Day 6: Boulder Dam

The first morning of February we put the Valley of Fire in the rear-view mirror.

Las Vegas's smog was nearly unbelievable. Apparently some find this place desirable?

There's a city of ca. 1.5 million hidden in that sludge.

E objected. We sped through, on I-15 paralleling the Strip so the girls could see just how ridiculous the whole thing is.

Anyway, we had a greater desire to see Boulder Dam, aka Hoover Dam.

The dam is well-hidden in the canyon; you don't get a look at it until you're right at it.

Melissa couldn't decide whether to park in Arizona or Nevada.

I wanted a picture of me and Ludwig by the dam.

This spillway tunnel has to be able handle 200,000 cubic feet of water per second during high water times. This has happened once, in 1983. Looking at the water level coupled with the current state of the world, I'd be amazed if it ever happens again.

There was an escalator. We went to the visitor center but you had to pay like $10 a person. So we went back up the escalator.

There was a bridge that we went over later, except you couldn't really see the river out the side windows, or the dam.

Right when we took the camera out, the Smaller One dropped trou and I cracked up.

You can see the ring of how high the water used to be and how low it is now.

Final proof that Ludwig (and also some random woman, at left) was there.

The road to Kingman.

Our plan to stay at a BLM campground near California's Easternmost point was thwarted, so we headed to Wickenburg for the night.

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Day 5: Hiking the Valley of Fire

What is Valley of Fire? Valley of Fire is Nevada's first state park. According to this incredibly specific, detail-packed map, we hiked about 2.7 miles of it, the White Domes Loop, the Rainbow Vista Trail, and Mouse's Tank Trail. The Smaller One only needed to be carried for about the last 1/3 mile. Melissa, E, and Mitch didn't get carried at all. In the evening after Melissa and Stinkerton had gone to sleep, E and Mitch broke the park rules, walking in the dark to Atlatl Rock to see the petroglyphs. 

Slot canyon on White Domes Loop.

If you look closely, you'll see that the Smaller One was going barefoot on Rainbow Vista Trail, where we saw the striped rocks.

These petroglyphs are on the way to Mouse's Tank. The abundance of petroglyphs was amazing and moving.

We were pleasantly surprised with what an interesting and beautiful park Valley of Fire is. Definitely make the side trip if you're ever on your way to or from Las Vegas, especially if it's not Summer and 120F.

Day 4: Zion to Valley of Fire

 We may have entered the desert and shed our Winter clothes the afternoon before, but it was chilly the next morning.

Three seasons of the year, the road into Zion Canyon itself is only open to the Park's shuttles. In Winter you can drive it yourself.

The canyon is home to the North Fork of the Virgin River.

Even in the high-walled canyon, by mid-morning the coats and hats had come off.

Weeping Rock quenched our thirst.

After lunch and a grocery stop in Hurricane ("HER-i-kn", not "HER-i-kane") where we saw lots of sister wives, we hit the road South. After St. George I-15 cuts through the extreme Northwest corner of Arizona, passing through the Virgin River Gorge.

It cost $10 million dollars per mile to build this chunk of I-15, the most expensive in the system outside a city. And that's in 1973 dollars; in 2018 the bill would've been over $53.5 million per mile.

Twenty-nine miles and over $1.5 billion later, we were in Nevada. Some of this trip was a bit of a retrace for Ludwig, incidentally.

We made it!

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