Virgin River Spring Melt

We are camped right next to the Virgin River at its peak spring flow - muddy, noisy and intimidating.   No wonder the National Park Service has closed off hiking trails along the Virgin River in Zion National Park.  

Las Vegas

Hoover dam is neat - as in tidy, very tidy.

It was hard to explain to the boys why the truck that just drove by has huge glass windows on three sides, dance lights and shiny pole in the center.    Maybe the pole holds the roof up.   Or maybe Las Vegas gave up on the family friendly theme.    

The kids surely were wide eyed at the maddening scene on the strip and thoroughly enjoyed Cirque du Soleil's show Mystere.   A trip to the 1000' Stratosphere tower and a ride on "insanity" - a mind numbing thriller that hangs over the edge of the tower capped off our short stay.  

View from Stratosphere tower.  Our RV is middle right, below the reddish thing.  Nothing like urban camping!

Insanity!   Photo courtesy Stratosphere tower.

Sibling Rivalry

W and D have been not been kind to G recently.   And as everyone knows, the middle child gets blamed for everything.  To right this injustice we shrunk both offenders and gave them to Gibson as pets.

Death Valley

Lots and lots of salt.  Taste tested by the boys.

Our RV sits in Furnace Creek at 210' below sea level.  I find this  unnatural.  Kathleen assures me that there is no reason to be fearful - the Pacific ocean will not find a way to pour in while we sleep, and we will not suffer the bends on our drive to Las Vegas.  But still . . . .

Its been cool here, high not quite reaching 90.   Great weather to explore the surreal and varied landscape.  For those that dream of visiting other planets, why bother.   Death Valley is a fine substitute.  While most parks discourage off trail hiking, here it is the norm.   Just pick a dry gulch or sandy peak and head on out.  Its a fantasy playground of color and shape, a geoligists paradise.

Boys can be seen middle left.    NASA photos of other planets actually shot here.

Marble Slot Canyon

Afternoon Hike

Nice igneous rock! Would look marvelous in our garden but no room in the RV.

Outside of Alaska, Death Valley is the biggest National Park in the US.   At 5,300 square miles it is bigger than Rhode Island.

Same Rock, different person.  Looks very uncomfortable to me.

Holy ****!

To the Desert!

Our departure for the six hour drive to Death Valley today will be timed to ensure hitting LA traffic at its morning rush hour peak.   The cool weather has been a pleasant break but we are all excited to get back to the heat in the hottest, meanest, and driest desert in the US.   Sampler of San Diego sights:

Gibson and Wesley thrilled about the bulk food selection at Henri's Farm Market

Dashel hits it off with cousin Emma

Cousin Chase Garcia played a fantastic role as  White Rabbit in his school's production of Alice in Wonderland.

Pepper, as in the stuff you put on your eggs, grows on  a tree at Kathleen's mom's house .    Quite exotic to a midwestern boy.

The boys with Grandmother Momoko

Damn thing pinched me!

Drove this far, had to see the Pacific Ocean

Bottle Brush tree!

We'll stop at Lowes today and pick up some spray paint.   Have to keep up with the neighbors.

Kathleen's family.

Evidence remains after gang of boys terrorize RV park on bikes.

Orosz House

 Kathleen's good friends Tomie and Michael Orosz  have spent decades building a wonderland on their property on San Diego's Mt Helix.  We took a tour at sunset with a generous mojito at hand to see the progress they have made since our last visit.  Built largely with their own hands, what was once a modest cabin on a steep rocky slope is now a beautiful home and series of terraced gardens that reflect brilliant imagination and a self reliant work ethic.  From the lemon trees, to the hen house, to Tomie's paintings and Michael's carpentry, the entire property is the result of a dream and the talent and courage to make it reality.  

Orosz home flows around the existing rock form.

Apparent violation of the Egg Producers Guild pricing agreement of 2011 

Great view of San Diego and the distant Pacific Ocean

Home for the Orosz hens.   Mustn't let the Oliver flock see this.

