a natural bridge. Twice we took the beautiful Artist Drive with hills of many different shades of colors including pink and green.
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| Natural Bridge |
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| Artist Palette Drive |
Saturday morning we took a nice hike on the Golden Canyon trail to the Red Cathedra with lots of beautiful rock formations. That afternoon we actually had rain for awhile! We went to the Harmony Borax Works interpretive area and the Borax Museum and learned about the borax mining industry in the area. |
| Borax Mine Site |
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| 20 mule team borax wagons |
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| Red Cathedral |
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| Golden Canyon Hike |
Another day we took a ride to the Rhyolite Ghost Town, a prominent gold mining town, was in its heyday from 1906 -1910 and during that time had 5,000 to 8,000 people living there. Many large concrete skeletons of some of its major buildings remain as well as the ruins of a rather large train station. It was very interesting. We stopped briefly at the neighboring Goldwell Open Air Museum. Their motto is “Art where it seemingly shouldn’t be” One of the strangest pieces was a ghostly interpretation of Da Vinci’s Last Supper.
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| The Last Supper |
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| Rhyolite Train Station |
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| Bank at Rhyolite |
Zabriskie Point was another beautiful overlook we went to in the park. The point overlooked beautiful badland like mountains in many different hues. Monday, our last full day in the park was very windy. We went to the Devils Golf Course with its huge jagged salt crystals. The wind was blowing so strong I felt like it would blow us down on the salt crystals and we would get all cut up. We watched a young couple across from us in the campground try to put up their tent in all this wind. When they finally got it up, a big wind gust came and broke one of the tent poles and the tent collapsed. They rolled it all up and drove away! We mostly had our fleece jackets on while we were there, but one day it got up to 72 degrees for a couple of hours. |
| Zabriskie Point |
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| Zabriskie Point |
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| Devils Golf Course |
We left Death Valley on Tuesday, January 17 and headed toward Las Vegas. We made a stop at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada. Ash Meadows is home to a very endangered pupfish which is about 1 inch long and only lives in this area and the refuge has some very nice boardwalks which take you past the very clear springs that the fish live in.  |
| Pup Fish |
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| Board Walk at Ash Meadows |
Our first 2 nights in Las Vegas we spent at a KOA campground 7 miles east of the Las Vegas Strip. We drove to the strip that first night and saw it all lit up. The next day we spent six hours walking up and down the strip. We walked through tons of shopping areas and saw the grand canal of Venice and the fountains of Rome, the Eiffel Tower and much more. We finished off our walk by seeing the fountains in front of the Bellagio do their thing. Talk about tired feet and sensory overload! That night we saw Cirque du Soleil’s “Ka” . It was amazing! The auditorium and set (with four moveable stages) were amazing and the performers were excellent. We really enjoyed ourselves! |
| Bellagio Fountains |
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| KA Auditorium |
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| New York New York at night |
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| Chihuly Glass in Belligio |
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| Las Vegas Hotels |
The next day we left our KOA campground and moved 15 miles west of Las Vegas to Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Area campground. Only 15 miles away from the city and it seemed like a whole other world. However, it was at @ 4,500 ft and we even had snow flurries that afternoon. The next day we took the 13 mile scenic drive through Red Rock Canyon and took 3 different hikes. The area is very beautiful! On one short hike, we saw petroglyphs and a frozen waterfall - yes it was that cold. We were very glad we brought our heavy winter coats.
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| Willow Creek Loop Hike |
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| Red Rocks |
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| Petroglyphs |
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| Agave Roasting Pit at Red Rocks |
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Frozen Water Falls | | Campground at Red Rocks |
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Now we are at Lost Dutchman State Park, east of Phoenix. It is very beautiful and quiet here. Yesterday we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. It is a lovely place with all kinds of cactus. We walked all the trails in the park. There was even one that explained how native people used all the plants in the desert to survive. There was a very nice display throughout the garden of sculptures by Rotraut. We were thrilled that it got up to 58 degrees and we were warm enough in just sweatshirts.
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| Sculpture by Rotraut |
On the way back to the campground, we had supper at Organ Stop Pizza which features the largest Wurlitzer organ in the world. You can watch the organist play and see all the pipes and other musical instruments that the organist controls. It is very cool!
That brings us up to date. Keep tuned for future entries!
