Daytrip - Lake Mead's Ever Shrinking Lake

On 09/23/2015 my friend Jim Herring, Connie and I took a trip out to Lake Mead for a picnic lunch at the 33-Hole Overlook. It was very hot and It was so windy, it was trying to blow our lunch off of the picnic table. I’ve certainly had better days out here. Jim and I tried to hike down to the water’s edge, but before reaching it we decided it was too hot to be out here hiking. Most impressive was how low the water line was as compared to my first visit here more than 10 years ago. The exposed landscape is quickly becoming a surreal landscape turning into more and more desert with every passing day. Click here for some more pictures and information on the Lake Mead water level … Lake Mead's Ever Shrinking Lake.

Daytrip – Hemenway Park and the Desert Bighorn Sheep

On 09/18/2015 my brother and I stopped at Hemenway Park in Boulder City on our return from a tour of Hoover Dam. When lucky this always makes for a relaxing and calming visit. On today’s visit I think I counted more than 40 of these beautiful animals. Check this out for more pictures … Desert Bighorn Sheep at Hemenway Park.

Daytrip – Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge

On 09/24/2012 I visited the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge with the Rockhounds from Henderson’s Senior Facility. Unable to tour its new visitor center due to the fact that it was closed on Thursdays, we still made the best of the visit by hiking the property and trails looking for petroglyphs and taking in its lush trees and abundance of birds and waterfowl around the upper lake. Click this link for pictures and  information about today’s visit … 09/24/2015 Trip Notes for Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge.  For even more information and descriptions about some of my previous visits, and additional links with pictures of the many pictures of petroglyphs taken in the Black Canyon area, go to the following link … Summary Page of Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge Visits.

Daytrip – Jeep Drive of Bitter Spring Backcountry Byway

On 09/12/2015 myself and two other friends rented a 4WD Jeep for a trip across the Bitter Spring Backcountry Byway. Though the roods were a little rougher than my previous trip, spotting desert bighorn sheep, wild horses, roadrunners, and coyote made for a great trip. I added about twenty of today’s trip pictures to my previous summary page for Bitter Springs Backcountry Byway and Buffington Pockets area. Click here to view today’s, and previous to this area … Bitter Spring Backcountry Byway.

Daytrip – Spring Mountain Ranch

On 09/10 I went to the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park in the middle of Cotton Valley. This was the first outing of the fall season for the Rock-hounds from the Henderson Senor Center. Because most up us hadn’t done any hiking all summer, we were all glad that this was a relatively easy hike. In spite of this, combined with the heat, we were all tired by the end of the day. Mary and I did it all; the overlook trail, around lake Harriet, the sandstone canyon trail, tour of the ranch house and some of the ranches’ buildings and the Ash grove trail behind the main ranch house. Click this link for today’s visit … Spring Mountain Ranch - 09/10/2015 Visit Notes.  Here is the link to more pictures and my summary page of the property and my other four or five visits here … Spring Mountain Ranch State Park - Summary Page.

Roadtrip – Zion National Park

In a recent conversation about Zion National Park with a friend of mine, I suddenly realized that I had never created a post on my sight about our trip to this place. This was our first stop at the beginning of a week long trip Connie and I took with a neighbor through Utah, Arizona and New Mexico on our way to the annual 2009 Albuquerque Balloon Festival. Here is a page I just put together with pictures and information about our visit here … Zion National Park.

Hemingway Park - Desert Bighorn Sheep

 {Click on an image to enlarge, then use the back button to return to this page}

This page last updated on 01/09/2018  

(Fig. 01)

09/18/2015 Trip Notes: On the return from a tour of the Hoover Dam with my brother, we stopped by Hemingway Park that is located in Boulder City, overlooking Lake Mead. Although there is always a chance of spotting some of these sheep grazing in this park, this was one of the largest group I have seen here. I counted more than 42 sheep scattered around the park. It just amazes me as how docile these large animals can be; allowing you to get within just a few feet to capture their pictures. Though I took dozens of pictures, those in the collage in (Fig. 01) are some of today’s better pictures. Click on (Figs. 02 & 03) to enlarge and to look them right into their eye.

