canyonwalker: Better Call Saul starring Bob Odenkirk (better call saul)
Better Call Saul ep. 5.08, "Bagman", is an eventful episode. Jimmy gets in deeper with the drug cartel when he agrees to help smuggle $7 million cash into the country for bail for his client, Lalo Salamanca— bail money that Lalo plans to forfeit almost immediately by fleeing to Mexico. Jimmy drives out into the desert near the border to take the handoff, two heavily loaded duffel bags of cash, from Lalo's cousins, the Murder Twins.

As Jimmy is still in the process of becoming ethics-free lawyer Saul Goodman he initially turns down the request. He knows it's dangerous. But then, thinking about how Lalo teased him that the initials JMM on his monogrammed briefcase ought to stand for Just Make Money (he told Lalo they mean "Justice Matters Most" instead of being the the initials of his real name, James Morgan McGill) he asks for $100,000. Lalo agrees.

Jimmy is ambushed helping smuggle $7 million of cartel money (Better Call Saul ep 5.08)

Jimmy was right to be concerned about the safety of smuggling $7 million cash. One of the cartel members at the stash house is seen making an ominous phone call when the Murder Twins leave with the money. Minutes after the handoff, a well armed gang ambushes Jimmy in the desert.

Even if this gang were just one or two men with pistols, Jimmy's goose would be cooked. He's not a soldier and he doesn't have a vehicle he can use to escape across the desert. He's still driving his beater econobox Suzuki Esteem. And he's not even dressed for the desert; he's wearing a natty jacket and tie and a pair of soft loafers.

It's interesting who's behind this ambush. At first it seems like the gang in Mexico may have a mole working for a rival gang. But it turns out the mole works for Juan Bolsa, the cartel underboss. Bolsa likes playing off the different factions against each other and evidently doesn't approve of burning $7 million cash to get the aggressive Lalo out of prison. And Jimmy is nobody to them. The hit squad boss motions to one of his men to kill Jimmy once he's secured the bags of cash.

Fortunately for Jimmy, Mike is shadowing him at Gus's behest. Gus, always the most astute player in the game, anticipated that there would be trouble moving that amount of money around. Mike, from a safe distance, sees the ambush happening and starts picking off the bad guys with a sniper rifle.

Jimmy and Mike cross the desert with $7 million of smuggled cash (Better Call Saul ep 5.08)

It's a good news/bad news situation. Good news: Jimmy survives the ambush and isn't even injured, just in shock. Bad news: All the vehicles are damaged in gunfight. The only one driveable is Jimmy's Suzuki, and even that vehicle craps out within a few miles because of damage. Jimmy and Mike are stuck walking 25-30 miles across the desert to the nearest paved road.

By the way, those two duffel bags of loot Jimmy's carrying are heavy. People who apparently are more familiar than I am with carrying $7 million in $100 bills say that each bag would weigh 75 pounds. The screenplay doesn't make them out to be quite that heavy. I mean, a man of Jimmy's size and in no particularly great physical shape would be staggered trying to carry that much weight, especially with only two relatively thin shoulder straps to distribute the load.

Meanwhile, Kim is aware of what Jimmy is doing. It was part of their agreement to get married: Jimmy would not keep secrets from Kim. Kim urged Jimmy to turn down this job, but by that point he'd already made his deal for $100k.

When Jimmy doesn't come home that night— because he's struggling on foot across the desert— Kim visits Lalo in prison the next morning to press for information.

Kim confronts Lalo in prison about Jimmy's whereabouts (Better Call Saul ep. 5.08)

Kim panicking about Jimmy's situation is understandable, but her going to Lalo to demand information seems slightly against character. She's a shrewd lawyer, and though she's go not particular experience with organized crime, she's got to know that this stunt puts her "in the game". She's now shown the cartel that she's knowledgeable of at least some of their operations. And so far they have no reason to trust her— or to even want to trust her.

Is this Kim's doom? I wondered. As I've remarked a few times in relation to what I call the Star Wars Rogue One principle, we know Kim's got to be meet her end in this prequel because she's not in the original series. Over the various seasons of Better Call Saul I've wondered if she'd just leave Jimmy because he's a jerk, or because he commits too much fraud that jeopardizes her burgeoning career as a lawyer. More recently it has seemed like she might go into self-destruct mode and destroy her own career, because she gets too much of a charge out of running scams with Jimmy. But now she's in physical danger— in addition to career-ending reputational danger.
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #7
Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 3:15pm

Ah, the last leg. ...Well, almost the last leg of the day's excellent on hike the Owl Canyon Loop. The last leg will be trekking across the wash and back up the butte to the trailhead. This next-to-last leg is the thing the trail is named for: the actual Owl Canyon.

After crossing through the tunnels under an abandoned desert highway we hiked through a narrow wash to another tunnel, this one under the not-abandoned desert highway, then into Owl Canyon.



As we hiked the loop in a counter-clockwise direction the hike through Owl Canyon was easy. It was down. Though Owl Canyon was inherently easier than the other canyon we ascended through as there were no places we had to scramble over rocky ledges.

Watch the video I've stitched together here to see the entrance to the narrows, the narrows, and the erratic path between the layers of sandstone and sediment. It's cool when the canyon is just 3' wide... as well as when it's 10' wide at the top and 50' wide at the bottom.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #6
Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 2:30pm

The Owl Canyon Loop hike at Lake Mead NRA has been a great hike. We started with exploring atop a bluff down in the canyon where we found seashells and gypsum deposits left from a flood over 40 years ago. Then we took a slight detour to the Slot Canyon River Rapids. After that we hiked up through the narrows of an unnamed canyon. It's a good hike already... and it's only about half done!

