Santa Clara and Gunlock, UT (11/27/2018)

Heading back toward Colorado, I stopped in St. George, UT to wrap up my "to do" list from October, when the Senior Games prevented me from staying longer.  One thing on my list was to visit Santa Clara, an historic Mormon town that really is a suburb of St. George.  The main street through town is lined with sycamore trees, colorful this time of year, but not nearly as colorful as the cottonwoods that grow along the Santa Clara River.

 Even downtown, a few cottonwoods can be found, such as these by the local farmer's market.

 As in most small Mormon towns, there are places to remember their heritage and pay respect to their pioneer ancestors.

There are some beautiful homes in Santa Clara, but in typical Mormon fashion, original homes can be found close to the more expensive neighborhoods.

Well beyond the downtown area, I stopped at a place called Anasazi Ridge.  I had read a couple websites describing the hike to petroglyphs found here.  As sometimes happens, the descriptions contained conflicting information.  One said the hike was 1.8 miles round trip with a gentle grade and rated it "Easy".  Another said it was 2.4 miles without saying whether that was round trip or one way, but called it "Moderate" because of the grade.  The kiosk at the site indicated a 3.5 mile hike, not saying if it's one way.  It further showed the petroglyphs were somewhere along the trail, and that Anasazi ruins were also on the trail.  Not knowing what to expect, I set out to see for myself.

I could see right away the trail was not a gentle grade, but wasn't too bad.  After a while, it became steeper and I was feeling it.  Some folks on the return trip pointed out the ruins on a hill above us and estimated that was half way to the petroglyphs.  I pushed on and finally came to the ruins, which were simply a few rocks claimed to be the remains of Indian food storage structures.  Pretty disappointing.

I scoped out the trail as it continued, even steeper than before, and decided it was too much for this old geezer.  It had also been written on one web site that petroglyphs could be found on boulders along the river at the bottom of the ridge.  This would be level hiking, so I went for it when I got back to the parking area.  My attempt ended after about 200 yards when I came to a fence.  Beyond that, I could see signs of major earth moving operations, as in mining or a quarry. 

Despite my fruitless wanderings, there was some decent scenery and the exercise probably did some good.  At least the fall color was good.

One of the web sites noted that petroglyphs could also be found on boulders along the highway as it continued to the village of Gunlock.  Not wanting to be shut out, I drove on, stopping at every place where boulders were located near the road.  I should mention, this was now on the Shivwits Paiute Reservation and fences just beyond the highway shoulder were labeled "No Trespassing".  Although many likely looking boulders were on the other side, I kept to my side of the fence.  And I did find some boulders with petroglyphs, along with more modern inscriptions.

There was also a stone structure whose age was a mystery, as well as its purpose.  It was on Indian land, so I left it alone.

When I reached Gunlock Reservoir, I called it a day and headed back to St. George.

Along the way, I explored several side trails that led to campsites used by locals, as well as some nice fall color along the river.

Las Vegas, Lake Mead and Boulder City, NV (11/22 & 11/25/2018)

After a delicious Thanksgiving meal with new friends at the RV park, I left early and drove into Las Vegas to visit the Mormon temple there.  It was the night of the full moon and I had planned to photograph the temple with sunset in the background and with the full moon rising in the other direction.  My plans were thwarted by a blah sunset and finding the temple was close to some mountains that blocked the view of the moon.  Oh well, here are some shots of the temple in the strong light of the setting sun.  Like all the others I've seen, this is truly a beautiful building with outstanding landscaping.  I would love to go inside, but their temples are for members only.

Driving back to Lake Mead, I did get some good views of the full moon as it rose over the lake and mountains.

For the next couple days, I did nothing but watch football on TV and some light housecleaning.  By Sunday, I was ready to move about, so decided to re-visit Boulder City.  I started with Hemenway Park, which is located next to some low mountains where bighorn sheep live.  For some reason, the sheep like to come down to the park and present themselves to gawking tourists.  (The reason is lush grass they can graze, and they've learned the people are harmless.)  When I arrived, there were 35-40 sheep on the grounds, mostly just lying on the grass.  The crowd of people was pretty small, but soon increased to about the same number as sheep.  I could only fit a small number of sheep into the frame.

A small bird (Say's Phoebe) flew from sheep to sheep, perching on horns, backs and rumps of almost every sheep there.  The sheep never seemed to notice the little guy.  Some of the sheep had tracking collars, and some had the points removed from their horns.

