In May, I had a week with not much going on so I decided to take off on a road trip to the South West. I did not have a specific itinerary in mind, just a general direction of travel and, as you well know, there's always something interesting to see and do when you head out into the southwestern desert.
The first day was pretty much a driving day on roads I had traveled before. Up to Reno and then down to Tonopah and on further to Beatty on the outskirts of Death Valley. As I said these are roads I had driven many times before and while the landscape is spectacular there was nothing really new to me.
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| Outside Tonopah |
One of the casinos in Tonopah has spent a lot of money advertising their location with a weird billboard with a baby on it. Eye catching maybe but does it make you want to stop?
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| Angel's Ladies, outside Beatty |
Just outside Beatty there was an interesting old sign and the wreck of an airplane. The sign was advertising a brothel, Angel's Ladies, now closed. The plane crashed while promoting the brothel in the 70's - any parachute jumper who could land on a mattress outside the brothel would get a free night. The plane crashed before the event could get under way - no one was hurt.
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| The donkeys of Beatty |
In Beatty I was surprised to see donkeys, quite a lot of them, wandering around the streets. It being late in the day I got a room for the night.
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| The Exchange Club, Beatty |
The Exchange Club in Beatty is interesting. It is a casino and it was closed but whoever is remodeling on it is obviously quite skilled in working with metal. The entire exterior is a work of metal work art - retro-futuristic steam punk.
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| Amargosa Opera House |
Moving on I had arranged for a tour of the Amargosa Opera House. We had previously stayed at the Amargosa Hotel but the Opera House was closed because of Covid. So on this day I got to go inside and look the incredible painted walls. The whole story of Marta Becket, the dancer/actress that decorated the Opera House and then performed in it, is quite remarkable and well worth reading. What a talent and what a strange place to spend the latter part of your life.
The interior of the Opera House is nothing less than spectacular. Marta painted the walls and ceiling as well as performing each night on stage to whoever might have been around. I gather sometimes the audience was often in single digits. I was the only person on the tour but the guide did a great job. It is such a wonderful quirky thing that needs to be preserved and continued. They have formed a charity to support the operation but the costs must be considerable. Never mind the wall paintings inside, the building itself is made of adobe and is not all that stable.
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| Villa Anita |
I drove on further south to Shoshone and then to Tecopa. In Tecopa there is another quirky establishment - Villa Anita. It was supposed to be some kind of motel/airbnb and artists retreat. It was at the end of a dirt road and while there looked like it was inhabited I saw no sign of any human beings as I wandered around. It was all very strange - weird sculptures, strange artifacts, shacks and rooms that look like they could be occupied but the entire place was deserted. You can book rooms there on Hotels.com but I saw no sign of anyone present.
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| China Ranch Date Farm |
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| The green swath of the Amargosa river bed |
I walked around the date farm. I don't particularly like dates and I hadn't really appreciated there were so many varieties - mostly from the middle east. I did buy a variety pack as a gift though.
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| The Date Farm |
I continued on to Las Vegas. What a contrast that was after all the desert and mountain ranges. It was all a bit shocking. I must say it is not a place I could live in but many people do - from its start as a small desert oasis it is now a mostrously large city in a place that really can't have that much water.
Nevertheless, for all its shortcomings in my book, I did find a nice modern hotel room and had a wonderful meal in a fine restaurant with tablecloths. I even had a pretty good whisky sour.
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| Las Vegas from the Freeway |
Moving on from Las Vegas I headed east on I-15 to St George in Utah. The Interstate travels through some interesting canyons and mountains here. Quite a dramatic drive. St George was bigger than I imagined and this being Memorial Day weekend it was quite busy.
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| Pipe Spring National Monument |
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| Looking over the Arizona Strip from Pipe Springs |
From St George, a town that didn't particularly appeal to me, I turned south into Arizona and paid a visit to Pipe Spring National Monument. This is a small National Monument on the Kaibab Indian Reservation. It is located where a spring issues from the mountains overlooking a barren wasteland called the Arizona Strip. The Paiute Indians used the area for thousands of years and then in the 1850's Mormons moved in and built a fortified ranch house over the spring, routing the spring water through the building. This of course led to conflict with the Paiutes and guess who lost out.
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| Kanab, Utah |
I drove on to Fredonia and then headed north to Kanab. Kanab has done well from being in the center of all the National Parks in the area - Bryce, Grand Canyon, Escalante, Zion, Vermillion Cliffs. It also garners attention from its association with the movie industry. Numerous westerns were filmed in and around Kanab - Stagecoach, the Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Outlaw Josey Wales to name but a few.
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| Nearby Paria Townsite |
Driving east on Highway 89 I eventually turned north on a dirt road to the old townsite of Paria. There didn't seem to be much left of the old town nor of a movie set that was supposed to be there or else I was just looking in the wrong place. I did find the graveyard but that was the only sign of the one time settlement. The hills along the way were however quite spectacular. Layered sandstones in beautiful colors - quite amazing.
Back on Highway 89 for a mile or so, I turned south on another dirt road - the Cockscomb Road which later became House Rock Valley Road that traverses Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.. Again there were more beautiful colored sedimentary rock formations.
I drove past a fairly large parking lot for a trailhead, the Wirepass Trailhead. It was full of cars and there were lots of people. I decided to pass it up and drove on for quite a while. Then I realized that that trailhead was likely the trailhead for something called the Wave - an amazing layered and colorful sandstone basin. So I doubled back to investigate.
