North Cottonwood Cove Back Country Roads

Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Spring is around the corner as we've been experiencing the occasional warmer than expected days.  On one of those days I decided to test our main air conditioner. After a false start I was able to get it to come on but outside Joyce and I could hear the groaning squeal of bearings. I think the bearings in the condenser fan motor are shot. I've been nursing it since this past summer when it started groaning in Texas. However since we spent most of last summer in milder climates, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon, we didn't need to run the main air conditioner much.  But now the noise is progressing to the point where it must be annoying to neighbors (it is to us outside) not to mention it may just seize up. We plan to spend a considerable amount of the summer in the Southeast this year so we are going to need a reliable A/C. The original air condition was made by Carrier, but they got out of the RV air conditioner business in '09 so now parts aren't available and haven't been unless you were under warranty.  


I have called technicians but they have all suggested just replacing the whole unit.  Of course the other issue is that it's a ducted unit with an infrared remote (wireless) thermostat, unique to the industry and no longer available. When talking to the various technician/ repair shops over the past several months, none have expressed a willingness to tackle the issues with wiring a wall thermostat to include the furnace. Suddenly, they aren't available till a month or more! Well, I found a technician shop, Affordable RV Service here in Las Vegas that got good reviews and seemed to  be familiar with my a/c problem.  Long story short, I've ordered a Coleman Mach 15 (15K BTU) to replace the carrier 13.5 BTU unit. Install should be at our site just a few days before we plan to move on, March 5th or 6th. I'll keep you posted on how all that works out.


We've been staying busy exploring new (to us) roads in the back country of Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  On this trip we worked some of the roads just north of the Cottonwood Cove area which took us into a heavily mined area. Cottonwood Cove is on the West side of Lake Mohave near the small town of Searchlight Nevada. 

Mine shaft hole that has been filled in

On cloudy days like this we have to be conscience of the weather as often we are driving in washes and have to cognizant of the potential for flash floods.

A historic mine in the park littered with era specific rusty tin cans.

Another mine shaft in the side of a mountain.

We only have a couple more weeks left in our volunteer jobs, so we decided to take our "boss" Dara and her co-worker, Kelly to lunch in Boulder City. They have both been very nice and helpful and we have enjoyed working with them. Actually we rarely ever see them so having lunch with them was a chance to nail them down for an hour or so and present them with some of our favorite  pictures that I took of the park and habitat. They loved the pictures which we framed for them and we all enjoyed lunch.

Kelly and our "boss", Dara

I've received a few inquiries regarding our volunteer position in the "adopt a road" restoration program as well as other volunteer positions. Our positions are not filled after march until next fall. However, if anyone has questions regarding any and all volunteer positions in the park, I would suggest contacting the park's volunteer coordinator, Nancy Bernard at nancy_bernard@nps.gov .

The internet has been weak at our campground, making it difficult to post pictures and keep up with the blog. The other day Joyce and I drove into Henderson and made use of the stronger Verizon internet signal to take care of some business and update the blog. I'm slowly whittling away at bringing our campground reviews page up to date. However, I'm still really behind but at least it's a work still in progress!