I decided to visit some of the neighborhoods, starting with the one near the park.  This is a newer development that backs up to the mountains.  In some cases, the homes are built right into the mountainside.  Very nice homes are being built here, all custom and most with a great view of Lake Mead.  Some have a desert landscape with a variety of cacti, others are more like Florida or California with palm trees, bouganvillea, oleander, etc.

 In this one, the fourth level is a terrace covering the entire footprint, a real party palace.

More established neighborhoods had lots of colorful trees, not what you would expect in the desert.

In the historic area, homes were more modest, although you could clearly see which were for supervisors and which were for workers when originally built during the Hoover Dam construction.

The town has quite a few parks, one with metal sculptures and one with a mosaic mural that shows the unique flavor of Boulder City: Lake Mead and the bighorn sheep.  Despite its desert location, I believe Boulder City would be a very nice place to live.

My favorite park is Veteran's Memorial, which has two large ponds.  One attracts water fowl, the other seems to be mainly for fishing.  Most of the ducks were the same as seen in other places, but I do want to share a couple photos.

Redhead

Northern Shoveler

My favorite restaurant in Boulder City.

El Dorado Mountains, NV (11/21/2018)

One of my Las Vegas sources told me about a canyon with unusual petroglyphs, located in Keyhole Canyon about 25 miles south of Las Vegas.  With perfect directions, I had no trouble finding this place, although the road to get there was pretty rocky.  The petroglyphs were unusual, consisting mainly of geometric figures and symbols, not as much human or animal drawings as in most sites.  It was apparent that many symbols, pecked in the "desert varnish" of low boulders, had been eroded over time by the flash floods that occasionally pour through the canyon.

The canyon itself was beautiful, though very short.  I'd guess it was less than a quarter mile to where it ended, at least for me, with a twenty foot "pour off", a dry waterfall.  There may have been more canyon past there, but climbing the smooth wall was beyond my grade level without a ladder.

The Las Vegas electric company advertises "the lowest electric rates in the country".  Well, no wonder, when you consider that much of that power comes from taxpayer-funded Hoover Dam.  and more recent additions to their power supply are produced in huge solar farms located in the El Dorado Valley.  I'm all in favor of clean energy, but Federal taxes subsidize these projects to a great extent.  So, when you see the brilliant lights of the Las Vegas Strip, you can take pride in your contribution.

It's difficult to photograph the solar farms, they are so low to the ground, but I tried.  The farms have dimensions in the miles.

When I was leaving Keyhole Canyon, I met a man just arriving.  We compared notes on places to go in the region.  I told him about the Paintpots, he told me about Nelson.  I had seen a road sign earlier for the road to Nelson, so on the way back I took the turn to check it out.  Nelson is simply a small community, less than fifty people living in mostly mobile homes, at the head of El Dorado Canyon.  It's the history of the canyon that gets interesting.

The Spanish discovered gold here in 1775 and named the area El Dorado, after the fabled city of gold.  (Much of the Spanish exploration of the "New World" was in search of El Dorado.)  The Spanish abandoned their claim, probably due to growing hostility between the U.S. and Mexico.  Anyway, Americans found gold and silver here in 1859 and a boom followed soon after.  Five or more mines began operation over the next few years.  As were most mining camps, El Dorado was wild and lawless.  Deserters from both sides of the Civil War came here to hide.  Claim disputes, and other altercations, led to numerous murders.

The name of the town was changed to Nelson in honor of an early leader.  Ore was transported by steamship on the Colorado River, so a landing was built at the bottom of El Dorado Canyon.  It remained in service even after the railroad came through and took over the transportation of ore.  In 1974, however, the landing was washed away by a flood.  Five major washes down the mountains converged in the canyon, producing a wall of water some forty feet high.  The settlement, on higher ground, was spared from the flood.

Today, the original mining camp is basically a ghost town, attracting tourists and locals alike.  Six or eight buildings, dozens of vintage cars and trucks, old mining equipment and even stored WWII airplane bodies can be seen on the grounds.

I could have spent hours there, but they have no food service.  Since I had not planned to be away so long, I had missed lunch and didn't want to stay until dinner.  Some enterprising individual should consider opening a grill here.

The road continues on down canyon for five miles, ending at the Colorado.  An overlook provides good views of Black Canyon, but not Hoover Dam.  Anyone so inclined can also drive most of the way in the wash, assuming no threat of flooding.