Goodbye desert, it's been fun

We had tossed around the idea of staying in the desert for a while longer.  It is winter, after all.  We were very tempted to head south again to some hot springs and stay for a month.  After much thought, we decided to continue west.  On the last day of December, we left the desert behind and headed for the greener side of California.

Not very far into our six hour drive, we passed Dumont Dunes.  I never knew there were SO MANY inland sand dunes.  Just down the road we came to some small dunes.  The name?  Little Dunes!  Haha!  They were so cute, the perfect size for kids.

A few more hours driving took us to the Tehachapi Pass.  We had heard that the weather in the pass can be bad, but it was all good the day we went through.  Judging by the very large number of windmills, the wind must blow pretty hard through there at times.

see all the windmills?

Going through the pass, the terrain was beautiful.  The middle of the pass looked similar to some areas near Red Lodge, Montana.  Then, driving through the western side of the pass were the most beautiful rolling GREEN hills.  One of the kids remarked that this must be what Ireland looks like :).  I wish we could have stopped to take some pictures, but this pitiful cell phone shot through the window is all we got...

The hills of the pass ended and the farms began.  We were immediately surrounded by groves of citrus and nuts.  Acres upon acres.....

Our final destination for the day was Visalia, California.  We had reservations for the next three nights and plans to go visit the giant trees!

California - Death Valley National Park

The next morning did not start out very well :(.  We woke up to a puddle under our camper.  AGAIN!  Oh. My. Goodness.  Seriously?

Before, there was always a puddle under the front of the camper and to one side.  This time the puddle was kinda in the middle and way underneath.  There wasn't a thing we could do about it that day so we decided to just go on with our plans and hopefully whatever caused the puddle would just go away.  Haha :)!

Everyone got ready, we packed a picnic, and hit the road to Death Valley National Park.  The kids and I had been looking forward to seeing this place although we really had no idea exactly what was going to be there.  Genius, right? :)

Welllll, our (my) lack of planning was obvious soon after we arrived.  The places that we had heard about were spaced SO far apart and/or required such incredibly long hikes to get to that there was just no way to see them all in one days time.  Bummer.

Our first stop was the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to get our entrance sticker, get a map, and for the kids to get their Jr. Ranger books.  With these things in hand, we set out to see as much as possible in the time we had.

There were areas where the ground was covered with chunky, broken up rocks as far as we could see.  Strange...

We saw some dunes.  Some people were really happy to see them, they were rolling all around in the sand :)

Next we went to the Salt Creek area to walk the trails and try to find some pupfish.  There was a picnic table by the creek, so we ate our lunch first and then we were ready to find the tiny fish.  We looked and looked, but aren't sure we saw any fish.  One maybe at the far end of the trail, it was darting around so fast we couldn't be sure.  Oh well, it was a fun walk anyway.

Our next stop was at the old Harmony Borax Works.  In the late 1800's borax was mined in DV and hauled out by large mule teams pulling double wagons.  Perhaps you have heard of the famous Twenty Mule Teams?...

 

We went on the Artist's Drive and saw the colored rocks...

The last place we saw was Badwater Basin.  At 282 feet below sea level, this spot is the lowest place in North America.  Pretty crazy if you stop to really think about it.  Up on a mountain is a sign that marks where sea level is...it shows just how "deep" 282 feet under water would be.

Death Valley is called the hottest, driest, lowest.  It is all that, but there is so much to experience there as well.  I'm glad for all that we got to see, but I would not recommend going like we did...we stayed too far away and had too little time there.  

The kids were able to finish up their Jr. Ranger books and we took them back to the FC visitor center.  The Ranger that went over everything with them was SO nice.  He really enjoyed talking with the kids and made the whole thing extra special.  When they were done, he awarded them their badges AND gave each of them a patch :).

After a very full day, we headed back to the campground.  We had just made a turn when we saw a sign out in the middle of the desert that said Historical District.  Do what?...there were no buildings!  We pulled over to check it out.  There were door ways and windows carved into the cliffs.  We peeked inside some of them and there were rooms that went back farther than we could see.  It was getting dark, so we weren't able to see very well.  I wonder what it was...

Nevada - Lake Mead

After visiting the Hoover Dam and having lunch, we went for a drive through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

The kids needed to do a few activities so they could finish up their Jr. Ranger books.

One thing required was that they view various types of plants.  That was easy :).

