Last days at Lake Mead N.R.A.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

We’ve been very busy over the last few days and of course I’ve fallen behind on the blog which I’ll blame on our poor internet reception via our MiFi at our campground.

To begin with, we finally saw a show on the Las Vegas Strip. Joyce had wanted to see a show so she made plans for the four of us to see the Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. Paul and Paula joined us for the evening performance. Before the show started we toured the Venetian Casino including the indoor mall and floating gondolas. Then we had a fantastic dinner before the show. The show itself was dramatic and colorful, but to be honest, it’s just not my kinda thing. Joyce and Paula really enjoyed it.

A few days ago, Paul and I planned a hike for the four of us on the West side of of the Las Vegas valley at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. So we drove out there, paid the $7 entrance fee at the gate and proceeded to our first stop, the visitor center.

Inside the visitor Center at Red Rock Canyon

After touring the well apportioned visitor center we set out on a trip along the 17 mile one-way scenic drive to our trailhead. The drive was beautiful taking us up to 4K feet and obviously featuring the beautiful red rocks.

View of the scenic 17 mile loop.

Beautiful red rock (sandstone)

From the trailhead that we had selected we took off on our 6 or 7 mile hike on the White Rock Loop Trail gaining altitude to over 5K feet. It was a beautiful trail in the small pines and junipers. However several sections were very rocky creating some unsure footing. The trail was rated difficult, probably due to the altitude changes and the aforementioned rocks. 

Trailhead for White Rock Loop Trail

We stopped for lunch before making our way back to the Jeep on the loop trail. It was a good hike and had been a beautiful day. If you are in search of hiking trails in the Las Vegas valley I would highly recommend this website: Bird and Hike.

Okay, now on to our Air Conditioner story. As you may recall, we ordered a new Coleman Mach 15 heat pump/ air conditioner from a local mobile repair company, Affordable RV here in Las Vegas. The appointment for the installation at our campsite was set for Monday between 10-11 a.m.  We had been scheduled to work our volunteer job on Monday so we re-arranged our schedule working on Sunday instead. So, Monday comes and I call at 9:00 leaving a message to make sure they are still on schedule. I didn’t get a call back and called several more times always getting the answer machine. Finally I call with Joyce’s phone (different number) sometime after noon and they answer. I’m told they called me and left a message that the wrong thermostat had arrived and they would have to postpone till Tuesday.  Of course, I never got the call or message! Needless to say I’m a bit annoyed as we were also scheduled to work on Tuesday. 

Our friend and boss, Dara stopped by to see us around 3:30 and shortly thereafter, the installer arrived unannounced by himself. He quickly began working and removed and replaced the main A/C unit on the roof. Of course this disrupted or visit with Dara. Then he reported that he didn’t have the wiring on his truck to finish the job and install the thermostat and would have to run back to town. After he left, I got a phone call from Affordable RV reporting that the installer wasn’t able to find the wiring and would have to return tomorrow (Tuesday) between 10-11. It was close to 5 p.m. and getting dark so I was agreeable.

Thermostat on wall

As you can probably imagine, 10 and 11 a.m. passed on Tuesday and I didn’t see or hear from Affordable RV.  I had the installers tools so I knew he had to come back. Again my calls to the company went unanswered and again the installer showed up unannounced around 1 p.m., this time with another worker. Of course they apologized for being late..... Anyway, the installation was completed and a thermostat controlling the a/c, heat pump and furnace was installed. The wiring for the thermostat was run through the ceiling vents and ducts to the wall where the wireless remote/ thermostat for the old Carrier unit had been. It is all working as advertised at a cost of just over $1500 and some aggravation. Having said all that, I would be hesitant to recommend Affordable RV. On the other hand, we are thankful that we were able to get the job done at our campsite.

On Wednesday, we worked our last day as volunteers for Lake Mead N.R.A.  We worked some back country roads down by the Davis Dam and Katherine Landing some of which we would have done on Tuesday. It made for a long day but we wanted to fulfill our (perceived) obligation. Actually Dara had told us we didn’t need to worry about the day of work we missed but, since the roads were all in the same area we did our best to get them all done. As you may know, Davis Dam creates Lake Mohave on the Colorado River near Laughlin Nevada and Bullhead City Arizona.

We really enjoyed working for the park's resource management team and in particular Dara. She's been very good to us allowing us to work independently and tour most of what Lake Mead National Recreation Area had to offer in the process.

Davis Dam

Approved Road 2 ends on a peninsula in Lake Mohave.

