I made a goal to get out in our van at least one night a month this year, and Bean's water polo tournament in AZ provided the perfect opportunity to get a longer trip in at the beginning of the year. Peanut, Daddy-o, and I left on Wednesday and drove to NV the first day.
We found a lot of ducks and waterbirds.
Then, we continued the drive--got a really pretty sky as the moon came up.
And we made it to Las Vegas for a late dinner at Tacos El Gordo.
We were so excited that they've opened a store here--hoping they come up to the Bay Area some day.
And then, our camping spot for the first night. We found an area just outside the Valley of Fire State Park that is on BLM land and had lots of room for campers. Love our free camping spots!
And then, we finally made it to Valley of Fire. This has been on my list for years now, and every trip we make through this area, something happens.
This park did not disappoint. It was incredible!
We did the Wave hike and 7 Wonders loop. The rock formations were incredible.
Our van is happy when we get out :)
The weather wasn't great, but we actually really enjoyed getting to see the desert in the rain.
We went from red sand,
to red rocks.
Found some shelter!
It was like being on a different world!
We really loved this hike.
There was even a little mini-slot canyon.
The striations in the rock were so beautiful.
We had a lot of questions about this, and got lucky to run into a Canadian couple towards the end of our hike and were chatting and I asked if either of them happened to be geologists--and the man was! So he was able to answer a few of our questions and tell us a little about what was going on.
We really enjoyed talking with them and ended up finishing the hike and standing around in the parking lot for another hour or so.
The rain led to some puddles for us to dodge.
And we did a quick side spur which took us to
Another slot canyon. This is the biggest one in the park and was so cool.
Found a bunch of barrel cacti.
After that hike, we made lunch, made a couple of other stops, including to stop and see this view of the road through the red rocks.
It's seriously so fun to be able to explore this way.
We want to come back to more thoroughly explore this park.
The clouds were incredible!
Our final stop was to see a few petrified logs in the park and then we were off to our sleeping spot for the night.
I had to include a picture of our ramen bowls--I'm loving this dinner option in the van. One dish meal that is so good!
We found another spot on BLM land to sleep, this time near the Hoover Dam because. . .
We wanted to stop and see it the next day! It was quite impressive.
Honestly, the bridge was even more beautiful than the dam.
We took a tour inside the dam and the power plant, which was fascinating.
The designs included in building were so fun.
We loved getting to peek out of the dam.
Colorado River
It was fun going through the tunnels.
I would hate to have to use these stairs in case of an emergency--it's a lot of steps!
Glad that we made this stop.
Here we are at the state line. . . half in AZ and half in NV.
It's crazy seeing how high the water has been at times, and how low it is right now.
More beautiful skies as we drove down to Tucson. We stopped at a KOA on the northside of the city for the first night down there--that meant we got showers before we went to hang out with people in closer quarters :)
Saturday morning, we met up with Bean at the pool! It was so fun seeing her play again.
We got to sneak away at lunch to meet up with our niece/cousin at her favorite taco stand. It was fun catching up with her for a little bit. And then back to the pool. Bean had some good playing time and they did pretty well.
That evening, we had a little time before sunset, so Daddy-o, Peanut, and I went over to the Painted Hills Trailhead for a little walk.
It was gorgeous out.
We caught the last light, and even saw a whole herd of deer out there.
And then, after watching the game Sunday morning, we got back on the road to start the drive home. We made it pretty far and had picked a spot at a trailhead in Indio, CA for the night. Unfortunately, someone thought it was a good spot to come play really loud music late at night. After about 10 minutes, we gave up and moved to the neighborhood nearby. Not ideal, but we really just needed a place to sleep. And then, Monday was just a few hours drive home.
Such a fun little winter trip and 5 more nights in van!
