Little Trip, Day One

A week ago we decided to take a little trip.  We had been told about a date farm close to Tecopa, CA, and we decided to go see it.  It is an oasis in the dessert, with water and date palm trees.  Getting into it means going down a canyon on a dirt road.

I didn't take any pictures of the date palms, don't know why.  The first trees were planted from seeds in 1920.  They are still there, along with many others, some of which are hybrids and others from other parts of the world.

This is a working date farm that also has an interesting history.  This place, at one time, was one of the places along the Santa Fe trail where there was water.  Other things were also grown here and it was also a mining area.

Even thought it is a working farm, there are trails around the property that you can hike on.  We took one to the area that is called "The Bad Lands."  It goes up a wash that also reveals how some of the area was formed.

We went up a draw and beside this wall where different layers were exposed.

Between some of the layers were cracks with white crystal formations of Calcite.  Most are in horizontal layers, but this one was vertical.

If you look close at the above picture you can see the penny.  The lower picture is a close up.  It looks like soft fibers, but it is stone.

This is some of the horizontal formations.

Most of the calcite is in larger pieces.  One hill side had lots of larger pieces or slabs just lying there.  There are also all kind of rocks that have been washed down into the dry stream beds.  We had fun looking at all the different kinds and colors.

That evening, we stayed at a very interesting place, The Amargosa Opera House and Motel.  To learn more click here.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amargosa_Opera_House_and_Hotel

The lady that turned it into an opera house also did paintings inside the motel and some rooms.  These were inside our room, the Jezebel room.

The headboard, closet, coat rack, phonograph, and chair are painted.  The chair/lamp by the bed are real.

We thought the tile floor was a reminder of past times.

After checking in we drove to the state line and into Nevada to a casino, the Longstreet, to get something to eat.  There was a pond there with several wild ducks and these birds also.  They are water fowl, but I don't know what kind.  I thought that their feet were interesting.

Part 2 Lost City Museum, Valley of Fire

The week after our first trip though the Valley of Fire, we returned.

First we went to the Lost City Museum.  I had thought that maybe it was about the town of St. Thomas, which had been flooded when the dam was built forming Lake Mead.  As the sign says, on January 8, 1865, having been asked to come by Brigham Young, eleven men and three woman came to the Muddy Valley, now called Moapa Valley.  Others also came and established other settlements.  It was found that they were in Arizona territory rather than Utah.  Thus they had to pay high taxes.  Then in 1871, because of the taxes, Indian depredations, distance to markets, and other adverse conditions, around 600 people left this area.  After 1880 other families came and settled the entire valley and stayed.  There must be underground water close to the surface.  As we drove through this upper end of the valley, the fields were actually green.  You don't see that in this country.  I actually took the below picture because of the sand stone patterns.

 Instead of the museum being about the white man's town, it is about Indian towns, actually the foundations of stones and also artifacts from them.  Some were pit houses and others were houses that were partly above ground.  Those were sunk down about two to three feet, such as the pictures below.  The museum was built on a small ridge that had ruins on it, which they have reconstructed. 

Inside there are lots of pot, baskets, information about what they have learned about the area and the people who have lived here over time.

From there we headed to the Valley of Fire.  The sandstone throughout this area is very weathered, as you see in this picture and other pictures in this blog.

 

The above picture was taken during our first trip in the area and shows the low sunlight coming through from a hole in the back.  Some of the other pictures were also taken at that time.

We stopped by the visitors center where there is a very good explanation of the geology of the area.  As the California area plates pushed east they went down under the adjacent plates, lifting and buckling the areas to the east.  The Muddy Mountains were actually a lower, softer layer than the red and white sandstone that is seen in this area.  Since they were also soft, they have eroded and flowed into the area filling in some of the valley that was formed.  The center was able to point out the fault line that runs along the mountain.  The Muddies are the gray hills.

 

Just a road through some of the area.

As the oceans and then water receded from this area, it was not desert, but had forests and many animals.  There are fossils from when it was part of the ocean and also tree fossils.  This is one of the trees.

