towacross

Well, it is unfortunately an overstatrment to call this place a beach. Noeadays the water levels are extremely low in this area, Page Lake Lowell which we visited in the past days are at 24% of its maximum capacity. This low level already endangers the operations of the Dam and I have red some worriing articles about the situation here and here.

The Lone Rock and the sandy-rocky ex-beach is a mighty landscape and we did a nice hike from the parking lot to as close as the rock as possible.

Echo enjoyed running around in the sand and the kids played well too.

After leaving Las Vegas (not the famous movie...) and the Grand Canyon we continued to explore further canyons in Arizona. We drove to Page Lake Powell Campground and it was a busy and long day. Having our girls "nameday" (a Hungarian tradition celebrating holders of a given firstname on a given day of the calendar) she wanted to eat pizza in a restaurant. We also needed to do shopping for food and the usual refuelling sonwe had a very long lunchbreak at Flagstaff, Arizona. Hence we arrived quite late and in the dark to the campsite. Before parking into our site we stopped at the office tp find out where to park and we all needed a quick break which we managed in the trailer. After figuring out where to pull in I started and after about 150m we took a right turn, when my son shouted: "Daddy, the stairs, the stairs!!" Oh, shit, I forgot to close the stairs before starting to pull into our site! As the radio was quite loud in the car we did not hear the noise dragging the stairs must have made. We clearly let other canpers know that we have arrived!

I quickly stopped, checked the stairs and it was not ripped off but slighlty bent towards the back of the trailer. The two pins fixing the lenght of the legs gone missing. Afterwards I found both of the pins with the help of a flashlight and I was able to bend the stairs back to its original position. After a good night sleep we checked the surroundings which is quite surreal. Red sand and red rocks everywhere with some dry flora. The big waves of rock looks almost like flowing lava.

In this campground you can also rent old coaches and they have air conditiong and coffee machines as well, despite their 1850 look. After lunch we visited two unique locations nearby. The first stop was the Glen Canyon Dam which is quite similar to the Hoover Dam
Capacity wise this provides 1,3MWatts while the Hoover plant is around 2MWatts.

After the dam we got to the Horseshoe Bend which is about ten minutes from there. From the parking spot it was an easy 20 minutes walk to the river and the view was breathtaking. Even in December it was quite busy so I guess in the summer it must be really full of people.

One of the natural wonders of the World. You can not imagine how small you feel when you see the 10 miles wide, 1 mile deep Canyon. A relative young, 6 million years old geological structure carved by the Colorado River is one of the most visited sight of the USA. We were grateful coming in December as it was much less crowded than during summertime. We could also drive along the Hermit Road which is only accessible by tour buses except December to March.

We visited the South Rim and the Grand Canyon Village, the kids got their activity books to become junior rangers upon completition (just like in the Denali National Park) and they watched a 20 minutes movie in English about the Canyon at the visitor center. The Canyon is visible from space and the pictures by a phone will not tell you the story.

We had to check the weather forecast to remain above freezing at nights when selecting our next stops. We obviously wanted to visit the Grand Canyon but tenperatures at night dropped below zero Celsius at the National Park. So I was looking for nearby locations with less elevation tonfind a safe harbour for the nights. We picked Seligman in Arizona which was close enough but just above freezing in the coming days.

Enroute from Las Vegas we stopped for lunch in the middle of the desert.

Then we arrived to our stop which was on the famous mither road Route 66. Another childhood dream of mine to drive or ride on this route connecting the West Coast with Chicago. "Get your kicks on Route 66" from the Rolling Stones was in my favourites since my teenage years and later we discussed this route with motorbiking friends many times.

Fast backward to 1910. Gambling was illegal in Nevada, even flipping a coin to decide the price of a drink was forbidden. The town of Las Vegas had a booming economy as the railroad hub connecting Utah mines to California through Nevada.

Fast forward to 1931. Alcohol is prohibited in the US, the Great Depression tore apart the world in 1928 and earlier railroad bankrupcy left Vegas in a very challenging position financially. Up and down, like a roller coaster. The construction of a huge dam on the Colorado River boosted Vegas' population from 5,000 to 25,000. Gambling become legal and Maffia mobs and local business owners started to develop casinos and theaters for the contruction workers.

The Hoover Dam (then clalled Boulder Dam) provided the initial demand and later on cheap electricity to create Las Vegas as we know now. An engineering marvel, the largest of the world at the time of completiton.

How comes you can sail into Las Vegas? Well, we left Trona Airport hesitating between to possible routes. "A" heading North via the Death Valley National Park. We have seen it yesterday, quite steep roads up and down.

"B" heading South via Barstow, also some mountain passes but seems a bit better.

We picked "B" and it was a right decision, not for the elevation but for the wind! There was very strong wind East and we were heading East most of our drive! The trailer's flat back acted like a huge sail and we were cruising with 60 miles an hour. Normally that would mean a fuel consumption around 28 liters per 100 kms, now it was 12! So this is how we sailed over 200 miles happily into Las Vegas!

Then the next day we did the classic walk on the "Strip".

Also visited the Pinball Museum. Kids can enter casinos but no gambling is allowed for minors so we wanted them to enjoy some other machines. They did and I also played a bit with the classic Pac Man arcade. It was quite quick compared to my memories but was great to play again!

Finally we had to try out luck and while security was not watching we did a quick round with the whole family. Started with 10 USD and left with 25 so the hot chocolate the next day was free for all!

When we visited Death Valley we stopped at Mosaic Canyon with a last minute decision. It was already getting dark and we were heading home from our daytrip to our airport night at Trona. It was a great decision and although we could not walk the full 3 miles back and forth we got a great taste of how the canyon looked.

The desert is a very unusual place. Can be the hottest place on Earth at summer and it can get very cold at nights. It was very pleasant in November and we enjoyed the warm sunshine (about 20 C). Driving on the straight, empty road was somewhat similar to our Alaskan adventures. This time there was no technical issue and we just stared into the distance happily.

We like to stop at interesting local places like farms, breweries here and there, golf clubs, wineries , private homes or airports selected from HarvestHosts. This time we enjoyed the hospitality of a small airport at Trona, California. When I asked about the traffic the man helping us to park said there are four airplanes at the airport so no take offs for days. Surprisingly the next day a small aircraft (aluminium frame and a textile covering) arrived so we enjoyed the landing and talked to the pilot who was a local doing a trip around towns nearby.

The airport had a pilot's "bar" with plenty of cold soft drinks, a coffee machine and a restroom which we were allowed to use too. We got electricity and water too so it was a luxurious Harvest Host stay. We were very happy with it and enjoyed the special desert setting too. Echo, our dog made
a new friend, Mike.

We have seen some big and hige redwoods but today we have visited The Largest Tree on Earth. It is standing amongst many others at the Sequoia National Park in Californai. It is called General Sherman's Tree and a very curvy mountain road leads to it.
When we checked on Google Maps and it estinated 1 hour and 15 minutes for 25 miles I knew it will be a good drive!
We have climbed from 2000 feet to 7000 feet, here is a short section as an example:

The road was also beautiful with some visible signs of recent fires. Redwoods and Sequioa in general is naturally bonded with fire. Fire scars in tree rings dating back 2,000 years show that widespread fires occurred naturally at intervals ranging from 6 to 35 years in these forests.

The setting sun on our way back was creating a beautiful haze.

First we walked through a fallen tree.

The highlight was the largest tree, General Sherman's Tree.

Photos will not tell its sheer size.

On our way back we have seen a beautiful river with huge rocks in its bed. We stayed in the Three Rivers area so the name was self explanatory.