As I write this we have only two nights left and we’ve been busy packing up and making preparations. We’ve been sitting here for nearly 4 mos. so packing and preparations are a bit more involved! The weather today has taken a turn for the worse with a high of only 56 and strong gusty winds. However, folks in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys are experiencing severe tornadic activity and our thoughts and prayers are with those folks.

Tomorrow, Saturday looks to be a better day at which time I’ll air up all of our vehicle tires, put the TST Tire Monitor sensors back on the trailer tires and make final preparations for departure on Sunday for Usery Regional Mountain Park in Mesa, Az.

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Nelson Landing/ Eldorado Canyon

Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Joyce and I have had the opportunity to visit the Nelson area of Lake Mead National Recreation Area on several occasions while doing our volunteer work on the back country roads.
This area is full of old closed mines and some operational mines as well as some spectacular scenery. It's several miles south of Boulder City on Highway 95 with a well marked exit for Nelson. It's a long steep downhill on the paved road past the town and down to Lake Mohave via Eldorado Canyon.

Old mine

Lake Mohave at the end of a back country road.

Same cove at the water's edge.

A beautiful calm cove of Lake Mohave

From Wikipedia:

Nelson is an unincorporated community in Clark County, Nevada, United States, in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The community is in the Pacific Standard Time zone. The location of Nelson is in El Dorado Canyon, Eldorado Mountains. The town is in the southeast region of the Eldorado Valley.

Nelson is on the Nevada side of the Colorado River about 16 miles (26 km) north of Cottonwood Cove, Nevada by water.  Nelson is about 25 miles from Boulder City by road. One of the biggest mining booms in state history occurred near here, in the El Dorado Canyon. Gold and silver were discovered here around 1859.

In its heyday, the area established a reputation for being rough and lawless. During the American Civil War, deserters from both the Union and Confederate armies would wander there, hoping that such an isolated location would be the last place military authorities would look for them.

Nelson's Landing, about five miles west in Eldorado Canyon, is noted for washing into Lake Mohave in 1974 after a strong downpour in the regional mountains sent the runoff down the channels and produced a flash flood. There are five wide channels that run from the local mountains toward the river. The problem is that they all converge into a small outlet where Nelson's Landing was. The entire landing and village was destroyed and nine people died when the flood came through the wash. The wall of water and debris was reported as about 40 feet (12 meters) high as it reached the river. 

Eldorado Canyon and Nelson Landing once a large marina with lodges.

And from the web:

Flash floods, the bane of campers and hikers in the Southwest, can strike with no warning. On September 14, 1974, a distant thunderstorm sent a wall of water 40 feet high roaring down Eldorado Canyon. The flash flood killed nine people and wiped out Nelson's Landing, a popular fishing marina on Lake Mohave about 35 miles southeast of Las Vegas.The normally dry canyon turned deadly after an intense hail and rainstorm dumped three inches of rain in just 30 minutes in the mountains up-canyon. The muddy torrent crushed the restaurant, grocery store, and bar in about five seconds. Bernie Daniels, a tourist from Glendale, California, remembered, "Heavy hail fell for 15 minutes. Then there was a solid gush. It had to be 30 or 40 feet high."

A wayside sign at Nelson Landing

Nelson Landing looking the opposite direction from the picture above. 

Much of Nelson, which was not impacted by the 1974 flood, remains today and is located way up the wash, away from the flood channels. The sparsely populated community consists mainly of privately owned ranch houses, and a river and mining tour business housed in a former Texaco gas station that has been used as a filming location for several feature films, including 3000 Miles to Graceland.

The community was named for Charles Nelson, a prospector who was slain at his mine in 1897.

The heart of local tourism in Nelson.  An old mine and tourist attractions.

If you visiting near Boulder City, it's a nice drive out to Nelson and worth the visit for the views. There's no entry fee at this location for entering Lake Mead N.R.A. and visiting the site that once was Nelson Landing just down the road.

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!

Just some pictures, Lake Mead N.R.A.

February 7, 2012 Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

Not much happening since our last post. I thought I'd post some pictures....enjoy!

East Cottowood Burro

Cottonwood Cove from across Lake Mohave 

Our volunteer campground. The trees are leafing out.

Working some back roads on the North end of Lake Mead N.R.A.

A spring known as Bitter Springs trickling in the desert

West side of Lake Mohave an area with lots of Cholla Cactus.

Large wash near Nelson Landing

Brittle Bush in Bloom with Lake Mead in the background

View across the road from our campground.

View traveling from the Henderson entrance towards Boulder Beach in Lake Mead N.R.A.

Our Volunteer Campground at night under the moon.

Our camp site at night. Our p/u truck is parked in another empty site.

