More desert flowers and Lake Mead

 We'll see how far I get on this post while I've got good internet at the RV service center in Albuquerque.

After I’d hiked all that I could in Zion and hiked another trail on the outskirts of Zion as I was leaving, I headed into St. George UT to re-provision, explore the area, and enjoy the hospitality of a fellow Travato owner (Steve) that I’d met at the Phoenix RV gathering. I left St. George and headed into Nevada to catch the last day of the REI sales to replace my worn out trail-running shoes and a few other worn out hiking items and then headed to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Interesting place. No campsites available in the park so I boondocked (free camping) about 10 miles away and spent a day and a half in the park hiking most of the available trails. I’m SO glad to see more desert wildflowers here (and in St. George), including blooming cacti. 

Hiking from Steve's neighborhood in St. George. 

Valley of Fire was a really pretty place; also with lots of flowers but mostly some great rock formations!

Not surprisingly, this is called Duck Rock.

From there I went to Lake Mead National Recreation Area. When I left the previous night’s boondock campsite, I didn’t really know where I’d end up that night. I stopped at several pull outs along the way to get some short hikes in, figuring it would be a ‘mostly driving’ day (not my favorite).  But the 3^rd place I pulled over to check out revealed a 31-mile bike-trail loop and a 7-mile roundtrip hike to Hoover Dam. With all those possibilities, I found a nearby campsite (with a shower) at 11 a.m. and took off on the bike ride (oops! In the heat of the day!). OOF! Nothing like riding in mid-80s heat up long hills, bucking head winds stiff enough to fly flags straight out from the poles, whipping in the wind. Thank goodness that the last 9 miles (of my 36.4-mile bike ride) was mostly downhill. I’m feeling pretty tired tonight; the long shower and some food didn’t perk me up. I’m assuming I’ll be fully recharged by tomorrow morning. The plan is to do the 7-mile hike in the morning and then keep heading somewhat south and east. Hard to say where I’ll end up tomorrow night. Time will tell…

It was a nice bike path; a long loop that only crossed a few roads. If you were training for something the long climbs (especially if you're facing stiff headwinds as I was!) would be a great resource, even though the scenery is a bit bleak once you leave the lake.

Sadly, it looks like I won’t be able to post any of this. The internet isn’t working (part of why I paid 3 times as much to be in an RV park, but I confess the biggest draw was the much-needed long shower). But at least it will be easier to get caught up when I DO get access to internet, now that the text is written for the post (or posts if I need to split it in 2).

This was a nice hike through the old railroad tunnels that they used to haul  all the parts up to build Hoover Dam.

It's now 12 days later and I still haven’t found wireless to get any of this posted. Meanwhile I’m taking lots more photos and visiting many more places. As I write this I am in Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. I don’t even have enough cell coverage to send texts where I’m camped, much less post anything. Day after tomorrow I need to head back to Albuquerque for some quick warranty repairs on my RV (where I'm currently trying to make another post). Sorry, I know this is confusing to be changing from discussing the here and now that is well past once I can get around to posting it. Sometimes I go through and change text to make it flow but I'm going to post it as is and see if you can follow the flow.