Because I had never been. I originally had planned to drive over and Camp around HOOVER DAM somewhere, but in the meantime we had spoke with our good Travato friend, Steve. He was going to meet us at the North Rim, but after we added the Mule ride, he declined, and offered to let us overnight at his home. So instead, we drove to St. George Utah, and went out to dinner with Steve and Stefany (the founder of our FB Travato group). The temps were One HUNDRED and SEVEN in St. George. It seems like a beautiful town; State and National Parks all around – but weather definitely needs some tweaking! This might be a great Snowbird town. Jennifer and I had several discussions trying to figure out how a person could enjoy living here. Steve says they have an average of 100 days of over 100 degree temps..
We went and had some Mexican food and Ice cream, and headed back to the only “house bed” we would sleep in for month.
SUNDAY JULY 8th
In the morning Steve and Jennifer made Waffles and eggs, and veggie bacon (which was surprisingly edible) and we took off for Las Vegas.
Along the roadside we discovered some old ruins and a couple indian women selling jewelry. Steve later told me I was in the Vermillion Cliffs Nat’l Mon.
It was so hot, even Tony was searching for shade… (but he is much too tall).
Ali had found on the internet where Travis Pastrana was going to do 3 Motorcycle Jumps in town over 52 cars, 18 greyhound buses, and then over the fountain at Ceasers Palace – all replicating the famous Evel Kneivel jumps of the sixties – using an old, heavy, flat track racing Indian motorcycle.
We cruised the strip, found a place to park and walked around town a bit, taking in a couple casinos and the over the top consumerism and tacky flash that is Vegas. On the street were guys walking around with large snakes, street bums, half dressed show girls, and tens of thousands of tourists from every city in America, and presumably every country of the world. We saw temperatures over 117 degrees . We ate a couple $17.00 burgers at a Gordon Ramsay burger resturaunt. They were good, but not twice as good as an $9.00 burger.
There was some confusion over the starting times of the event, but we managed to wade through the crowds, find the first location of the first two jumps, and even squeeze out a place on the overloaded bleachers to sit. After much fanfare and build up, he successfully made the jumps over the cars and buses. The last jump took place right downtown over the fountain in front of Ceasers palace. The crowds were ridiculous, and there were very few places to get a good viewing of the jump, but we did manage to get a glimpse of it – and he did NOT repeat the nasty crash Evel had done 50 years prior.
Just North and West of Las Vegas sits the Spring Mountains, with Charleston Peak that reaches almost 12,000 feet and offers a reprieve from the heat with high mountain campgrounds and dispersed camping areas. Arriving late at night, we passed a couple of campgrounds that were full and found a picnic/trail head area at the end of route 157 where we stopped, pulled the curtains and called it a night. There were dispersed boondocking spots available, but we arrived too late to find any (again). We woke up under what I believe, is Charleston Peak – The Cathedral Rock picnic area.
MONDAY JULY 9th
Woke up to a fabulous view all around in a beatiful little area with towering dry rock mountains all around us. We had cereal for a quick breakfast, and were rolling again. We made the loop through the mountains and back to the desert floor where we started up 95 near area 51. In Beatty there was a little gas station/tourist shop/resturaunt where we stopped and got some chuckles out of all the alien paraphanalia. They even had their own Alien Cathouse Brothel! (open 24/7).
