Sunday, October 27, 2013

Still Hanging Out in Overton

 

We are still at Overton Nevada, we are not in a hurry to go farther south where it is really warm, the last two days have been the warmest yet it was 89F at 4pm today. It cools off as soon as the sun goes down and the 45 to 50 degree night temperatures are just about right for sleeping.

This past week we have  not gone too far from our spot, it has been too hot to leave the dogs alone for very long. We made a trip to the Verizon store in  Mesquite one morning, to get a Jet Pack MiFI.  Mesquite was nothing like I imagined it, I pictured a small dusty town, but the area we went to had lot’s of new houses and new looking malls, this was about the only unique thing we saw.

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Seemed like an odd mix to me.

We have been spending quite a bit of time with Denise, we have been following her blog for quite a while, and we knew she was coming here. We have sure enjoyed getting to know her and Benny. We went over to her  toy hauler to watch her set her ramps up, to bring her Harley out.

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An odd thing happened few days ago a big rig came and parked in front of us,

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when  the  lady got out she came over and asked us where we were from, we said Nanoose Bay and she said we are from Parksville which is about  10 miles from where we live. It is true, it is a small world. They are on their way to Yuma..

We  like Overton, it is a small town, with a good grocery store and everything we need in the short term.

We fill our  water jugs at the Overton Park.

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The road up to the Mesa

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There’s a boat up there

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We couldn’t find Louie one morning, finally found him, looks pretty comfortable to me.

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This was a pretty sunrise

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As soon as the weather cools a bit we will go back to Valley of Fire and when it is cooler down south we will drive through the Lake Mead Recreational Are and then head south. We haven’t been to Lake Havasu,so we may go there before it gets too crowded.

Jean

Friday, October 18, 2013

Day One at the Valley of Fire

 

We have been at Overton five days, and we have been mostly busy, getting water and groceries, looking around town. The weather has been wonderful mid seventies everyday.The RVS come and go on Snowbird Ridge, there are more tonight being it’s the start of the weekend.

We went to The Valley of Fire State Park today, we only saw part of the park and we will go back after the weekend.

 

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The sand stone is spectacular shade of re, coral, orange, with white silica and gypsum.

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It was really warm in the park, we got out an walked when we could.

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the Mouse Hole, where a native on the run for murder, survived  by hiding near this natural spring.

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Rainbow Vista

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Valley of Fire

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The Silica Dome, where Captain Kirk fell to his death. Apparently they filmed Star Trek Generations here.

 

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More of the Silica Dome

We took the trail to Fire Wave, about three miles round trip.

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Lots of Red Rock to walk on

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Almost there, it was really hot by the time we got here.

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It’s a wild beautiful place, and  there is so much more to see.We have not been able to get TV reception here, we think it’s because we don’t have the new LNB for this dish, we haven’t contacted them yet. We are using the Sirius radio lots.

 

Jean

Monday, October 14, 2013

Snowbird Mesa Overton Nevada.

 

We left the BLM at jackpot and drove south down Highway 93, the Great Basin Highway, destination  Cave Lake State Park near Ely Nevada. The temperature in Ely was 73F, we stopped at a grocery store for bread  five minutes later we were at the turn off for the park. Cave Lake campground is seven miles from the highway and is at an altitude of 7,300+ feet.

Our site was the highest one in the campground, surrounded by mountains, no Verizon signal, we intended to walk down to be lake in the morning , but  it started raining and it was bitterly cold so we packed up and left, this was the only picture I took.

 

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By to the time we got to the highway our windshield looked like this,

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We were to continue down highway 93, but we knew that  7,700 ft. Connors Pass was ahead  so we decided to head back to Ely and find out about the pass.

We pulled into a service station to wait for the weather to change, an hour later it looked like this.

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By ten thirty the snow had stopped, Skip talked to some truckers, and they all assured him the pass would be kept clear being it was a major road. So we took them at their word and drove to the pass, the higher we got the less snow on the side of the road, and the summit looked almost bare.

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It seemed like a long drive to Overton, the weather went from rain, to sleet, to lightening, We had been spoiled by the sunny weather we had had since we left home.

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When we got to Overton, I said to Skip well we have had every type of weather today except a desert dust storm.. sure enough.

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We found Snowbird Mesa , Gay and Martin, perched on the edge of a huge Mesa.

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We found a spot about a quarter mile from them, we didn’t want to be right on the edge with the dogs.

Snowbird Mesa  reminds us of Borrego, the RVs  are scattered over a large area and everyone seems to have plenty of room, this may change later in the season.

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This area comes under the Department of the Interior, camping is free from Oct. 1st to June 30 with no time limits, The Dept. states in their  permission  for recreational camping,  that the campers who have used this site for years had done an excellent job  keeping the site clean, undamaged and without serious conflicts or problems. which allows them to keep on permitting the free camping.  Yea for Boon Dockers!

So far we like it here, it’s a nice place to unwind form a week of travelling. And the Valley of Fire is only three miles away!!. Las Vegas is 67 miles away.

 

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Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving.

Jean

Friday, October 11, 2013

Vancouver Island to Jackpot Nevada.

 

Today was our fourth day on the road, and we are four miles from Jackpot Nevada.

Tuesday we took the ferry from Sydney to Anacortes WA , we go through US Immigration before we  board the ferry, they were friendly  asked the usual questions and we were done. The ferry ride is three hours, with a stop at Friday Harbour on San Juan Island.

 

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Do you see the guy in the hat watching us board?

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Going into Friday Harbour

 

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Anacortes waterfront

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We stopped at Marysville for the night Tuesday and then after a trip to Costco for a new GPS, we headed for Oregon, using secondary highways we managed to avoid Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland and we headed east  on highway 84 along the Columbia River .

 

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This was the first time we took this route and we liked it a lot, the traffic was light, and we were lucky to have perfect weather.

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We stayed at this rest stop Wednesday.

Our plans were to go to Utah, and explore the area around Moab, even with the National Parks closed we  knew there was still lots to see.  Then we were going to   Comb Ridge outside of Blanding, where our friends Gay and Martin were camping. Our plans changed when we got an e-mail saying it was freezing there at night and wasn’t very warm in the day time, They have moved on to Overton  Nevada where there is a big BLM area not far from Lake Mead.

It’s disappointing not to be going to Utah, but we knew that we were leaving  a bit late in the fall and that weather might become an issue..

Tonight we are staying at a BLM  area just outside Jackpot Nevada, we are the only ones here, there is nothing attractive about it, but the only alternative where Jake would be welcome was a casino parking lot, which doesn’t work very well for walking dogs.

Tomorrow we will head south and probably stay at Cave lake SP south of Ely Nevada.

Jean