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 - Pahrump

The next morning we slept in and then took our time getting ready to leave.  Our next destination was less than two hours away, so there was no hurry.

When we got everything together, we left Boulder City and headed west to Pahrump, Nevada. We had plans to stay there for the next two nights and visit Death Valley National Park.

As we got closer to our destination, I was becoming a little leery.  It wasn't looking like the most family friendly area.  We turned down several roads leading us away from town and then into our campground.  Wow!  What a very nice surprise!  There was green grass, lots of trees, a beautiful little lake full of pretty birds, and paved paths winding around all of it.  Everything was very clean and there were lots of families around.  What a relief!

After getting the camper set up, we went into town to get a few groceries.  The Smith's grocery was really nice, we got some steaks and veggies to cook for our dinner and some picnic foods to take along to Death Valley the next day.  There was a Sonic on our way back to the campground and it just happened to be happy hour.  Half price drinks?  Yes please :)

Back at the camper the kids wasted no time getting out their legos.  They had all gotten some new sets for Christmas and were excited for an entire afternoon to create and play.  It was chilly outside, but that is where they wanted to be.  They insisted it wasn't cold to them ;)

Dan got a chance to use his Christmas present, too (the kids and I got him a portable gas grill, the Weber Q220).  He said it worked great and I'd hafta agree based on how delicious the steaks he cooked were :).

We had a great evening just hanging out in our "yard" grilling, playing, and simply being.

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!

Nevada - Hoover Dam

The main reason we were in the Las Vegas area was to see the Hoover Dam.

We had read online that the best time to visit was first thing in the morning.  So that's when we went.  The advice was great...we drove out towards the dam, passed through the first security point, and entered the parking garage with no delays at all.  I mention this because when we were leaving around 1:00 or so the traffic heading to the dam was backed waaaaaay up.  Miles and miles!

Even though we knew the dam was massive, it was stunning to see the size of it in person.  The minute we had the car parked we were all at the railing checking it out :).

Then it was down to another security check point and on to purchase tickets for admission and any tour you want to take.

Before beginning the tour, they show a movie about the building of the dam.  Did you know that the Colorado River was diverted during construction?  Pretty amazing!

Tour time...

An elevator took us down 530 feet through the canyon wall to a tunnel that was drilled in the 30's.  We followed the tunnel to a viewing platform over one of the huge pipes that transports water from Lake Mead to the generators in the power plant.  These pipes have the capacity to transport nearly 90,000 gallons of water each second!

The tour took us through some more tunnels, up another elevator, and to the Nevada wing of the power plant.  Here we saw some of the giant generators.

One last walk through the tunnels and to the elevator that took us back to the top.  There was an interesting exhibit area to see.

We enjoyed the views from the observation deck...

After seeing everything at the visitor center, we walked over to the dam itself.  You are allowed to walk all the way across or even drive your car if you want to.

By this time, everything was getting to be really crowded.  We had seen all we wanted to see, so we made a quick pass through the gift shop and headed back towards Vegas to grab some lunch.

Very interesting...we all learned a lot :)