One of the side roads that we took was back to Mouse's tank.  Mouse was a holdout Indian who holed up in a canyon with a natural water tank.  He raided the people living in the area and couldn't be found.  They think that the other Indians knew where he was but they wouldn't give him up.  He was finally apprehended while he was raiding a woman's garden.

Walking back to the tank is like walking on the beach, in the dry sand.  It is a very narrow area with many, did I say many, petroglyphs.  One area looks like it was a newpaper.  They guess at what they mean but not even the Indians who lived in the area knew what they meant.  (Note B in the corner.)

There is also a skull in this area.  If you look close you can see the eyes, nose, and mouth.

 

This is the tank.  There was water in it but I don't think I would want to drink it as there was lots of trash, etc. in it.

 

Continuing on the road past Mouse's Tank is Rainbow View Point.  When the light is right you can see the colors of the rainbow in the different layers of the rocks. 

This is looking north in this area.  You can see the road to the left and center.

The CCC worked in Park area and built these to stay in while they were working.  It is back in another small canyon.

These are pictures in the area.

In the following area, they called the sandstone formations, bee hives.

I found this area beautiful and very interesting; fossils, different layers of rock and at different tilts, etc.  I just wish I knew more about geology.

Part 1 North Shore Drive

This will be the first of a two part posting.  It covers two different days, but parts of the same area.

We decided to take a drive up the north shore of Lake Mead.  One follows the lake for a long ways, but then the road goes further west.  Eventually, the road is on the other side of the "Muddy Mountains."  In looking at the area it can be seen that a lot has eroded off the mountains and ended up in the valley.  Also there are lots of jagged red rocks jutting up.

This picture is looking south with the Muddy Mountains to the left.  We had stopped at a pass.  I thought that the erosion in the foreground was interesting.

 There was a trail going up the hill from the parking lot that we took.  This picture was looking west from higher up the hill and looking to the west.  You can see some of the red rock layer.

 This next one is looking north from up on the hill.  I find it interesting, in this part of the country, the way the rocks are tipped or sometimes just stacked, and maybe both in the same area.

 This is some of the red sand stone, which is stacked.  Someone left some sweet rolls on the plate for us. 

 

To the left of the 'rolls' and in the layer below them you will notice lots of rocks imbedded in the layer.  I knew that this area had been sea bed but it wasn't until later, when we went to the Valley of Fire, that we learned more.

We continued on to the town of Overton which is up past the northern end of the lake.  We wanted to go to the Lost City Museum, but it was closed.  So we drove back through the Valley of Fire and then home. 

More Red Rock Canyon Sites

We went on another hike, different trail, in the Red Rock Canyon.  I found the different directions of the rock layers interesting.

 An over look of part of the area.

There are lots of sand stone rocks in the area.  Some are really pretty.  These are just a few.

There were also pictographs in this area.

 We took a short side trail into a falls.  There was just a trickle coming down which disappeared at the bottom.  B. is standing at the foot of the falls.  The air was really cool here.

This is part of the Mojave Dessert, but there is water in a few places.  We came across this stream in a large wash.  There is a marshy area a ways below the above falls and this may come from there.  However, it soon disappears, close to the tree, as seen in the lower picture.

Red Rock Canyon NCA

Some friends of ours had given us some information on Red Rock Canyon.  They said that it is a good place to see and there are several hiking trails there.  So we decided to go see it and try one of the easy hikes to see how my leg did.  




This is looking north east from the visitors center.

  

 There is a fourteen mile road that circles around the park and also takes one to the trail heads.  So we started out on the road.  This is the red rocks in the above picture.  Many people go rock climbing though out the park.  This is zoomed in on some who were climbing.  Note the person half way up the darker area.

This is looking back towards the visitors center from close to the upper end.  The east side is pretty low but the west side goes up into higher rugged hills.  You will see some of them in pictures below.

Our hike was about a mile and a half over easy to moderate terrain. The only trouble I had was when I needed to go down large steps.  Then B would give me his arm.  My knee still doesn't want to bend as much as it use to.

