Mojave desert | Keevan Soul

Valley of Fire

Since we’ve been exploring “other” areas of the Mojave Desert, we decide to visit the area north of Las Vegas, in Nevada.

On the route northward, we camp along the Colorado River, and plan on camping in Lake Mead Recreational Area. Hoo Boy, when we arrive, we find out it is Spring break here, and all Nevadan’s it seems, take their break around this lake and river.

Where else would one go I guess, if one lives in Nevada?

A little creativity, some solid research, and a bit of luck, lands us a few hidden gems for some out of the way spots to spend a few nights.

After long stretches of Creosote bush and low lying desert scrub, bypassing the lower end of Lake Mead, we instead drive the scenic back road to Valley of Fire State Park.

Ooh la la…Here it seems, is where all the Beauty of this vast and lonely state wound up eons ago.

Large mountains of red sandstone formations formed from ancient sand dunes, stand majestically against brilliant golden hues.

Imagine dinosaurs roaming here, and later Anasazi Indians gathering and hunting these canyons. The later leaving their artwork on the rock cliffs.

In more modern times, “bad” guys hid from the law in the last century, in these same box canyons, which I’m sure hold untold secrets and some rip roaring stories unknown to us present day nomads.

We meet our first Chuckwalla!!

He does look dinosaur-ish, doesn’t he?

We don’t camp in the park, the campgrounds are taken over by humongous motor homes, all with power cords leading to I wonder where? There is only one tent in the entire upper loop of the park.

We go back to our hidden jewell at night time, and enjoy the park during the day.

Before leaving we meet this little tyke…not very dinosaur looking, but awfully cute.

❧

We’ve been hanging out in the Mojave Desert.

This time we chose not to go to Mojave National Preserve. We’ve instead spent our time exploring some lesser known out of the way places.

Such as Owl Canyon.

This BLM campground was really nice, very uncrowded, and provided garbage cans, nice picnic tables, and shade awnings. The sites were quite spacious, and there was much to explore. With our senior pass, the price was $3.00 a night.

Most people come here for this wonderful hike up Owl Canyon.

We spent a couple of nights at Owl Canyon Campground, exploring some smaller canyons too.

Then we moved on south to Sawtooth Canyon, down in the Lucerne Valley. Much of this area is ATV territory…you can see the damage done to the fragile landscape everywhere.

Up until about five years ago, Sawtooth Canyon was also becoming a desolate wasteland from being mismanaged. The BLM finally stepped in and made it off limits to all ATV’s and all hunting. What a precious resource it is, and now mostly rock-climbers, wildflower watchers, and birders go there to enjoy the area, though you find remnants of broken glass and shotgun casings littered everywhere.

It actually made me proud of our government for taking a stand to save this treasure.

Some of the blooming wildflowers we encountered, hiking around here.

And a few of the feathered local residents entertaining us.

Leaving Sawtooth Canyon, we drove south through Joshua Tree National Monument. This area seemed really tired and very dry already, even though it’s only March. The repercussions of last year’s drought I assume.

We didn’t camp there. It felt a bit too claustrophobic with the sights right on top of each other and quite crowed, so instead we dry camped just south of the park, where we didn’t have to listen to noisy neighbors.