Let's Go to the Valley of FIRE

We left Owl Canyon on Wednesday and headed north on pass Las Vegas and to the Valley of Fire State Park. We were going to go there last year but it was so hot we decided to go to the cooler Grand Canyon. It is a first come first serve park and we were lucky to get one of the last sites. Busy even in the middle of the week. It is a gorgeous park where we are surrounded by red rocks. Below are some of the pictures taken just in the Arch Campground where we are staying.

 Valley of Fire State Park is the oldest park in Nevada and a National Natural Landmark. It's name comes from the red sandstone formations as you can see from the pictures above and below. The State Park covers 42,000 acres and is right next to the Lake Mead Recreation Area. Prehistoric people here included the Anasazi. There are many petroglyphs to view on some short hikes. There are many great hikes available as well as well as interesting rock formations you can see just by driving through the area. .. Woof woof :)

The aptly named beehives are an example of the interesting designs made only by Nature. There are arches and other formations such as Elephant Rock and Seven Sisters. You can just drive down the road and take pictures in every direction.

And then we took a little walk around the campground area in the late afternoon with some nice lighting.

There will be one more post on Valley of the Fire and a great little hike to the Fire Wave. Wait until you see some of those pictures.

A Couple of Lakeside Views

Haven't been into blogging for awhile and so this is a catch up one. We would have liked to stay at our great little private boondocking spot overlooking the lake but we have been in the Mammoth area for awhile and we want to get to Oregon soon. Our first stop was a Nevada state park, Washoe Lake State Park where we had a nice drive with more great scenery on Hwy 395.

Washoe Lake State Park is between Carson City and Reno and is a lovely campground with large sites. We got one with a small view of the water.

ere is plenty to do here with boating and hiking, but we only stayed 2 nights and mostly did some shopping in Reno, including Trader Joe's!! On the morning of the 12th, we used the Park's dump and filled up our water as we knew we would be at a boondocking spot we read about in Wheelin It Blog. While at the dump, who should we meet but a couple of Escapees. Joe and Loretta also have a site at Jojoba Hills. Small world. We talked to them for awhile about places been or headed to. Escapees are always so friendly.

Our next stop is back in California, still off the 395, at Eagle Lake. There is some free boondocking at Rocky Point. We kinda missed the first area we were looking for but checked out the next one and found a great spot. There were only two sites you could stay at. We stopped at the first one but then decided we liked the next one better. The first one had some soft sand and we almost got stuck. Fortunately, Joe's excellent driving skills got us out. Can you see us next to the trees?

We were only here a few days as well. We spent some time driving through the area. We went in the small town of Spaulding, which is across the water from us. It is a cute little town on the water but going through hard times. We stopped at the Marina, which had two large parking areas and absolutely no cars. This on a Saturday in the middle of summer with great weather. Lots of houses for sale as well. Hope it does better in the future.







We originally got to our campsite by taking hwy 139 to County rd A-1 and drove six miles to the road we turned on to our spot. The drive there was a lot of up hill and windy roads. We decided to drive pass where we stayed on A-1 to see what it was like. As far as we went it seemed fine and so when we left, we went that way. We left on Monday and had a long day driving , heading west towards the Pacific. We stopped over night at a Casino about 5 miles before you get to Eureka. It was fine as an overnight and free. However, we did go out to dinner. Joe had the prime rib special, which it looked like almost everyone was having. But they have sushi as well and so I ordered 3 different sushi rolls, one which had smoked albacore and avocado. Very good but more than i could eat. That means a great lunch for the next day. Love leftovers.

We got up early on a cold tuesday morning to head for the coast. We had pretty hot weather while driving there until we were almost at the casino when it dropped at least 20/25 degrees. We were ready for a little cool weather but hope not too cold.

Northern California on Hwy 101 is just another beautiful drive as you drive through trees, including the edge of the Redwoods National Forest with glimpses of the ocean on the other side. Next stop, Oregon.

 

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