Travel

Every now and then, I like to crawl out of the coding dungeon and remember the world exists. On those rare occasions, I will attempt to document my travels here.

Searchlight, Nelson, Eldorado Canyon, and the Techatticup Mine

The girlfriend and I shot out of bed early this morning and zipped on down to Searchlight to grab breakfast at the Searchlight Nugget Casino, for no other reason than to do it. I've been stopping in Searchlight for most of my life, as it was a gas and food stop at about the halfway mark during trips to Las Vegas. The food is good, but not spectacular, so stop by if you're passing through, but don't make a special trip...that is unless you're bored like us. After a quick bite and about 3 cups of their world-famous ten cent cup of coffee, we jumped in the car and headed back for Las Vegas.

On the way, we decided to turn off at route 165 and head toward Nelson, a mid-19th-century silver/gold mining boom town near the Colorado River in Eldorado Canyon. I had never been, but the detour made for a nice, scenic drive. It takes about 20 minutes to get there from the 95, and once you arrive there isn't a lot to look at other than the desert!

We continued past the small, populated area for another mile or so in search of the river and were quite surprised to encounter a very well-restored assortment of old mining buildings at the Techatticup Mine. It was a little after 8 o'clock, and the proprietor of the gift shop/mine tour/information center was just propping the front door open. We chatted with him a bit, and he gave us a bunch of information about the mine, and told the story of the flood of 1974 that wiped out the old marina and 9 residents. We looked at some photographs of the mining days, steamboats that traveled the Colorado River prior to the building of the dams, and Kevin Costner and crew taken during the filming of scenes from 3000 Miles to Graceland.

The mine tour was about to start, and we hadn't made a reservation, so I bought a map of the canyon with some historical facts marked by number, and we drove down to the end of the highway to look down the river. There is a nice lookout point with a roundabout at the road's end, and from there you can get a fantastic view of the Colorado River just as it is widening into Lake Mohave. You can also look down into the great wash where the marina once stood, and ponder why anyone would ever think to build at the outlet of what clearly appears to be a major thoroughfare for water coming from the canyon to the river.

If you live in the Las Vegas area, or if you're just traveling the 95, take an hour or two and check out Nelson area, its chunk of Nevada History makes it worth the trip. I can't wait to head back for the mine tour! Below are a few of the pictures we took.

Grand Canyon Pictures

My girlfriend had never seen the Grand Canyon, so we split out of Las Vegas at about 5:30 one june saturday morning and arrived at the South Rim around 10:30. We crossed Hoover Dam just as the sun was high enough to allow some snapshots of the nearly complete bypass bridge. We took Interstate 40 most of the way, but stopped off for a quick detour in Seligman and drove down a small patch of Historic Route 66 to take a quick look at the world-famous Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In. It was only about 8 o'clock, so it was too early to go inside. We snapped some pictures in front of the sign, hopped back in the car, and headed for Williams. After a quick stop for gas, we headed up the 64 to the South Rim. After about 6 hours of the Grand Canyon, we took Highway 89 down to Flagstaff and spent the night bar-hopping and relaxing in the downtown Flagstaff area. I hadn't been to Flagstaff since about 2002, and wasn't surprised to see things hadn't changed much. We spent a couple hours milling around town on Sunday, getting coffee, checking out one of my favorite Southwest museums, the Museum of Northern Arizona. Around noon we got back on the freeway and headed home. Below are links to several photographs of our trip, in chronological order. The canyon photos start at Yavapai point and continue along Desert View Drive to the Desert View Watchtower.

Mt. Charleston

Living in the Las Vegas area means dealing with the blistering summer heat of the southwest, and with temperatures soaring above 100 degress, it can be difficult to seek refuge from the dry, blazing hot weather. Luckily it is only about a forty minute trek to Mt. Charleston, which provides a good 20+ degree reduction in temperature throughout the year. Several times a year, my girlfriend and I take a morning journey up to the lodge, grab a decent and inexpensive breakfast, do some hiking/walking around, enjoy the fresh mountain air, and drive and look at the scenery. When we get bored, we cruise down the hill, grab a coffee and a book at Borders, and then spend the rest of the day lounging in the air conditioning back in the valley. We always forget to take the camera anywhere we go, but I did manage to snap a few low-res pics with my iPhone during our last outing: