#19 - Virgin River Gorge

It appears I was a bit ambitious about us arriving in Utah after leaving Las Vegas. There is a small corner of Arizona that sits between Nevada and Utah and in that small corner is the Virgin River Gorge - a narrow cut in the mountains that conveniently accommodates I-15 ( or as they say in Cali "the 15.).

As we drove through this canyon, we came across a small BLM campground that called to us - big rig accessibility, river access and plenty of pooch room. 

So we decided to cop a squat for the night.  A short hike led us to the Virgin River.  The dogs were in water heaven.

Our next stop will indeed be Utah as we're now only 20 miles from the border.

#18 Las Vegas - Oasis RV

We arrive in Sin City on a Friday afternoon. Passport America has once again provided us with a super nice resort - the best so far - with security, laundry, awesome showers, a pet park, pools and a store.

After hooking up in our Oasis RV Resort spot - with a dog run right behind our site - we jump on the scooter and head to Red Rock Canyon.

Saturday was a big scooter riding day - not all by design. First we went to Hoover Dam. In the three plus years I lived here and the many visits to Vegas since I had never done a tour of Hoover Dam.  So we did a dam tour. Pretty cool stuff. 

On top of the dam

Inside the dam

 Of course in the many years since I've lived here many new roads have been added and my navigation skills totally bombed out. We ended up scootering across the entire city looking for the Las Vegas Harley Davidson store. We ended up back at the camper to regroup and then succeeded in our qwest. 

Facebook had reconnected me with my high school best friend Pattie. We enjoyed dinner with her fam and caught up on the last 25 or so years in one evening.

And now we move on to the seventh state in our journey (and yes, I did count them on my fingers). Utah, here we come!  

#17 Barstow - Owl Canyon

Again high wind advisories altered our plans as we left Bishop. Instead of heading north and crossing Montgomery Pass, we decided to backtrack south and go through Barstow on our way to Las Vegas.

When we arrived in Barstow we contacted the local BLM office to find a nice quiet place to spend a couple days and let the dogs run free again. We were directed to Owl Canyon. 

This well designed and appointed campground would have been right up our alley - except for one serious drawback. The road. 

From the paved road we had a five-mile 5-10mph crawl over the worst washboard road that we've ever encountered. Once you start, there was no turning around. This will probably be the most wear and tear that we put on the camper during the entire trip.

The canyon kinda looked like ice cream sherbet

However once in and set up we were free to explore the area. The nearby Rainbow Basin trail was a narrow canyonette that provided a cool little scenic drive. 

Another drawback to this BLM area was that no ATVs were allowed in the roads. Considering the washboard conditions that greatly reduced our desire to explore. 

We did make our way to Calico, a county run ghost town not far from our domicile.

Now this is a wagon wheel!

Can you read the sign at the top of the pole?  Calico was pooch friendly.

Now as we crawl the camper back out of the campground to the paved road, we'll start our first leg headed east - to Vegas.  

#16 Bishop - Brown's Town Campground

It's all about timing. We left Lone Pine a little earlier than we planned - by just an hour or so.  It was only a short 50 mile drive to Bishop, California so we kinda just putted along. We arrived in Brown's Town Campground and were assigned the premiere dog friendly site - all the way to the back, adjacent to the golf course with lots of grass. We offloaded the Harley, got detached and utilities connected and wham we got hit with 30mph winds with 50mph gusts. So glad that we were off the road. 

So with the winds messing up our scooter plans, we handled some shopping needs and settled down to once again be rocked to sleep by Mother Nature.

The first morning the mountains were brown, and then the storm came.  We woke up to white mountains.

The next morning in addition to big winds, we could see big clouds in the mountains so we went in search of snow. We headed up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest which sits at about 10,000 feet. We didn't make it to the top due to the weather but we did make it up high enough to see some of the 2,000-4,000+ year old trees as well as snow. 

OK - there was only a little snow sticking to the ground but it was almost a white out in the air!

Our true reason for arriving in Bishop came to fruition when David's Uncle Tom and Aunt Cathy arrived from their home in Murphys, California. We had dinner at the local bowling alley - was highly recommended - and enjoyed the beautiful lobby at Creekside Inn for an hours long chat. We met again for breakfast before we each had to hit the road for our separate destinations.  It was truly wonderful to see them again. They are exceptional folks. 

After getting ready to depart, we check and find significant wind adversaries in the passes so we decide to take the longer southern route to our next destination - Las Vegas Baby!!!

We just can't resist these types of roads.

Photos from our trek to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest

 

#15 Alabama Hills - Lone Pine

We arrived in Lone Pine, California on Thursday. Prior to our trip, I had passed around a photo of a rig parked among the rocks and told folks that this was one place that we would end up. Just outside of the cute westernesque town of Lone Pine is the Alabama Hills known for its desolate landscape, unique rock formations and almost a century of movie making locations - portions of Ironman were filmed here. 


Upon arriving David unloaded the ATV and scouted us a place. 

Here is where we ended up. 

And yes - that is snow on the mountains in the background. 

We had thousands of acres of BLM roads and trails at our disposal. 

A couple things made this location pretty neat. We were adjacent to several large rocks that called to rock climbing enthusiasts so we were able to watch the "crazy climbers" almost everyday. There was a ultra-marathon - 50km or about 30 miles - on Saturday so we were able to watch the "crazy runners."  The area was pooch friendly so the "crazy dogs" could run - and they did run off often - ground rats, lizards, jack rabbits were all potential prey. We enjoyed a wonderful evening with a couple from LA - Rouhel and April - who are originally from South Africa and China respectively. Their international travel tales were amazing and they were a joy to spend several hours with. 

Directly behind our campsite loomed Lone Pine Peak and Mt Whitney - the highest peak In California. We drove up to Whitney Portal - at around 7400 feet it is the trailhead for those brave enough - or in shape enough to hike to the 14,000+ foot summit.  Obviously we stayed around the trailhead. 

Alabama Hills was definitely the ultimate boondocking location for us - amazing views, just enough interaction with others to keep things interesting and dog friendly.  Definitely a do-over. Now we head farther north to Bishop, a town that we fell in love with a couple years ago when we stopped here for a quick overnight break. We'll have time for much more exploring this time!

Slightly more recent petroglyphs near our Alabama Hills campsite

Natural arch in Alabama Hills

 More photos:

#14 Joshua Tree National Park

After some city-living, we headed northeast for some decompression at Joshua Tree National Park. Finding a camping spot for our rig was a bit challenging but luckily I had done some recon and we found a cool little spot in the rocks. 

Our plan was to explore the area on the scooter but the wind was hurricane strength so we traded the bike for the truck after day one. 

At Keys View

The rest of our time we hit the dirt roads for some exploring, did some rock scrambling and walked the dogs. 

San Andreas Fault as seen from Keys Pass. Palm Springs is also down there somewhere.

From here we head north on Hwy 395 - a desired destination since day one.  Hopefully we'll find some boondocking digs that are dog friendly. 

More photos:

 Lots of rock scrambling here too