Desert in Bloom

March 2013 vacation: part 6 - Joshua Trees, Yucca, Wildflowers you name it. Everything in the desert was in bloom in the Lake Mead City/Grand Canyon Sky-Walk area. After driving the new bypass of Hoover Dam on hwy 93 we took the Pierce Ferry road. My husband wanted to revisit the South Cove launch. This is where he and a group of his friends pulled out their rafts after a 21 day rafting trip on the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon in 2008.

Couldn't resist a memory pic for him. This picture is from their trip going through Lava rapid.

South Cove launch

We then went on a photo taking spree! 

Here are just a few of the desert flowers/plants we found -

We stopped at the Lake Mead city overlook -

I took a panorama of the view -

Click to enlarge

We then stopped to enjoy the many Joshua Trees that were in bloom -

We decided not to go to the Grand Canyon Sky-Walk as it is about 20 miles of unpaved road to get there, not what we wanted to do that day - maybe another trip.
On towards Kingman, Arizona.

next post, our destination "Flagstaff, Arizona"

Big Pine area

March 2013 vacation: part 5 - We stopped at Big Pine, Ca. for a travel break and coffee refill & couldn't resist the the chocolate covered strawberries.

A little ways down the hwy 395 we came across this Jerky shop "Gus's" - CRAZY!

We bought dried Mango, Papaya as well as Terriyaki Turkey and Cowboy beef jerkies.

A rest area we enjoy in this area is the Division creek rest area. There are always little fish in the creek. My camera didn't pick them up very well, but they were there.

The area near Lone Pine is where the Whitney Portal (the trailhead for climbing Mt. Whitney - http://timberlinetrails.net/WhitneyTrailhead.html) is located.

next post, east from Cramer Junction towards Vegas!