Trees!! Mountains!!

As we traveled up I-5 to Eugene today we saw trees and snow covered mountains--sights we haven't seen for many months.  It felt like the first time I left Southern California to my new home in Seattle.  Never having been north of Bakersfield (at age 23) I found there were trees, "growing on the side of the road, and nobody planted them!"

Mt. Shasta

Durango RV Resort Red Bluff, CA

We have made it to Red Bluff, CA, staying at the Durango RV Resort on the Sacramento River.  Tomorrow we continue north to Eugene, OR (our longest driving day 360 miles).  On Friday morning we have an appointment at the Cummins repair facility only a couple miles from the RV park we will be staying in, then Saturday move on up to Castle Rock. 

HEADING HOME

In a couple days will be leaving Las Vegas heading back to Seattle for the summer with a detour south to Cathedral City, CA (where it is even warmer)  to visit my dad before actually heading north.  We plan to be back in Seattle about June 1st.

Before leaving town we took Paul to the show at Excaliber where we had taken him once before several years ago.  It was an early birthday present since we will not be back for the real thing.  Sunday Arlyene and I went to the Ballagio Gallery of Fine Art expecting to see a Rembrandt and a Monet.  Apparently we misread the material.  Saw some nice paintings but not by anyone I had ever heard of.  While there however we enjoyed the display at the Conservatory so I have posted some pictures.  I wish I could post the fragrance too, it was awesome.

With Paul waiting for dinner show to start

Close up of Snail's Shell

The Valley Of Fire

Today we took a 137 mile loop tour of the "Valley Of Fire" state park north of Las Vegas.  It was a perfect day for the trip, no wind, mild temperature (70) and just enough overcast to keep the sun from getting nasty. In another month or so this trip is likely to just be too warm for our webbed feet.  Once in the State Park the landscape reminded both of us of the Moab, UT area where ARCHES and CANYONLANDS are located. Below we share a few pictures of todays geography lesson.  We continue to discover how much more there is to the Las Vegas area then just "The Strip" (which we go out of our way to avoid.)

The trip back through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area was yet another geography lesson with lots of changes in formations and landscape.  Wasn't prepared to take pictures of that so they will be the subject of another trip.

A Little More Exploring

Finally after several weeks of not getting out and exploring more of the Las Vegas valley (except for a trip to Mesa, AZ and back) we had time to get out today and explore a Jeep road we saw on another outing.  It took us into and area called Cottonwood Valley, part of the historic Old Spanish Trail.  I don't know why it is called Cottonwood Valley because we saw no Cottonwood but we did find a nice Jeep road and some solitude until we got to the end of the road after a couple of miles.  There we found six or eight other cars parked because about a  mile up a hiking trail there was a shear faced rock formation that is popular with the local rock climbers.  There is some serious rock climbing there.  We took several pictures of the area but somehow managed to not take a picture of that formation.  Oh well, a good excuse to go back with our good camera and lenses.  This valley leads to the Red Rock Canyon and in some of the pictures you can see parts of the Red Rock National Recreation Area in the background.

FRIDAYS JEEP TRIP

For entertainment today we took the Jeep back up into the hills south of our camping area. Here are a handful of pictures.  To our surprise and pleasure we only encountered one other vehicle on the whole trip.  Our bones thanked us when the trip was over.  They got a lot of knocking around on the rough roads and washes.  Reminded us of sailing in lumpy water.  You can never relax.

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

Arrow indicates approximate area we got to on second ridge.

These guys look soft and furry - from a distance.

Click to enlarge and appreciate the detail.

First view looking back towards Quartzsite. From N33 34.422, W114 06.499

Telephoto from same spot above.  Now you can see RVs in the distance.

This tire cover is normally black.

Quartzsite, Arizona

We are the coach at the far left.  Last one to arrive yesterday evening.

 We are in Quartzsite, Arizona for one of the largest RV and Gem shows in the country.  The area is primarily land that belongs to the federal Bureau of Land Management, otherwise known as BLM.  There are already thousands of RVs spread out here in the desert on BLM land and by the end of the week there will be thousands more.  The group we are with are pictured above and this is less then half the coaches expected so our group will number about 40 coaches, mostly Tiffin motor homes.  The RV show does not start until tomorrow so today is pretty laid back just getting to know some of our new neighbors.  We are "camping" in that we have no electrical or water here.  We are just "roughing it" on our built in tanks and our generator.

Jeeps are popular tow vehicles.  Lots of roads to ride on here.

Lost of space here too.