And Before We Were Done, We'd Walked From Arizona All The Way to Nevada!

It's been a relatively calm 2 weeks since we returned to Lake Mead. We're back out on the back country 'Approved' roads performing our Road Monitoring jobs and the scenery is still as spectacular as when we left. The temps here in Boulder City and Lake Mead NRA are great considering what some places in the country are experiencing. We usually wake up to temps in the low 40's and then spend the day watching the thermometer rise up into the mid 60's. We saw our firsts sightings of coyotes Thursday night as we were leaving our campground. 2 large coyotes had just come down from the hills behind the campground and were on their evening commute towards the lake via the campground road. Not enough time to snap a picture as they headed into the bushes as soon  as they saw our vehicle. Well, maybe next time.

(L-R) Steve, Joan, Barb, Liz, Liz & Bob

Last Monday was a holiday and several of our friends decided a hike back into Majestic Canyon might be in order. Majestic Canyon is located just behind our campground. It's pretty much a consistent uphill hike through a wide wash until you reach the steep high dark canyon cliffs.







The wash continues to narrow as you hike further and higher into the canyon, eventually ending at a high overflow that is impassable unless you're willing to climb using a knotted rope. Here's a pic of me probably 70'-75' up the overflow.



Err....wait....who photo bombed my pic! OK so I was only a few feet off the ground....I still went further up than anyone else. As we started back down the wash we were all rewarded with seeing a pair of peregrine falcons apparently nesting in and among the high cliffs. Nice little hike in & out, maybe a couple of miles all told.

Boulder Beach Marina

Saturday Joan & I decided to see what the Historic Railroad Trail was all about. The trail is 3.5 miles from the Lake Mead parking area to the Hoover Dam parking garage; and travels along the old railroad bed used to transport supplies and equipment to the dam during its construction. The trail passes through 5 tunnels along the way. We parked 1 vehicle at the Lake Mead Visitor Center (the parking area was full) and drove down to and across the dam to where we parked on the Arizona side.

Tunnel #2

We hiked from the Arizona side back across the dam to the trail head on the Nevada side and then onto the trail itself. Nice views of Boulder Beach, the marina and our campground once we reached the tunnels portion of the trail. All together we probably hiked about 4 miles taking about 2 hours to complete the walk.




Special Breaking News........this just in........earlier in the week Joan and I received employment contracts from Crazy Horse Memorial just outside of Custer, SD. We had contacted Crazy Horse after reading about our friends Phil & Rudee's (Workin' RVers) work experience there last year. We're excited about the opportunity and it's another new location for Joan & I to explore this summer. We'll report to work April 30th and work through the end of September. Phil & Rudee have both a jeep and motorcycle so we're really looking forward to spending time with them as they'll be returning to Crazy Horse for the 2014 season. Phil has even picked up a set of golf clubs, so maybe I'll have a golfing buddy this summer as well! Yahoo!

2 of my favorite girls
Birthday Girl Vickie &
my Granddaughter Tristyn

3 Shout Outs this week....one to my sister Vickie who celebrated a birthday last week (she's the one on the left....man is she getting old!)

2 more of my favorite people
Chris & Joan

Another to my youngest son Chris who will celebrate his birthday tomorrow! Happy Birthday to both of you.













And finally to Joan's son Sean who celebrates his birthday on Thursday! That's him Today...........












And in the day.......who's mother would send their son to school dressed like that?????!!!!!! Borders on child abuse. Poor kid probably got beat up at school too! I'm sorry Sean. I'm still working on your mom. Together we'll get her where she needs to be before we're done.





Well that's it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come!