I didn’t do a whole lot of planning for our last camping trip. I made reservations at two state parks and had a general idea as to what we might do while there, but that was about it. I knew we’d be near Las Vegas and figured we’d be able to see some stuff in and around the city. I still have yet to do more than just drive through Vegas and thought maybe we’d go down and spend some time on the infamous Las Vegas Strip at night.
Then our refrigerator broke. Details of that unfortunate incident are in a previous post. It’s always something with RVs.
After driving down to Vegas on Tuesday in search of a part we needed — it’s about a 1.5 hour drive each way from the campground — and then back down on Wednesday to pick up the part we’d had to order on Tuesday, neither of us were keen on driving down there again. So we didn’t. But we did get to visit Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam on Wednesday morning before picking up our part.
Located just 17 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip, the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is a pretty big place with lots of stuff to do. There’s hiking, biking, rock climbing, picnicking, and a scenic drive, just to name a few of the potential activities.
Since our time there was sort of in short supply, we opted to limit our visit to the scenic drive. But we were determined to stop at all of the pullouts/places of interest so we could see as much as possible. We even took Fred on a short little hike so we could see some petroglyphs.
The Petroglyph Wall Trail is only 0.15 miles with a 26-foot elevation gain. It was the prefect distance for Fred and his short little legs.
The canyon was actually a really pretty place to visit. I thought it was fun getting to experience a different desert for a change.
Red Rock Canyon, like Valley of Fire State Park, is in the Mojave Desert. We live in the Sonoran Desert. Both are similar, but there are distinct differences. For example, there are no saguaro cactuses in the Mojave Desert, but they do have joshua trees, which we don’t have near Tucson.
Joshua trees are a type of succulent primarily found in the Mojave Desert.
If you’re a fan of national parks, you’ve probably heard of Joshua Tree National Park in California. Until recently, I hadn’t realized there are also some joshua trees in Arizona, primarily in the northwestern part of the state within the Mojave Desert and along the Joshua Tree Parkway (Highway 93), which offers beautiful desert landscapes and unique formations where the joshua trees mix with other desert flora like saguaros.
I had not realized that Las Vegas is known to have smog issues and was surprised to see the view of the city obscured under a distinct layer of pollution.
Apparently Las Vegas experiences smog, particularly ozone pollution (a type of smog), ranking among the nation’s worst cities, influenced by sunny, hot, dry conditions, vehicle emissions, and trapped pollution in the surrounding valley, with wildfire smoke from California often worsening haze.
It was fun to see the dam in person, but I won’t bore you with a bunch of facts about the impressive structure. If you’re really interested, you can read all about it here.
We were both more interested in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We’d already driven through it twice, once on the way to Valley of Fire while towing the camper and once on Tuesday when driving back to the state park. It’s a beautiful drive. We’d be doing it again that afternoon once we picked up that critical refrigerator part and again while towing the camper after leaving the state park on Saturday.
On Wednesday, we just wanted to stop at the visitor center to get our national parks passport book stamped. We’d bought the book years earlier. It’s used for collecting unique cancellation stamps, many dated, at national park units we have visited to keep a continual log of memories from our national park trips.
I love visiting gift shops and exhibits at park visitor centers. I have a decent-sized collection of souvenir t-shirts from places we have visited.
This visitor center was extra fun for me because someone had gotten a bit creative with a mannequin. It made for a nice photo op.
As luck would have it, the RV dealer called us just before we left the visitor center to tell us our part was in and ready for pick-up. Woo hoo!
We got to enjoy the drive back through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area just before sunset during the golden hour when the angle of the sun softens the light and gives everything a beautiful glow. It was even more gorgeous.
Hubby installed the part as soon as we got back to the camper. We were both delighted to see that he’d correctly diagnosed and fixed the problem. He’s very good with stuff like that.
With refrigerator repair taken care of, we were free to explore more of the beautiful state park over the next couple of days. I have plenty of images to share in upcoming posts.