Long Day

Dashel supervises tire placement at Alex's tires

 Google maps suggested 8:22 to drive the 432 miles from Flagstaff to San Diego.    I figured 10.  It took 14.    The bad stuff started on Arizona 71, 20 miles south of Prescott (press cut, not press cot).     Tooling along at maybe 60 with a 30mph headwind I was quite surprised to see in the rear view mirror a tire, or most of a tire, rolling along behind us.    After a few nanoseconds of reflection, and realizing we had not seen a car in twenty minutes, I came to the realization that it was most likely our tire.    It was.   The tire I fixed in Tuscon.  And the trailer didn't come with a spare.    That cost us roughly three hours, but taught us a very important lesson:  Salem Travel Trailers are not supplied with tires that are actually meant to be used on the highway.   So . . . not too much further down the road, in Blythe, California, we replaced the other three at Alex's Tires.    Gave the shop a heads up with a cell call.   The good men there got us out in about twenty minutes.   Looked like a Indy 500 pit stop with five technicians on the task.  

Although we were more than three hours behind schedule, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves.  That's when one of our progeny threw up all over himself and the back seat . . . .

Unlike Whitesands, you can ride four wheelers at Imperial Dunes.  Whoopee!

Welcome to California!   

Dashel took this picture today.   Kid has talent.  

Pretty Cactus Flower - Photo taken before everything went to hell.   

Very  disappointed to learn the Chocolate Mtns in CA are not actually Chocolate.  Turns out they are made of  ROCK!

Imperial Dunes.  Windy Windy Windy.  Had sand in my mouth after getting out of the car for 30 seconds.

Imperial Dunes from a safer perspective.

Charming Town

 Flagstaff is a gorgeous little city and an outdoor paradise.    The tidy and historic downtown hosts three Thai restaurants, three outdoor shops, and a brewpub mixed in with an eclectic fare of galleries and yoga studios.   Arizona Snowbowl ski area is twenty minutes away and had 266 inches of snow this past season, closing only last week.   The place is a bit like Boulder but smaller and less full of itself.     Did I say the weather is perfect?

Grand Canyon

It's big!   No kidding!    I'll spare you the hyperbole but I will tell you that we hadn't been there an hour before we were planning a return trip.

The only problem was the crowds.  We expected less people on a Wednesday in April.  Maybe all those people we ran into in Sedona on Monday are following us.  We opted for an out and back hike on the South Kaibab trail - along with a thousand of our new friends.   Fortunately the crowds thinned quite a bit after first good view point where at least 80% of the people called it quits.

Agave Utahensis with New Shoot

Our new friends on the South Kaibab trail

Dashel hitchhiking.  Hoping to get picked up by a mule train.

Sedona

Highway 89A south of Flagstaff meanders through rolling ponderosa pine before falling dramatically into the Oak Creek Canyon ten miles north of Sedona.   There is no time to prepare yourself for what you are going to see.  The sudden view of the famous red rocks nearly caused me to drive off the road.  As described by USA today some years ago, Sedona may be the most beautiful place in America.

Sedona is touristy for sure, but in a classy way - more like Aspen than Wisconsin Dells.   And busy, very busy.   Even on a Monday it was hard to find a parking spot both in town and at trail heads.

"Nuttier than a squirrel turd."   That's how Seth the manager of the Flagstaff KOA rv park described the residents of Sedona AZ.     New age spiritualism, healing crystals and energy vortexes are the rage here.    Now that I think about it, I did have an odd feeling on Cathedral Rock.     Kathleen and the kids will understand when I skip the Grand Canyon tomorrow to meet with spiritual advisor Carrie Konya.

We spent the day driving, flying, hiking and eating.   The day ended with a hike up Cathedral rock in the golden light before sunset.

Cathedral Rock

Oak Creek

Canadian guy with shark tooth pendant and $9,500 bike makes moves on Kathleen

Lapse Rate

We left  Phoenix after lunch with an outside temperature of 97f and headed north and much higher to Flagstaff.    Phoenix is at about 1,700 feet and Flagstaff a lofty 7,000.    If the standard lapse in temperature is about 3.5 degrees per thousand feet it should be a comfortable 78 or so in Flagstaff, right?  Wrong.   A mere 2 hours later we drove into the Flagstaff KOA with the winds howling and the temperature a nippy 68 degrees.   After spending nearly a month in hot weather it was quite a shock.

Saguaro Bike Cam

Join the Oliver family on another hair raising bike ride.   Another exciting video from Two Wheel Productions.     Regretfully, there was a slight smudge on the lens.

Dashel Happy to Survive the Ride

Coming Soon - Car Cam