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| Wirepass Trail |
I set off to walk the Wirepass Trail (after purchasing a permit online at the trailhead) but somehow I missed the path to the Wave (I later learned my pass was not for the Wave anyway, those are harder to get), and ended up in Buckskin Gulch which is the longest slot canyon in the US. It went on forever and I never did reach the end. What a spectacular canyon. What awesome forces of water must have flowed in the area to carve out such a canyon.
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| Buckskin Gulch |
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| Buckskin Gulch |
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| Vermillion Cliffs |
Driving further on towards the city of Page I passed a series of weird and wonderful eroded sandstone rocks. They looked like giant toadstools.
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| Toadstool rocks in Vermillion Cliffs |
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| The Colorado River from Navajo Bridge |
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| Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River |
Early morning in Page I drove out to the Horseshoe Bend overlook of the Colorado River. This is a tight meander on the Colorado where you can look down from the top of the canyon onto the river below. It is surely remarkable. In one frame you can get a picture of the canyon and river nearly curving back on itself. Even in the early morning there were plenty of people taking in the view.
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| Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell behind |
I next drove over to the Glen Canyon Dam which is just outside Page. You can walk across the bridge and view the dam, the river and the canyon below.
Traveling further east I drove to the Cottonwood Canyon Trail and left the tarmac to go north into the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument once more. |
| Grand Staircase Escalante |
Traveling further east I drove to the Cottonwood Canyon Trail and left the tarmac to go north through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument once more.
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| Grand Staircase Escalante |
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| Grand Staircase Escalante |
The dirt road was reasonable well maintained and it was a pleasant drive into some wonderful country. There is so much variety in the rock types and colours out there. I did come across some "cowboys" herding up cattle and moving them along the road. It always surprises me that these things are still going on in the American West.
At the end of the dirt road there was a turn to Kodachrome Basin State Park. The name alone made me want to visit so I drove the few miles into the park. It was a small park with some interesting rock formations. The main coloration was red so it was not as remarkable as the name had led me to expect. Nevertheless, there were some amazing hoodoos and cliffs.
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| Kodachrome State Park |
Moving along I drove through Cannonville and Tropic before arriving at Bryce Canyon National Park. I had visited there once before way back in 1978 and I had always thought it was one of the more beautiful parks. I wasn't disappointed on this visit either. While there are now a lot more people there it is still an amazing sight.
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| Bryce Canyon |
After a fairly quick visit to Bryce I set off once more and drove all the way to Las Vegas. Even though most of most of the way was on the Interstate, it was beautiful freeway and not at all boring.
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| The road out from Bryce |
I found a hotel on the end of the Las Vegas Strip and in the late afternoon I walked down the strip. It was not a very uplifting or entertaining experience. I cannot understand why people find this place so entertaining. It is the antithesis of entertainment for me. Huge hotels and casinos, each trying to outdo the other in size and extravagant design - the New York skyline, Paris's Eiffel Tower, the splendour of Venice - each one a cheesy imitation of the real thing.
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| A taste of Venice in the desert |
I went inside the Venetian Resort with its Doge's Palace, Bridge of Sighs, lagoon with Gondolas. It was a maze - I was looking for a particular restaurant but couldn't find it. I ended up at Bouchon, a Napa Valley restaurant, that has prostituted itself with a location in the casino. It was a haven of calm amongst all the chaos of the rest of the hotel and the Las Vegas Strip. I did have a nice meal but then it was out into the cacophony of the Strip for the walk home.
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| The Neon Museum |
After missing out on the Neon Museum in Las Vegas on my way out I had made a reservation for my return visit. The museum is a little ways out to the north of town where they have accumulated a collection of old Las Vegas neon lights. Most of it from old casinos but some other more mundane ones like a dairy or a laundry. It is of course quite a colorful affair.
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| The Neon Museum |
My favorites were the Moulin Rouge and the Stardust casino ones. A great idea for a museum and Las Vegas is the perfect place for it.
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| Entrance to the Las Vegas Strip |
Leaving Las Vegas for the drive home I noticed a strange colorful structure on the side of the freeway that made me double back to investigate. It was an art installation by one Ugo Rondinone called Seven Magic Mountains. Huge brightly colored rocks stacked on top of eachother. It was an amazing contrast with the surrounding desert landscape. Quite popular too - there were several tour buses from Las Vegas that brought people out to see the sight.
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| Seven Magic Mountains |
Further on the way home by Edwards Air Force Base, I noticed a large plane. I drove over to the entrance to the base to find a B-52 StratoFortress on display outside the entrance to the base. The signs say no visitors and no photographs but no one seemed to mind as I wandered around.
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| B52 Stratofortress - Edwards AFB |
The plane was operated by Nasa and was/is known as Balls 8 from its tail number of 008. The plane was used to carry the experimental rocket powered planes like the X-15 to an altitude where they could be launched. It is quite a historic plane - Neil Armstrong was launched in a X-15 from it. The StratoFortress, whose main purpose is to drop bombs from a great height, is surely a fearsome huge aeroplane. They were used extensively in Vietnam and even in Desert Storm.
From Edwards AFB it was a fairy routine drive past Mojave with its many parked airliners, Tehachapi and its railway loop, Bakersfield and then home.
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