Landscapes and Manscapes

So yesterday I drove out to Lake Mead, that’s the lake behind Hoover Dam. I looked up at the sky and realized it would be pretty easy to know where Las Vegas was from here.

Anyway, I wasn’t lost so here are the pictures of Lake Mead. It’s only 30 minutes from town.

I hope you will click on these to see them larger. I just love all the colors in the rock. Then use your BACK button to return.

A lot of the scenery here just begs for a panorama.

This is Hoover Dam, formerly Boulder Dam, completed in 1936. I took this one from the nearly new bridge that allows traffic to avoid crossing the dam.

The last photo was a mixture of landscape and manscape, but the rest of these are pure manscape.

I know, the correct term is cityscape but I like the distinction between manscape and landscape.

And if it’s not obvious, this is the Vegas Strip.

The weather was perfect last night.

I walked around for 3 hours and never went into a single casino.

They just don’t interest me that much other than to look at them.

They are something to look at though.

This is the fountain show in front of the Ballagio.

The water dances to music and photos don’t do it justice.

I thought about doing a video but that’s not my forte and you probably seen one or could see one on TV.

Connie and her good friend Alice are cellebrating Alice’s 60th here at the Flamingo along with their daughters and friends.

The fountains at Caesar’s palace always make me think of Evel Knievel.

If you want to help the poor guys pay their electric bill you can just drop your donation in one of those slot machines.

Death Valley

On the way to meets some friends in Las Vegas we spent a couple of days in Death Valley. For all my Shiloh friends, I found a field that needs a little rock picking!

There is a place now owned by the Forest Service called Scotty’s Castle.  We took the tour.

It’s not a castle it’s a home built in the 1920s by a very rich man and his wife and they only used it a few weeks out of the year.

We hit it just right. Our tour included one other couple and us. The tour guide is dressed in period costume.

It’s quite an elaborate place complete with its own generator and water system.

If you ever get to Death Valley, be sure and take the tour.

Ubehebe crater is was created by a volcanic explosion and it’s 600 feet deep. There are people on the trail to the the bottom which might help with perspective. Click to enlarge, Back to return.

I spent several hours wearing myself out on the sand dunes but the light was not cooperative.  I did get a couple of descent shots though.

I suppose most of you have heard of 20 Mule Team Borax. Well they did mine borax in Death Valley with wagons like this one so I imagine it would take 20 mules to pull it. The tall wagon wheel is about as tall as I am.

You think gas is high where you live?  If you ever do get here, fill your tank before you head in. 100 miles from here, in Nevada, I bought gas for $3.89.

I walked about a mile and a half up a canyon taking pictures and got good and hot. The temperature hit 89 both days. At least it’s not summer.

I didn’t go to the top of this trail. I forgot to take water, not good, and I Connie was waiting for me. Just to get an idea of the size of things there are 2 people near the bottom center of this picture and 2 more on the trail just below the sharp peak.

I hiked up to the base of this rock and then turned around.

Believe it or not, that’s a one piece rock Connie is sitting on. We’ve never seen anything like it.

Yep, that’s how we roll.

Water…….water…… wa….. w……..

God used Death Valley to practice working on different colors and textures for rock and soil.

Yeah, it’s salt. I tasted it. But that’s not the most interesting thing. This is at 240’ below sea level. That little tiny mountain in the background there is over 11,000’. That means it’s over 2 miles tall!!

You can tell it’s the USA right? Red, white and blue.

I guess mud doesn’t last long here.

It’s one of the harshest places on our continent and one of the most beautiful too.

As we were leaving we came across this coyote and I’m pretty sure he knows that Obama is in office because he was sure looking for a handout.