Another requirement was for them to observe an animal.  That was a bit trickier.  There just aren't many animals running around in the desert.

We had been driving around for a little while, going to each different scenic overlook, boat ramp, whatever.  At one of these places, just quietly watching us go by, was this guy...

He (or she?) watched us for a minute and then walked to the edge of a hill and sat down.  The kids were happy, they enjoyed watching the coyote and could also finish their books.

It was a beautiful evening for a drive.

The sun was setting-

-and a full moon was rising.

It doesn't get much prettier than that!

Our first night in Nevada

We left Needles, California the day after Christmas and drove north to Boulder City, Nevada.  We had reservations for three nights on Lake Mead.

The drive up was decent.  It started out with a really bumpy road, but as soon as we were in Nevada the roads were much better.

Our campground was in the LM National Recreation Area.  This meant a fee was required to enter.  We had hoped that our NP Pass would cover the entrance fees, and it sorta did.  Because we drive two vehicles, the truck pulling the 5th wheel and my suv, the Ranger said we could only use the pass for one vehicle even though both of our names are on the pass.  Oh well, I had to pay $10 for an entrance pass for my vehicle.

When we arrived, we were given a pull through spot that was super long...long enough for the truck to stay hitched up to the camper and for me to park behind with room to spare.  That was nice :).

I didn't realize that LM offered a Jr. Ranger program, but Dan checked and sure enough..they did.  We quickly got things set up and drove into the visitor center with about two minutes to spare.  We stopped just long enough for the kids to each get a book to work on over the next couple of days.

Next, it was time to find some food.  We stopped at the first place that looked good..Panda Express.  After a quick dinner, we drove into Vegas to do a little shopping.  The kids had all received gift cards from their grandparents for Christmas (thank you!) and couldn't wait to spend them. 

When everyone was all shopped out, we went back to the campground.  The kids all headed to the showers and I headed to the laundry room.  yay.  The laundry there was so-so.  The room wasn't heated (it was freezing cold) and the dryers took a good hour to dry each load.  So yeh, that part wasn't great but it was ok.  With everyone and everything all cleaned up it was time for bed.  We needed to get to sleep so that we could get up early the next morning for an appointment in Vegas...

California - Joshua Tree National Park

One of the places that the kids asked to visit on this trip was Joshua Tree National Park.  Since we were in the general vicinity, we planned a day trip from Needles.  It was a bit of a drive, but not a bad one.  We chose to go I-40 to Twentynine Palms to avoid the very bumpy Highway 95 on the alternate route.  Good choice...nobody got carsick :)!

Our first stop was the Oasis Visitor Center.

There were some huge old palms growing there...so pretty.

Not so pretty (in my opinion) was the poster about the tarantulas...eek!

**shudder**

After a quick look around at the exhibits, the kids all got their Jr. Ranger books and we headed into the park.  As we first entered the park, we were behind a very colorful van :).  This was not the only one all painted up that we saw that day, either.  Interesting...

The park paper we received from the Ranger had a pretty picture on the front of rocks with a circular rock balanced on top.  We were just driving around and ended up at the same spot!  Pretty neat...

We saw lots of interesting rock formations.  One called Skull Rock, it looked like a skull.  Then we saw a rock that looked just like a nose, funny!

The kids enjoyed climbing all over the rocks and checking it all out.

I enjoyed playing with my camera :)

At one stop we saw more of the Gambel's Quails.  These birds were all very well fed :), they were much fatter than the ones at our campsite.

The deeper we drove into the park, the bigger the Joshua Trees seemed to get.  Some of them were really huge!

Something I read said they were a Dr. Seuss kind of tree.  I have to agree, they are unlike anything I have ever seen before.

It was a very beautiful park.  So peaceful...

We had to wrap up our day and head to the nearest Ranger station for the kids to turn in their Jr. Ranger books before they closed.  The closest one was the Joshua Tree Visitor Center in the village of Joshua Tree.  The exhibit area was limited to only some photographs of the park, but they did have a movie available to watch.  The kids all received their badges and we headed towards home.

When we were headed to the park we had noticed what looked like a volcano.  On our way back by we googled it and sure enough, it is called Amboy Crater.  In the heyday of Route 66, the crater and lava field were popular tourist stops.  The website said that if you plan to hike to the rim, watch out for old military explosives.  Say what!? I do believe we will be skipping that hike, thankyouverymuch!

One final stop at a little place on Route 66 and we were done for the day.