While we are staying in Las Vegas we made a day trip to visit Valley of Fire Nevada State Park which was one of our very first campgrounds. We camped here in March of 2018.
Everyone knows that travel is very restricted and that campsites are valuable in this time of the pandemic. Several friends have asked how we are doing. We are fine, although we wish things were back to normal. Rumor had it, about three weeks back, that everyone would have to leave and go home, which for full-time RVers is a little hard to define.
We had no desire to go to South Dakota, in March for weather reasons, and besides, where are we going to stay between here and there; and, where would we stay when we got there. So we decided to shelter in place, right in the same place, at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas until the end of April. After that we head north, not sure where, but north.
Just so you don’t have to search through the post to find out, we are still healthy.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas wasn’t on our route plan prior to buying a new RV and our discovery of how power-hungry (electricity) our new RV actually was. Our first two days, during the move, running the generator every 5-6 hours convinced us to go to Las Vegas and spend three weeks.
Currently operating without outside electricity isn’t possible. Tomorrow, three weeks are past and we will be staying for another four weeks. This will be our longest stay anywhere. We came here for electricity and are staying as part of our effort not to catch or help spread the virus.
We had decided to head east before everything changed due to the virus. Now we are probably not going east of the Rockies until summer winds down and things return to more normal.
Valley of Fire
Besides continuing to move into our RV and getting it ready for more travel, one windy day, we went to Valley of Fire. We stayed here during our first year traveling and it is a very beautiful place. March is the ideal time of year to camp there; unfortunately, unlike our visit in 2018, the camping is closed due to the pandemic.
For those interested, Valley of Fire was created out of blowing sand, then compacted into sandstone by being underwater for eons, then treated to tilting and twisting by the tectonic plates followed by long term erosion. A landscape photographic dreamland.
The rest of this blog post will be kind of a photo essay of the wonderful sites in the park. We took lots of photos of rocks… and if you get to the last photo…
Among the rocks, we also found some Desert Big Horn Sheep.
Here is our blog post from our visit in 2018.
Here is a link to the google map for the area.
Love the pictures! And the commentary. Thanks for sharing.
Great pics! We have been there that is a beautiful place. We are on our way home in Corning right now. Looks like we might be another night. They are expecting snow in southern Oregon along US97. Stay safe!
Love your pics and glad y’all are healthy. Ted and I leave tomorrow from Pt. Mugu for Camp Pendleton. I said my good-byes to my son, DinL and 2 of my grandkids this afternoon. I gave them their little Easter goodies. I just hope we get to return to Mugu eventually. Who knows???Take care and keep posting.
All is quiet here in San Diego. Have heard nothing bad or good of the ole gang. Playing hermit fits me pretty good. Got plenty of toilet paper and ammunition!
Great pictures!
So good to hear you are healthy and found a place to stay.
Valley of Fire has been on our list forever and you are right, March is the perfect time to visit! Your photos make me wish we were there. It sounds like you’ve got a decent plan to get through this pandemic. Being at a full service campground, near a city is definitely the way to go, IMHO. But yeah – going “north,” whatever that may eventually mean, will be important in a couple weeks. It’ll be Summer before any of us know it! Stay well!