Lake Mead, Red Rock and Montezuma's Castle State Parks

 It was our first call to 911 and my voice was shaky as I gave the details to the operator. We spent one night at Callville Campground in Lake Mead State Park, Nevada after leaving Las Vegas and were now on our way to Prescott Valley, Arizona. We took the scenic route and in the middle of nowhere on a 2 lane road, we came upon a truck off the road on the opposite side and on fire. Flames extended along the highway about 100 feet behind him. The driver stood beside the truck looking dazed. Another car had stopped to give assistance but we were the first ones to report the accident. After taking down all the details, the operator transferred us to the fire department for another grilling. Not long after we saw a fire truck and ambulance headed that way.  Scott thinks he fell asleep and went off the road, the bottom of the truck brushing the dry low bushes ignited them. Luckily it was a diesel so it didn't explode!

A distant view back to Lake Mead while on the road to Arizona. 

We really didn't intend to take the scenic route but while on the shortest Google direction, the annoying woman who directs us every day told us to take the next exit. Scott did check the navigation again and it agreed. We have no idea why since she told us to turn around 4 times over the next half hour as "we found a shorter route". The scenery, however, was nice and the interstate is boring so we continued on.  It turned out to be much longer than we expected as the many back roads took us up and down through high mountain passes - beautiful though! We were on our way to visit Marsha Stone and Rick Greene, our cruiser friends from Tortugal Marina in Guatemala that we saw earlier at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument along with Dave and Ellen Bett. All six of us were to be together again for several days, this time at the former's home in Prescott Valley, Arizona. 

Driving around the mountains in Arizona is fun and very scenic. There aren't many spots to pull over to take photos, however. 

We enjoyed two dinners at Marsha & Rick's and one out at Murphy's Restaurant in Prescott. One day Dave, Ellen, and ourselves visited both Sedona, Red Rock State Park, and Montezuma's Castle. The road from Prescott Valley took us over a very high pass and through Jasper. We had hoped to stop there to look around, but the town hangs on the side of the mountain and has very little parking. We couldn't find a spot. Sedona and Red Rock, a 286-acre nature preserve, have some spectacular scenery. We hiked across Oak Creek and did the Apache Fire Loop. The photos here don't do the scenery justice! 

A view from the Apache Fire trail at Red Rock State Park

After a great lunch in Sedona, we moved on to Montezuma's Castle National Monument. This park, established in 1906, protects a set of well-preserved dwellings where the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern US dwelled between 1100 and 1420 AD. Montezuma had nothing to do with this structure and of course, it isn't a castle, but more of a high-rise apartment complex! 

A distant view of the largest of the dwellings at Montezuma's Castle. The largest one visible here housed between 30 and 50 people but there were other groups living in smaller caves all along the cliff and possibly another large one that has been destroyed.

We left our trailer at Marsha and Rick's while we drove up to the Grand Canyon National Park for two days. We couldn't get a reservation for our trailer so instead stayed at the Red Feather Inn just outside the park. More on that in my next post.

Scott and his fancy grilling set, which we 
haven't used as much as we'd like.

The grill came with the trailer and has a bracket
on the rear for it.

Lake Mead was down 30 feet while we were there
which results in a 1/2 mile walk from the parking
lot to the boats at the end of the dock!

This whimsical greeting welcomes you to the 
town of Wikieup - 3 Snoopies and a canary.

Red Rock State Park and the Sedona area.

It's easy to see where the name Red Rock comes
from!

Oak Creek was a beautiful spot but they didn't 
welcome waders. The Cottonwoods were so
lovely but not yet in bloom.

Dave, Ellen, Heather and Scott on the trail

Another butte in Red Rock

Another view of Montezuma's
Castle National Monument

Marsha and Rick with ourselves at their home.

Sunet in Prescott

What Happens in Vegas...

This was a fun moment as you can see. We took the picture of two young women and then they insisted we take their place (and their drinks) for this photo. We gathered quite a crowd and even managed to get out of the tub somewhat gracefully!

We had planned to just spend one night in Las Vegas but after settling into our very comfortable Riviera RV Park and plugging in for the first time in 6 days, we extended for one extra day. That gave us time for laundry and some repair projects. I had never been to Las Vegas before and wasn't very excited about seeing it, but Scott had gone once and said it should be visited. My conditions were that we have one really good meal as I do know that there are a lot of great restaurants here. We ended up at The Black Sheep and it was a memorable meal for sure. A lot of the downtown high-end places were either closed or already booked. Amy Tran is the Chef here and she will be one of the contestants on the upcoming Top Chef in March. Its location, out in the suburbs in a mall, was unprepossessing, but the food and drinks were very interesting and fun. 

Caesar's Palace was more attractive outside than in as far as I am concerned. We had lovely weather for our visit: a high of 76 and cooled down at night. 

We tried to get into the Belaggio afterwards, but it was a Saturday night and the traffic was awful and parking lots were full. One lucky break was watching the dancing fountains while stopped in traffic right in front! We drove up and down the strip admiring the neon and called it a night. Scott had made reservations for a Brazilian restaurant, Pampas, for the next day's brunch. On a Sunday morning, it was easy to park and we enjoyed the endless progression of grilled meats etc. Afterwards, we walked the strip. I don't believe we saw anyone in the crowds under 60. It was Spring Break and packed with young people. About 50% wore masks but they were required in the Casinos. This time we did walk around the Belaggio and saw most of another fountain show. 

The dancing fountain show at the Bellagio was my favourite attraction. We saw most of two and all of one. 

That night we parked at the Paris and visited it, the Cosmopolitan and Caesar's Palace. When you've seen one Casino, you've seen them all as far as I'm concerned. We don't enjoy gambling so that was out. But people watching was fun and we enjoyed walking around outside, gawking at the fake European sites. Disneyland for adults (although there were lots of families with young kids!). One more fountain show was also a treat. We were home for our usual early bedtime!

On three occasions we've come close to running
out of fuel so we've learned to fill up early but it
was tough to buy gas here in Death Valley. This
was the most expensive place we've found.

The cocktails at The Black Sheep were great.
I enjoyed the Sebastian and Scott had one each
of the Deep Blue Sea and Block Party!

We didn't recognize some of the ingredients!

This shot reminded me of the winning photo
Sean took year's ago of the Statue of Liberty.

A more distant view from the Belaggio across
the street.

There were pictures and restaurants all over
Las Vegas of Gordon Ramsey, including here,
Hell's Kitchen.