Hopefully everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Here in the Lake Mead RV Village, we enjoyed a wonderful meal prepared by a Campground Hostess, with sides contributed by all attendees. It was a good opportunity to meet more of the folks traveling through the area and share stories about the places we've been or plan to go.
A few days earlier, while I was in Arizona, I stopped at a Scenic Overlook that I've passed many times without stopping. It had a nice view of Black Canyon downstream from Hoover Dam.
I was actually headed to a spot at the end of Black Canyon, called Willow Beach. Part of the NRA, Willow Beach is where tour boats that start at the bottom of Hoover Dam take out and shuttle their customers back to their hotels. It's also a popular spot for people to launch their boats, canoes and kayaks. Some folks stop here just to see the canyon scenery or maybe have a picnic.
There is a fish hatchery here so I took a quick tour. They stock the Colorado with rainbow trout and a couple endangered fish (I forget the names of these).
A group in canoes and kayaks put in while I was there, no doubt planning to paddle to the base of Hoover Dam. That would be a great trip through Black Canyon.
There were several types of water fowl on the river, but a loose dog enjoyed swimming after them, keeping them out of camera range.
Back in Nevada that afternoon, I toured the historic section of Boulder City. This is where the workers at Hoover Dam were housed back in the 1930s. There was nothing but desert before then, now it's a thriving city of more than 15,000 people. The original neighborhoods are as lovely as any New England town. Lawns are mostly grass (using reclaimed water for irrigation) and the streets are lined with deciduous trees, just now showing their Fall colors. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of these charming neighborhoods.
I did stop at one place I had noticed along the main highway through Boulder City, the St. Jude Ranch for Children. Initially I thought it was affiliated with St. Jude Hospital, but learned that it isn't. It just happens to be named for the same saint. From their web site, "For 50 years, St. Jude’s Ranch has provided a safe, nurturing home with therapeutic residential treatment services to thousands of abused and neglected children in Nevada. St. Jude’s Ranch has made and continues to make a difference by creating new lives with new hope for these children."
In addition to donations, the ranch is supported by sales at its gift shop and a thrift store. Further, the chapel and grounds are available for photo shoots, weddings, funerals and other special occasions.
In the desert, water management is extremely important. The average annual rainfall here is just over four inches. The cities in Las Vegas Valley all channel storm water runoff into the Las Vegas Wash, which then goes into Lake Mead. They also have advanced waste water treatment facilities, allowing this water to also go into Lake Mead. In Henderson, part of waste water treatment is a series of ponds that store treated waste water until it percolates into the water table. These ponds, originally twelve but now only nine operating, are a wonderful resource for birds and migrating water fowl. Each visit I see different species, making it worthwhile to keep going back.
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| Male Bufflehead |
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| Female Bufflehead |
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| Male Northern Shoveler |
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| Female Northern Shoveler |
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| Northern Shoveler Fly-in |
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| Female Ruddy Duck |
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| Horned Grebe |
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| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
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| Killdeer |
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