(Fig. 02)

(Fig. 03)

Spring Mountain Ranch - Trip Notes for 09/10/2015

            {Click on an image to enlarge, then use the back button to return to this page} 

(Fig. 01)

09/10/2015 Trip Notes: This was the first outing of the fall season for the Rock-hounds from the Henderson Senor Center. Because most up us hadn’t done any hiking all summer, we were all glad that this was a relatively easy hike. In spite of this, combined with the heat, we were all tired by the end of the day. Mary and I did it all. We started with the “Overlook Hike”, spent quite a time slowly walking around Lake Harriet. Along with the fabulous views (Fig. 01) with the patch of cat-o'-nine-tails, or cattails (Fig. 02); there were also a few ducks (Fig. 03). We then hiked the old jeep road out to Sandstone Canyon (Fig. 04). On our return we stopped by a couple of the out buildings, a couple of board and batten bunkhouses (Fig. 05) and the ranches' original  blacksmith shop (Fig. 06). After taking a tour of the main ranch house, we walked the 0.75-mile loop trail that runs east from behind the Ranch House, down a wooded gully,passing under a number of Fremont's cottonwood, shrub live oak, pinyon pine, Utah juniper, and velvet ash trees along the way along to a deep wash/creek (Fig. 07). As we hiked the wash we spotted two donkeys in the wash and walking along the opposite side (Figs. 08 & 10). Hiking down the wash afforded us some different view of the Wilson Ridge (Fig.11 & 12).

(Fig. 02)

(Fig. 03)

(Fig. 04)

(Fig. 05) (Fig. 06)

(Fig. 07)

(Fig. 08) (Fig. 09)

(Fig. 10)

(Fig. 11)

(Fig. 12)                                              [Click to Return to the Previous Page]

Nelson’s Landing & Place Cove - Summary Page

{Click on an image to enlarge, then use the back button to return to this page}
This page last updated on 05/06/2018

(Fig. 01)

(Fig. 02)

Directions: From the Stratosphere Casino head northeast on Las Vegas Blvd about 3 miles and bear right to merge onto US-515/93/95 south towards Boulder City. Follow US-93/95 for 17 miles and then merge onto US-95 South (Veterans Memorial Hwy) toward Searchlight/Laughlin. Travel about 10 miles until you come to NV-165 on your left! Once past the town of Nelson, this long winding downhill grade follows El Dorado Canyon through the El Dorado Mountains past the Techatticup Mining Camp, following the 'wash' all the way down to the Public Recreation Area known as Nelson's Landing (Fig. 03).  Although there is no launch ramp, there is a paved road that takes you within a half mile of the lake, then it turns into a dirt road and continues down to the river's edge (Fig.01). To go to Place Cove, turn right when you reach the wash and head west on Eagle Wash Road. After a few hundred yards take a left onto Place Cove Road (Fig. 02), and follow it all the way to Place Cove (Fig. 04).

(Fig. 03)

(Fig. 04)

General Description: The area referred to as Nelson’s Landing is located about 10 miles beyond the town of Nelson on the northern shore of the Colorado River. Nelson's Landing is most noted for a flash flood that washed a small settlement and a group of campers into Lake Mohave in 1974. There are three major washes that run from the local mountains toward the river. The problem is that they all converge into a small outlet called Nelson's Landing. The entire landing was destroyed and nine people died when a wall of water and debris, reported to be about 30 feet high, reached the river. Read details about this flood on the following reference page ... Ref - 1974 Flood at Nelsons Landing. View the slide show at the end for more river views. Hiking in either direction provides some spectacular overlooks of the Colorado River. The best thing about this area is that it provides you with the opportunity to walk along and actually stick your feet into the Colorado River. Taking the drive on Place Cove Road over to another cove provides for a better beach and opportunities to dive off one of the adjacent cliffs into the water.