View of the Las Vegas Strip shortly after leaving Lake Mead N.R.A. from the Henderson exit.

Currently we are planning to continue with our volunteer job here at Lake Mead N.R.A. until the first week of March. At that time we will be making our way to the Jacksonville area of Florida. Our daughter and son-in-law are having a home built that should be finished towards the end of March. It's been a while since we saw them so, we look forward to helping them get settled in their new home and helping out with painting, landscaping etc.

Staying Busy at Lake Mead N.R.A.

Lake Mead N.R.A.

Wild Burros of Echo Bay

We've been staying busy with our volunteer work.  We are averaging 80+ hours a month driving the back country roads. The picture above is in a cove at the end of Approved Road 37A on the Arizona side of Lake Mojave.

While at home, I've been working on cutting and hanging solar screens in preparation for this summer. Several times last year we had wished we had them. The solar screens really help to reduce heat from coming through our dual pane windows. The screens are fastened with snaps that required drilling into the rv to place the studs along with a dab of silicone. Although we don't need them now, we've already noticed a difference when the sun is low and shining directly in the windows.

I also worked on getting the oil changed and the tires rotated on the jeep which now has 24393 miles on it. The truck has 23000 miles on it and I had its tires rotated. The rear duals are showing wear with only 8/32 of tread vs 12/32 on the fronts. I'm sure I'll be replacing them this year.

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Hiking Bowl of Fire and Fortification Hill

January 18, 2012 Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

Desert Bighorn Ram

One day last week we took Paul and Paula out with us to inspect one of our assigned roads as part of our volunteer assignment at Lake Mead N.R.A. They are able to go with us as they are also volunteers, however, they work for the visitor center.  

We took advantage of the fact that we would be driving past The Bowl of Fire (B.O.F.) off Calville Wash Road (A.R. 94) and got in a short hike to the B.O.F.

Joyce and Paula coming across an obstacle on the way to B.O.F.

Like most of the trails in the park, the trail to B.O.F. was poorly marked and started off in a wash. We could see the Bowl in the distance and kinda just made our own way following the infrequent tracks of others who came before us.

Joyce and I in front of some red rock.

Once in or at The Bowl of Fire we had to find our way back. I climbed up to the top of some rocks to get a better vantage point and look for a trail back.

Searching for a way out!

Although I wasn't able to spot a trail from on top of the rocks, we did make it back to the truck without incident!

Yesterday, Paul and I left our lovely wives at home and decided to tackle a more challenging hike to the top of Fortification Hill on the Arizona side of the park. Previously, Paul had taken advantage of his duties in the visitor center to scour over their resource documents on hikes in the park. Unfortunately the information was limited and once again we would be forced to turn to the internet for directions. 

Ultimately we got to the trail head off Kingman Wash and started off the hike trying to find our own way. We started up the wash below but later realized, that we should have been on the ridgeline to the right of the wash.

Start of the hike to the top of Fortification Hill in the distance.

Eventually, we found the ridge after the foot prints we were following in the wash disappeared! Once on the ridge the serious climbing began as we would eventually summit at 3700 ft. above sea level.

I'm usually a pretty strong climber, but I had to stop a few times on the way up to catch my breath.

As we approached the saddle, we came across a group of hikers from a local hiking club descending. It's good that we did, as we could see roughly where to go for the ascent up the rocks.

Hikers descending and crossing the saddle.

After Paul and I ascended the steep, slippery rocky saddle we caught our breath and prepared to assault the rock scramble.

From our internet research, we had learned that in November of 2008 a hiker fell to his death at this portion of the climb. A hiking club left this memorial at the site.

Memorial Rock to a fallen hiker.

Although I was forced to overcome my fear of heights, Paul and I both made it over the rock scaling ignoring the precipitous drop-off. Once on top, Paul pointed to my Jeep in the distance below.

From the top of Fortification Hill we still had another .6 miles to travel to the summit.

After reaching the summit, we signed our names in the book stashed in an ammo can at the top and enjoyed the views of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.

A zoomed in shot of Hoover Dam and then new bridge from the summit of Fortification Hill.

After eating lunch on the summit it was time to start back down with the knowledge that we would have to scramble back down the rock scaling portion. We hiked back the .6 miles to the scramble/ scaling area and safely made it down without incident. I felt relieved that it was literally all down hill from there.

Paul taking my picture as I took his on the rocky slope.

It was a long steep hike down. It took us two and a half hours to summit and two hours to get down. It's amazing that neither of us fell on the way up or down as it was very rocky and slippery on the loose gravel. After about 7 miles round trip, we made it back to the Jeep no worse for the wear after having enjoyed a challenging hike!