My favorite show in Las Vegas

From Pahrump I continued east to the little known town of Las Vegas. I will be staying here for two weeks at the RV park at Arizona Charlie's. I have stayed here several times in the past and after shopping around have found it to offer the most for the buck. On my first night here, I took my camera and went to see my favorite show in town...and it's free! Here I am waiting for the show to start. The Fountains of Bellagio.



If you have never seen any of their shows, every evening (winds permitting) every half hour from about 3:00 pm until 8:00 pm there is a show and from 8:00 pm until after midnight there is a show every 15 minutes. Each show is different. I have heard they have over 60 shows. I took more than 80 photos that night trying to catch some of the magic of the fountains. You really have to experience it in person to get the full benefit of this 1\4 mile long fountain. I have always had a liking for fountains and so far in my book, this is the Superbowl of fountains. They use air to shoot water up to heights of nearly 300 feet. And it is all done to the beat of the music. A MUST SEE!











When I left the fountains to walk up to the Mirage, I walked across the pedestrian bridge in front of the Bellagio that goes over Las Vegas Boulevard and I looked over my shoulder and saw this beautiful sight. The reflection of the Cesar's Palace in the glass side of the walkway was unavoidable, but the people on the sidewal at the bottom of the picture gives a good perspective as to the height that the fountain can go.




Below is a slide show of all my Fountains of Bellagio pictures.

Things that go Pahrump in the night

The day I left Death Valley the winds were blowing again, but I was headed east to the town of Pahrump, Nevada. I spent three days here at Terrible's Lakeside RV Park. They have a 7-acre lake with a plethora of both wild and tame ducks. Even the wild ones will come up to you if they think that you have food for them. Above is the view from my picnic table. There is plenty of green grass all around the campsites and they take advantage of it.

I took lots of pictures at this oasis. My favorite time of the day to take pictures is at sunrise and sunset. Here are just a couple of those. I'll let you guess which time of day I took each of them.

Dust storm and Artist Palette

Saturday evening we had our annual "Low Desert Gong Show" where we all gather around and by the light of the campfire, amazed our fellow campers with our talents. The winds were a bit breeze, but the show must go on. I usually get up and tell jokes for my part in the show and this year was no exception. The joke that brought the house down was the one I told about a hillbilly vasectomy. I would tell it here, but it is a visual joke. If you are interested when you see me, remind me and I will tell it to you.

We all had a great time at the program as usual.
In the morning, a dust storm rolled into camp which canceled the "Arlo Weed Memorial" golf tournament.






Some people went home, but the tough, hardy, and hungry ones stuck it out in our rigs. After all we still had food to eat and videos to watch!



However, I did manage to drive a few miles south of camp and take in Artist Palette. The dust was not blowing down there.

Titus Canyon's Marvels

I have been through Titus Canyon many times on a motorcycle and I still think that is the most fun way to experience the canyon, but at my age going by a 4-wheeled vehicle is the safest way. I was fortunate enough to ride along with a group and take pictures. The park service recently regraded the 26-mile, single-lane road that crosses desert terrain then climbs via steep grades and switchbacks to a crest, then begins a long, gradual descent.

West of the crest lie the rusting remnants of the town of Leadfield, which existed for only one year during the 1920s. Investors were duped by a promoter who salted some mined rubble to make it appear rich in lead ore. He published preposterous handbills showing ships full of ore navigating the dry Amargosa River through the center of Death Valley.

Below Leadfield, Titus Canyon begins to narrow and steepen while dropping in elevation more than 3,000 feet. The rock colors change from bright red and yellow hues to softer gray and russet tones. Titanic rock upthrusts are evident in the swirling stratification of the canyon walls.

In the last three miles, the road passes through narrows whose walls tower more than 500 feet above the canyon floor.

Tour of Cerro Gordo

After leaving Darwin Falls, we headed west of CA-190 until we came to the almost deserted town of Keeler which is located on the northern shores of Owens Lake. For many decades this has been a dry lake, but in recent years, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has been flooding sections of the expansive lake bed in an effort to control the massive dust storms. We later found out that because of this there is now a very bad problem with horse flies.

At Keeler, we turned off the highway onto a dirt road that wound its way up a steep (8%) and windy road with many switch-backs in order to gain about 6,500 feet in elevation. We drove about 6 miles to accomplish this elevation change. When we left Keeler, the outside temperature was around 90 degrees and when we stepped out of our vehicles at Cerro Gordo at about 2:00 pm, it was around 45 degrees with patches of snow on the ground. NOTE: A reminder that you can enlarge any picture by just clicking on it.

Established in 1867, the mining community 0f Cerro Gordo grew until at one time there were 42,000 people living here at this nearly 9,000-foot elevation. There are many miles of mine tunnels that are spread throughout these hills with the main vertical shaft that goes down some six or seven thousand feet. Mike, the town owner, gave our group a tour of what remains of the town.

We started by gathering in the General Store, which still has just about everything one would have found in it back in the day. Mike showed us a series of enlarged pictures of the various activities of the mining process along with some of the history of the town.

At one time, there was a 5-mile, overhead cable tramway that took ore down the mountain in a series of buckets like this one to Keeler to be processed.

We wound up our tour at the American Hotel which is still used for weddings, receptions, and meetings for various organizations.

Keith bought several of us a Root Beer. This was a special Root Beer that is bottled just for Cerro Gordo and it was very good tasting, too! Mike serves his Root Beer by having you stand at one end of the long bar while he stands at the other end. He then slides the bottle all the way down the length of the bar with just enough speed so that the bottle will stop right in front of you.

Keith listened to Mike tell stories about Cerro
Gordo's glory days while some of the rest of us looked around.

After spending an hour or so with Mike, we piled back in our very dusty vehicles and headed back down the mountain on that steep, winding, single lane road to Keeler where we welcomed the pavement of CA-190. We took that highway all the way back to Furnace Creek.

If you click on the above picture, you can zoom in and see how the lake has been divided up into sections for the flooding program.

Day trip to Darwin Falls

Five vehicle loads of us loaded up and traveled west out of the park to Panamint Springs Resort on CA-190. We fueled up there and continued for about one mile further and turned off on a dirt road and traveled about two miles to the parking area.
We then hiked about one mile up a wash.

Before we arrived at the falls, we crossed the stream that came from the falls several times.

We used big rock, fallen branches from large shrubs or trees that were in the water to make our way across. In places, we hugged the huge boulders that form the edge of the wash.

Finally, most of us arrived at the pool at the base of a 40-foot water fall. It was a very warm day and the temperature was much cooler in the shade of the trees at the edge of the pool.

This was a refreshing spot to rest. Some even took off their shoes and socks and waded our into the pool. This water comes from a springs that runs all year. In fact this is the water source for the Panamint Springs Resort that we were at earlier.

Campfire gathering

There is nothing like sitting around a good campfire with friends for one to burst into song along with the sharing of life's experiences.




This campfire was no exception. Several of us brought our folding chairs over to Keith Knoche's campsite where he had a nice fire going. He brought out his guitar and played along as we all sang a few songs.




Elden Dickenson shared some words of wisdom with the rest of us as we all listened intently....





....even the dogs!