Homeward

May 8, 2025

We left Cathedral Gorge State Park on April 26 and headed north and west through miles and miles of empty space with mountains in the distance. We arrived in Ely, Nevada at about 11:30am and set up camp. After lunch we visited the Pine County Museum. It had lots of interesting facts about the county and a quality reproduction of a giant short faced bear whose fossilized remains were found in a cave about 30 miles from Ely.  We also drove around Ely looking for murals that were painted on many of the buildings.

Giant Short Faced Bear

Ely has many lovely murals

Sunday it got down to 29 degrees  with a high for the day of 34 degrees. This was quite a shock for our bodies which had been dealing with 90 degree temperatures. At 11:30 am, we went for a train ride on the Nevada Northern Railroad. It was pulled by steam engine #93. It was a nice one and a half hour ride to the original mine west of town and back. Afterwards, we got a guided tour of the original engine house. All the equipment was left in tact when the mining company stopped using the train in 1941. The train yard is now a National Historic Landmark. We were rather surprised that they just let us walk all over the engine house.  We also got to meet three of the famous engine house cats. It was a fun day.

Engine House Cats

Monday, we moved west and north again to Winnemuca, Nevada. We stopped in Winnemuca because it was midway between Ely and our next destination and because it is well known for its Basque food. We went out to dinner at the Martin Hotel, which serves Basque food family style. That means that you get soup, salad, 5 side dishes, your main course and bread pudding for dessert. Oh, I forgot to mention that wine was included. It was quite the feast!

Martin Hotel for dinner

The next day we continued north crossing back into Oregon. Our destination was Malheur National Wildlife Refuge 30 miles south of Burns, Oregon and also in the middle of nowhere. We stayed in an RV park  very near the  refuge for 4 nights and enjoyed lots of birding. The refuge consists of over 187,000 acres and is a crucial stop along the Pacific flyway. We saw between 30 and 40 different bird species each day. We drove the Central Patrol Road through the refuge stopping all the time as we saw birds in the field or ponds and taking short hikes at times. We were surprised to see so many white faces ibis, yellow headed blackbirds, avocets, black necked stilts, and American white pelicans. We also saw pheasants, Lewis's woodpeckers, Trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, and a bald eagle and red tailed hawk on their nests. That is only mentioning a few of the birds. We also ate lunch at the historic Frenchglen Hotel, saw the historic P ranch and the Peter French Round Barn. This area was and still is a very big cattle ranching area.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center Area

View along Central Patrol Road

Black Crowned Night Heron

Willet

White Faced Ibis

American Avocet

Cinnamon Teal

Pheasant

Western Meadow Lark

Black Necked Stilt

Lewis's Woodpecker

Trumpeter Swan

Yellow-headed Blackbirds

Peter French Round Barn

We also visited the nearby Diamond Craters Outstanding Natural Area. Diamond Craters has some of the most diverse basaltic vocanic features in the United States and we didn’t even know about it. It was formed sometime within the past 25,000 years and features craters and vents, cinder cones, spatter cones and lots more. Not being a geologist, even after reading their  pamphlet, I don’t understand all the features, but it was very interesting.

We left Malheur NWR and continued toward home. We spent Saturday night at Cove Palisades State Park near Madras, Oregon. It is a stunning park located on Lake Billy Chinook which was formed by the damming of the Deschutes, Crooked, and Metolious Rivers. Much of the lake is surrounded by very steep canyons. The snowy Cascade Mountains can be seen in the distance. We drove all around the park and also took a view short hikes. We haven’t been here in over five years and forgot how beautiful it is.

Mount Jefferson from campground

Sunday, we drove home. As we drive into the Portland area, we always comment how green and beautiful it is, especially in the springtime.  Now we are busy doing yard work and getting the vegetable garden ready for planting. 

Hope you all have a wonderful spring and summer. Thanks for riding along. Hope you come along on our next adventure.

Phoenix and North

April 28, 2025

We arrived in the Phoenix area on Sunday, April 13. We camped at Lost Dutchman State Park on the east side of the Phoenix metro area actually near Apache Junction.

