Oct 25-Nov 8 Las Vegas NV

We left Death Valley and made our way to Las Vegas NV. For 3 days we stayed at Desert Eagle RV Campground at Nellis Air Force Base.

After that we rented two different homes in Las Vegas so Brian and Holly could join J, Ray and I (and later, our friend Gloria) for a mini-reunion.


The only strip activities some of us did were shows: Jabbawockeez and Rod Stewart. Otherwise we were relaxing at our rental or visiting the natural wonders around Las Vegas.

We visited the Valley of Fire,


wandering around some interesting rock formations like the Beehive below


and seeing some petroglyphs.


We also visited Ethel M’s (chocolate factory) and their cactus garden.


On other outings we watched planes land at the airport,


fed geese at Floyd Lamb Park (once a divorce resort),



toured Spring Mountain Ranch State Park where the Mountain Man Rendezvous was being held,



and drove to Red Rock Canyon stopping to walk among the rocks and see local burros.




Lots of family fun.

Oct 22-25 Death Valley CA

The road to Death Valley inclined and curved, up and down and all around.

We stopped twice, once to cool the engine and another time to cool the brakes. Of course, both times were photo opportunities.

We camped at Stovepipe Wells, the only campground in Death Valley offering full hook-ups.


Our first excursion was to Mosaic Canyon, a wondrous spot only 4 miles from our campground.


The next day we did more touring. I was continually snapping pictures.

Harmony Borax Ruins (Do you remember Borax?)

Artists Drive -- the colors were more vibrant in person

A desert plant. The sun made it look like crystal.

This picture is taken from the salt flats at Badwater. It's the lowest spot in the US. If you click on the picture to maximize it, you'll see a small white sign just to the right of center. The sign connotes where sea level is.

Sand dunes and the mountains beyond. Note person standing on dune.

That night we watched the sunset from our campsite.


The following day we saw Uhebe Crater and experienced the fierce wind there. I was very glad that the wind was at Ray’s back.


To give you an idea of the size of the crater, here’s another perspective. Click on the picture and you can see people walking on a path.


All in all, Death Valley was wonderful in October .

Oct 20-22 Lone Pine CA

The drive north to Lone Pine, “the gateway to Death Valley” was great. Every bend had an amazing new rock formation and the mountains were big and beautiful.

Note truck in foreground

We camped at Boulder Creek Resort from which we could see Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous US.



This is the view coming out of our campground.

We took the truck onto the Mount Whitney Portal Road to get a better view and were both totally entertained by the countryside. We even saw some of the rocks the Lone Ranger and Tonto scrambled over years ago.

A closer look at Mount Whitney

TV shows were filmed here.

We then drove to Independence (how ironic) where we toured the remains of Manzanar, the relocation camp built to house Japanese Americans during WW II. It was a very sobering experience.

Oct 17-20 Bakersfield, CA

We decided to take the long way around the Sierra Nevada Mountains and drove to Bakersfield. We set up at Bakersfield River Run Campground.

We didn’t do any sight-seeing, but we did shop. Ray bought a new ATT I Phone. (Trying to transfer pictures took forever.) Our only excursions were to the local American Legion where we enjoyed chatting to the bartenders and listening to karaoke.

If we hadn't made the detour to Bakersfield we would have missed our trip's largest sighting of windmills. Impressive.