On the trail, we went past an agave roasting pit.  It was a large mound of dirt and rocks that had been built up over the years from use.  It was deeper in the center.  They would dig a hole, line it with rocks, build a fire, then when the fire was burnt down they would add the agave, etc. and cover it with more hot rocks and dirt to cook for several hours or days.  Then they would dig it up for a feast.

There were also pictographs in the area on a rock face.  You can see hand prints below.

 The red rocks are from the iron in it.  If you look at the rocks in the far right of the first picture, you will see that they are a mix of color.  They call them calico rocks.  The rocks with iron, the sand stone, and lime stone are all mixed together.  They don't form layers but are just mixed and blotchy.  Sometimes there are small areas of iron in the sand or lime stone.  The iron doesn't erode as fast so you end up with red nipples sticking up from the other part of the rock.

The next is taken on the west side of the area.  Most of the rocks are either sand stone or lime stone.  The sand stone is very pretty with the veins of different colors.  I didn't take any pictures of any as we were in the shade by then and they would not have turned out very well.  Next time I will.  Since both of these stones are soft, they erode easily.  As a result there are all kinds of rocks lying about of many different sizes that have come down during rain storms. 

This doesn't show as well as I would have liked but you can see where a column has collapsed, leaving a huge rock resting on one narrow pillar.  I think it may also be resting against the back side.  I would not want to be close when it decides to cut loose as it is much bigger than a truck.

 This is where we parked the truck to hike.  The road only went about a fourth of a mile further.  You can see that it narrows and is rocky.  There was a large wash to the left.  We went up on the right, crossed over up at the end and then came back down on the left, going up further onto the hill side.  Somewhere along the hill side on the way back we lost the trail and ended up going down into the wash.  We just followed it down until we hit our trail crossing the wash to the parking lot.

 This is what the west side of most of it looked like.  There were several canyons going back in with hiking trails.  We had stopped here to help someone whose battery needed a jump.  He is from LV and said that batteries only last about two years because of the heat.  He was planning on replacing it this weekend, but should have done it sooner.

In this area there are wild burros, tortoises, mountain sheep, etc.  We didn't have binoculars with us as we thought they were in the trailer.  (We found them in the truck when we got home.)  I think we saw some sheep up on one of the hill sides.  It was light colored and moving around.  We didn't get to see any burros or anything else.  Fortunately, no snakes, but you do have to watch for them.

 It was a pretty afternoon, a little on the cool side because of the altitude, but a nice hike.  We plan to do some more.  We just wish it was closer.

Leftovers

 My mother raised me to never throw out good food but instead find something to make with it.  That is how the caramel candy came about.  She needed to use up some sweet cream.  That is a different story though.

Some families hate leftovers and others don't mind them at all.  Of course, families with teen age boys seldom have any.  If anything does make it into the frig, it doesn't stay there long as it seems a teenage boy's nose is always in the frig.  One family even enjoyed having one of our sons come as he would eat up their leftovers for them, and that was when he was in his twenties.

As our kids were growing up and before they were teenagers, sometimes lunch was a day of leftovers, usually in a soup.  B would sometimes comment that it was really good soup and I would tell him to enjoy because he would never get it again.

Over the years I have found that Ramen works well with leftovers.  Fortunately my husband is not a picky eater.

After a couple meals of spaghetti squash for dinner I had poured the sauce over what was left.  Now there wasn't enough for another meal, but I couldn't just throw it out, that would go against what my Mom taught.  So instead I created this soup.  It really tasted good and I may just have to have spaghetti squash again so that I can make it.  Sorry, no picture but here is the recipe in case you have left over spaghetti squash.

What is your favorite recipe from your leftovers?  If we each post one, maybe we can make a cook book? Ha Ha!

1 carrot  chopped
1 half onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
1/2 cup green pepper chopped
3/4 cup slivered cabbage
1 Tbs. beef bouillon
1-1 1/2 cups left over spaghetti squash with sauce
1 package of beef Ramen

Combine vegetables in pot, cover well with water, and bring to a boil.  When carrots are about half cooked add beef Ramen along with the spice packet and the spaghetti squash/sauce.  Return to boil and cook until noodles are cooked and vegetables are done.  If needed add water when adding the Ramen.  Garnish with gratted Parmesan cheese.