Week ending Mar 24, 2016 Big Bend of the Colorado to Government Wash at Lake Mead

On Friday morning, a Roadrunner hopped up on our fire pit to pose for us.   We refilled our cash supply and did a bit of shopping that day in Bullhead City.

Saturday we went for breakfast at Harrah's before investing $20 in slot machines, and wound up doubling our money, so reduced our breakfast cost significantly.

On Sunday, we went for a short walk to the beach before spending the rest of day watching the NASCAR race, curling and Roanich playing the final against Djocovic at Indian Wells.  There was a great sunset in the evening.

Monday morning,  as we were getting ready to move on, we saw a scorpion crawling on the ground next to the utility pad.  By the time we got the camera out, it had disappeared.  Too bad, since this is the first scorpion we have seen in the desert.   We think it might have a hole under the pad.  We headed north to Henderson to pick up some groceries and fill up with diesel before going to Lake Mead National Recreation Area.    We had found several promising spots on our 'free camping' website.  The first one in the area is at Government Wash on the north west side of Lake Mead.  There were lots of spots available.  As we were pondering the feasibility of a site which was a bit narrow, a large toy hauler was packing up nearby, so we snagged that site when they left.   There were some heavy winds in the evening and overnight.  We had been alerted to this when we checked the weather yesterday.   After listening to the wind howl for a while, we decide to bring in our solar panels.   This is the first time we have decided to do that.


We did have another nice sunset. 

On Tuesday morning, the wind eased up.  We took a walk down toward the lake, but didn't get to it.  The only route from that point was occupied by people in a tent, and we didn't want to walk through their site.

On our loop around back to the trailer, we chatted with a couple who stay here often, as their son works in Las Vegas.  The wind had broken the feet of their satellite tripod, for the first time in many years of trailering, and they had lost a tarp and a few small items.  We carried on to the boat launch ramp, which was closed in 2003, because the water level had dropped well below the boat ramp.    Based on Bureau of Reclamation numbers for each year from 1935 until 2015,  the lake started at 709 feet  in 1935, and increased every year to a level of 1180 feet in 1943.  The water level  The water level in the lake peaked at 1214 feet in 1998.   It rose and fell until it was down to 1087 in 1956, but went up to 1182 by 1959.   It hit a peak of 1214 in 1998.  It has dropped 125 feet since then with drops for 13 of the last 16 years until 2015.   The launch was closed in 2003.  It looks like they closed it when the water level went below 1150 feet.    Since the lake filled initially, it has only been below 1150 feet for 4 years in the 1950's, 6 years in the 1960's and every year since 2003.

We took a picture of the snow-capped mountain behind Lava Butte.   This is the first time we have seen  snow on the mountains since we hit the east side of Arizona.   It still meets our requirement of being too far away to touch 

The  wind picked up again around 11 am.  It wasn't quite as bad, but still annoying.


On Wednesday morning, the wind had dropped.   We went for a walk down through the middle of the area.  A fellow whose 2 young kids took their little dog walking down across a gully was concerned because the dog was off leash (not supposed to be).   We saw a dome of interesting crystal structures sort of like the calcite buildups at the north end of Yellowstone park.  However, there is no spring here now.  

Crystals zoomed

We carried on down to the cove.  There were a couple of fishermen in the personal flotation devices.  One fellow casting from the shore was looking for bass, but could only see some kind of shad.  A lot of fishermen drive through the camping area to get down to the lake since the boat launch is closed.   The water wasn't too cold to the touch, but not swimming temperatures. No problem for a grebe though. 

We walked up the north side of the cove, and carried around past a wash with some kind of ceremonial circle, with paths radiating out from it up the walls on both sides of the wash.

Ceremonial Ring?

Paths around the ring

Lake Mead

Further on there were a couple of RV's  parked on a road that comes in from the north. We can see them from our site across the valley.  It looks like this road could be an interesting place to park, as the road branches out many times up on the ridge that creates our cove.   Back down at the cove, there is lush greenery in the bottom of the wash as it nears the lake.  The plants continued into the lake, making a haven for lots of ducks.

Back at the trailer, we saw a couple of coyotes on a ridge between a couple of washes, about 50 feet from our trailer.   We had heard them singing the day before. 

Coyote

Thursday morning we heard the coyote chorus again.    We also saw what we think is a hawk about where the coyotes were yesterday.

Hawk?

After breakfast, we headed to the Park Visitor center to do the Historic Railroad Trail.  The trail was built in 1931 during the building of Hoover Dam to move materials up to the dam site.  5 tunnels were required on the 3.7 mile stretch.   The tunnels are unusually large, 18 feet wide and 27 feet tall, to handle the huge pieces of equipment to the dam site.   Some were reinforced with large timbers to prevent rocks from falling on rail cars and workers. The tunnels are also a sanctuary for bats, but the bats are only here in the summer.   

Tunnel

 There are great views of the lake from the trail. The shot below shows how far the the high water line below the black cap on the island is.  Compare it to the sailboat just in front of the island.

High water mark.

The trail is closed from June to September, because 'Heat Kills'.  We thought it might kill us one July when the kids were in Jr High and we parked our tent trailer in a hotel lot campground in Las Vegas on the way to Disneyland.  Even at night it was almost unbearable.

As we were posting the blog, we were watching the Womens' World Curling, and disappointed to see the Canadian team get thumped by Japan in 6 ends.