09/19/2015 Trip Notes: This was my forth visit to Nelson’s Landing on a trip with my brother Tommy. However, after looking on a Google Earth map of the area and some more research, I discovered the nearby cove of Place Cove (Fig. 04). After a short couple of miles on the fairly well graded dirt road, the view of the cove comes into view (Fig. 05). As we approached the beach we were amazed at how many people were here (Fig. 06). Many people were prepared for a day on the river with sun tents, gas grills and water craft. It was obvious that another one of the attractions was jumping off the 25-foot cliff located on the right side of the beach (Figs. 07 & 08). Much better than the beach at Nelson’s Landing, I’m glad that I found this cove and will definitely visit her again.

(Fig. 05)

(Fig. 06)

(Fig. 07) (Fig. 08)

06/29/2011 Trip Notes: On this visit, I brought Jim Herring and his friend Patrick after a tour of the Techatticup Mine Tour at Eldorado Canyon. Here are some more landscape pictures taken at Nelsons Landing ... Landscape pictures at Nelsons Landing.                                                   (Fig. 09) (Fig. 10) 02/17/2011 Trip Notes: This was my I first visit to Nelson’s Landing on a daytrip with the rock-hounds from the Heritage Park Senior Facility after a stop at the Techatticup Mining Camp. Since then I have returned for four additional visits to this area, twice for the mine tours of the Techatticup Mine. Whenever I visit the mining camp, I always make it a point to continue down to Nelson's Landing at the river for some solitude time with nature (Figs. 11-13).

(Fig. 11)

(Fig. 12)

(Fig. 13)

(OPTION 1) Each show is designed to run automatically in place, without leaving the current browser window. If the show is not already running, just click the large "Play" button in the middle of the picture and let it run.                               (OPTION 2) Running the cursor over the picture being shown will PAUSE the show and bring up a navigation bar at the bottom of the slideshow window with Pause, Forward and Back buttons, allowing you to start, stop or manually forward or back up pictures one at a time.

Slideshow Description: The slideshow above contains 16 pictures that were taken at Nelson's Landing.

Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge – 09/24/2015 Trip Notes

 {Click on an image to enlarge, then use the back button to return to this page}

This page last updated on 04/13/2017

(Fig. 01)

(Fig. 02)

(Fig. 03) 09/24/2015 Trip Notes: Today’s visit was with the Rock-hounds from the Henderson Heritage Park’s Senior Center. Several of us started from the visitor center and hiked back out along the headquarters' entrance road and then along ridgeline and creek on the west side of the Great Basin Hwy (Fig. 02). We spotted three young mule deer (Fig. 03) “jumping” the road in front of us. Even though they crossed the road twice, they were so fast we were unable to capture any pictures of them. In all my visits here, this was the first time I‘ve ever seen any deer. (Fig. 03a) Once we reached the highway, we hiked along the ledge on the west side of the road looking for petroglyphs. We spotted several petroglyphs we hadn’t seen on a previous visit, located near the red dots in (Fig. 03a) on the cutout taken from (Fig. 02). These were two Pahranagat Patterned Body Anthropomorphs (PBA) (Fig. 04) and a very well defined Pahranagat Man (Fig. 05). On our way to the spillway at the south end of the lake, we could hear the sounds of rushing water. When we climbed over the bank on our left we found a rushing stream that paralleled the road (Figs. 06 thru 08). Once we reached the lake (Fig. 09) we hiked the trail on the west side of the lake up to the dam (see Fig. 02). The picture in (Fig. 10) is looking south at the east side of the lake from the dam. Though the road and trails on both sides of the lake are lined with trees, those on the west side are some of the largest trees (Figs. 11-13) I have ever encountered in the desert. Picture (Fig. 01) is looking towards the North Marsh from the dam (Fig. 02). In addition to dozens of other birds and water fowl we spotted a pelican in the marsh (Figs 13-15). Who who have thought?

(Fig. 04) (Fig. 05)

(Fig. 06)

(Fig. 07) (Fig. 08)

(Fig. 09)

(Fig. 10)

(Fig. 11) (Fig. 12)

(Fig. 13)

(Fig. 14) (Fig. 15)

                                             Click here to [Return to the Previous Page]