View from campsite

On Monday we drove into Phoenix and went to the Desert Botanical Garden. It is a very beautiful garden and we went on all the trails. Lots of cactus were blooming. ( I think that they must water them because it is so dry). We went in the butterfly house and saw a very lovely orchid exhibit.

Tuesday, we went on a 7:30 am guided bird walk in the park and saw about 16 different bird species. Next on the agenda was a boat ride on the Dolly excursion boat on Canyon Lake through the Salt River Canyon. It is beautiful scenery with high cliffs. We saw a bald eagle and several mountain sheep. Then we drove another couple of miles to the small touristy western town of Tortilla Flats where we had lunch at the Tortilla Flats Saloon.

Wednesday morning we took a nice hike at the state park, did a bunch of errands and ate supper at Organ Stop Pizza. It has the largest Wurlitzer organ ever constructed. With all the instruments connected to the organ, it almost overwhelms your senses. The organist was exceptional and played all different types of music. It was a fun evening.

Thursday morning we visited the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert. It is composed of 7 ponds and a little lake all interconnected by trails. The weather turned much cooler with highs in the mid 70’s and we walked for almost 2 hours. We saw rabbits, turtles, avocets, stilts, green heron, great blue heron, sandpipers, snowy egrets and lots of ducks and ducklings.

Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch

American Avocet

Snowy Egret

Ruddy Duck

Afterwards, we went to Airbase Arizona Flying Museum (Commemorative Air Force.) They have a nice collection of planes from World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and also lots of helicopters. Most of the planes are still flyable.

Friday, April 18, we began moving north. On a two lane section of Rt 93 twenty miles from Kingman, Arizona, a semi crossed into our lane and we swerved off the road and it hit our tire, which sticks out from the trailer, and destroyed the rim and tire. The truck never stopped. We were not hurt at all and neither was the trailer, but it was very scary. We were able to get a repair truck to replace and change the tire on the trailer and sell us a new spare. However it added several hours to the trip. That plus strong winds made it a rather nerve racking day. We arrived at our campground at Red Rock Conservation area a little east of Las Vegas later than hoped. 

Saturday, we went to the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas. It has a very nice botanical garden, teaching gardens, restored village of Las Vegas as it was in the early 1900’s, and a museum that explained the early history of the Las Vegas area. On the way back to the campground we fell into a very delicious Greek restaurant. 

Sunday, we spent the day at Red Rock Canyon and took the 13 mile scenic drive through the heart of the canyon. It is a very stunning area. We stopped at many scenic areas and took some hikes. We saw a little waterfall, lots of wildflowers and even some petroglyphs. We took a hike on a board walk through a meadow that has a spring.  The development of the Las Vegas area was initially because of the springs in the area.

Monday, we left Las Vegas intending to take I 15 to Valley of Fire State Park. We found out quickly that I 15 was closed in both directions because of a fuel spill. Luckily, our GPS routed us the only other way available Rt 149 through Lake Mead National Recreation area. It was a bit longer, but very beautiful in a rugged sort of way. Our campsite in Atlatl Campground was set right amongst  beautiful rock formations. Our first night we were honored with a group of about 2 dozen mountain sheep hanging about around our campsite. It was really neat. 

It was very hot while we were at Valley of Fire. You really had to do any hiking in the morning because it just got too hot. In fact they close most of the trails from May 15  to Oct 1 because of the heat. The hikes were very beautiful. We saw beautiful rock formations, lots of petroglyphs, and lovely overviews. The colors of the rocks were amazing. We also saw petrified wood and cabins that the CCC built in the 1930’s,

Thursday, we left Valley of Fire State Park and headed North on Rt 93 for two hours to Cathedral Gorge State Park. Driving through Nevada makes you realize how much of it is really barren. On our drive today, we made a stop at Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge. It was a pleasant oasis in the middle of an empty area. We took a short walk on a levee on the lake. 

Cathedral Gorge is a very interesting and unique area. The location of Cathedral Gorge is located in a valley with rock formations of silt, clay and volcanic ash that look like like cathedral spires. We took a nice loop trail around the valley and even walked through several amazing slot canyons.

Slot Canyon

Slot Canyon

Heading North now. More to come! Enjoy!