site logosite logo
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Photo
  • Video
  • Panorama
  • About
    • About us
    • Statistics
    • Gear
    • Map
    • Vehicle
  • Contact
  • CURRENT BLOG »
SIDEBAR

Nevada, not just aliens and neon lights

0 comments
  • North America
  • United States
Jan 07 2015
Post's featued image.

Since we completely failed to be abducted by aliens in Nevada, we felt it was time for some adventures of a different kind. 

First up was a really big dam. 

Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam

I guess we expected more. It wasn’t as large as we had imagined and what we had really wanted to do was visit the old 1930’s visitor’s centre, but it turned out that to get access to that you had to book a full tour of the dam facilities. While all the delightful art-deco details on the structure and the rather plush bathrooms kept us entertained for a while, we just ended up having a bit of a look around the area and then making for the Lake Mead recreation area.

Lake Mead

The goal we actually had in mind was visiting the remnants of the formerly flooded town of St Thomas (near Overton) which had slowly emerged from the recently receding waters of Lake Mead.

What we hadn’t factored in was that the rain that we had experienced in Death Valley was related to the tail end of Hurricane Odile that had wreaked havoc on the Baja Peninsula and then dropped the remainder of its rain as it crossed through Nevada and Arizona. 

The I15 had actually washed away in places. So the dirt road to St Thomas remained well and truly shut while the road workers rushed to repair the damaged main highway. The advantage of this for us was that we ended up taking a detour through the Valley of Fire State Park. This wasn’t necessarily somewhere we had planned on spending any time, but after driving through with the diverted traffic we couldn’t resist turning around and setting up camp for the night to explore the area a bit more thoroughly.

How could we resist a camp spot like this:

Camping in the Valley of Fire, Nevada

Camping in the Valley of Fire, Nevada.

One of the best parts about this camp spot was the regular visits from one of the most adorable creatures known to mankind. The white-tailed antelope ground squirrel.

IMG_1504
White-tailed antelope ground squirrel
White-tailed antelope ground squirrel
White-tailed antelope ground squirrel
White-tailed antelope ground squirrel

Sure there were a heap of interesting rock formations, some ancient rock art and some pretty surreal landscapes to look at in the Valley of Fire.

IMG_1459
Valley of Fire, Nevada
Valley of Fire, Nevada
IMG_1441
IMG_1406
White tailed antelope ground squirrel
Valley of Fire, Nevada
Valley of Fire, Nevada
IMG_2334
IMG_2424
IMG_2409
IMG_2411
Valley of Fire, Nevada
Camping in the Valley of Fire, Nevada
Camping in the Valley of Fire, Nevada

But it is hard to compete with the extreme, unrestrained cuteness of a tiny antelope ground squirrel trying to steal your pretzels.

From there we headed north again, drove some of ‘America’s Loneliest Road’ (US Route 50). It was actually pretty busy. We also drove some other roads that didn’t make the map.

Saw some really old trees.

Bristlecone Pine

This poor tree spent 3000 years trying to get this tall. Now it probably knows how I feel standing beside Benjamin… although the tree is at least taller than him after all that effort.

Even explored some caves.

Lehman Caves
Lehman Caves
Lehman Caves

But again, I must mention the white-tailed antelope ground squirrels.

White tailed antelope ground squirrel

I’m sure we did some other things while we were in Nevada.

But:

White-tailed antelope ground squirrel

campingcrittercutedesertdrivingnatureNevadarockssquirrelUSAwhite tailed antelope ground squirrel
« The truth is out there
Adventures with Javier »

Submit a Comment Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

SUBSCRIBE

Stay up to date with our latest blog posts:

SEARCH

RECENT POSTS

  • Plus four legs
  • Can we keep her?
  • And try again

POSTS BY Category

  • Vehicle
  • Planning
  • New Zealand
  • Australia
  • North America
  • Central America
  • Photo Friday
  • South East Asia
  • Resources
  • South America

ARCHIVES

© 2020 Flightless Kiwis

X
This is our archived blog from our Pan American road trip, if you want to see what we're up to now, visit our current blog.
FLIGHTLESS KIWIS »