We topped out of the unnamed canyon, crossed the main road through the park, then continued through a wash to... another road? Yes, there's another road here. An abandoned road. One that's not even marked on the topo map we're following!



The topo map shows that our loop follows in the direction of the road for about half a mile, so we hiked it over the hill and down the far side. There we saw the next canyon our route descends into. At first it looked like we'd have to drop into the canyon then climb back out to the cross the road... but at the bottom of the canyon were a pair of tunnels under the road almost 100' below the surface. And they were haunted tunnels! 😱 Watch the video to see (or hear!) what I mean.

More to come....

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #5
Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 2pm

After a fun little detour to the Slot Canyon River Rapids we trekked back to the Owl Canyon Loop and headed up one of the Canyons. No, this wasn't the namesake Owl Canyon.... If I read the map right, that's the one we'll be descending near the end of the loop today. But this unnamed canyon is a great hike.



As with my previous blog in this series I've decided that while a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a bunch of photos. So I've strung together a bunch of video snippets I captured as I trekked up the canyon into a short narrative. Enjoy! And there's more to come....

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #4
Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 1:15pm

After starting hiking the Owl Canyon Loop trail on Saturday and spending a while exploring atop a butte we scrambled back down to the main trail and towards the mouth of one of the actual canyons. This part of the trail parallels the Las Vegas Wash, which drains from Lake Las Vegas, a small reservoir, to Lake Mead, which is a huge reservoir. We could see there was water flowing in the wash. There were also rocky spires, named as pillars on our topographic map, close to the water. Thus when our trail turned left at a junction— away from the river— I opted instead to turn right, toward the river.

Did I mention our map also showed one of these pillars next to a spot identified as "Slot Canyon River Rapids"? Yeah, there was no way I was not taking a detour to see that. And it did not disappoint. Here's a short video I recorded next to the river:



This river is both natural and artificial. It's natural, in that it really is a real river, the Las Vegas River. It drains the Las Vegas basin into the Colorado River. But it's also artificial—or, rather, its flow is artificial— because there's a dam upstream. But today's flow is also natural because it actually rained in Las Vegas two days ago. And not just a quick sprinkle but a full day. Las Vegas gets, like, two days of rain a year. So half the year's rainfall is pouring through this slot right now.


canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #3
Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 12:15pm

What's there to do in Las Vegas if you don't like gambling, shows, or fancy restaurants? There's hiking! And while it's not in Las Vegas it's also not far out of it.

Saturday morning we drove out to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the trailhead for Owl Canyon. Although we got a later start on the day than I wanted to I knew there was plenty of time left in the day— especially if this hike was all we wanted to do. And even at the trailhead I could tell we were in for an enjoyable time.

Oh, I'm so scared! Owl Canyon Trail, Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Feb 2025)

I mean, anytime a sign warns the trail is tough... that's generally code for, "Really fun for even moderately experienced hkers." It's scare-words for "Weak-sauce city folk STAY OUT." 🤣

The Owl Canyon trail starts by descending from a high bluff (Feb 2025)

The trail starts with a steep descent down from the the top of the bluff where the parking area and some picnic tables are. Ugh, that's going to be not-fun as the last part of the trail when we're coming back tired. At least it's not a huge climb out. I don't think it's more than about 100' ascent back up.

Bluff above Las Vegas arm of Lake Mead NRA (Feb 2025)

Across the wash at the bottom of the canyon the trail climbs over another bluff. This one's not so vertical as the one the trail starts from. It's prettier, though, with orange-red rocks and views across to the Las Vegas Wash.

Hawk and I took a detour to explore the top of the bluff instead of following the trail that quickly descended from a saddle point. Curiously there are lots of seashells up here.

How did all the shells get here? Our first thought was that birds dropped them after fishing the waters of the lake. But quickly we saw that there are thousands of shells up here. That's too many for birds dropping them after eating. This spot must've been underwater at some point in the past. ...But the water level in Lake Mead, which you can see in the pic above, looks to be at least 100' below us. How long ago would it have been high enough to cover this ground? It can't have been too many years ago as otherwise there wouldn't be so many shells in such good condition due to weathering. Also, the Hoover Dam that created Lake Mead only finished construction in 1935.

Walking a bluff at Lake Mead NRA (Feb 2025)

We walked along the bluff top, exploring the views from different angles. The views up here were just so beautiful we kept going instead of doubling back, hoping there might be an exit down the far side. Plus, it was special being up here because while we saw occasional small groups of hikers on the trail below, nobody else thought to explore up here atop this butte. Hooray, solitude!

Update: I learned in visiting the Hoover Dam the following day that the last time the lake level rose to a high of 1,225' elevation above sea level in 1983. The bluff we were standing on was at about 1,200' elevation. So possibly the seashells we were seeing atop this bluff have sat there undisturbed for 40 years. Now that is some solitude!

On a bluff near the mouth of Owl Canyon, Lake Mead NRA (Feb 2025)

In this panoramic photo (above) you can see the trail winding around beneath the bluffs. In the distance is the actual Owl Canyon. We'll hike a loop that has us going up another canyon and then coming down Owl Canyon, exiting it in this area. Then we'll hike over the saddle point halfway up this bluff and climb the first bluff back up to the trailhead. But that could be hours from now, and now is now....

Gypsum rocks, Lake Mead NRA (Feb 2025)

On the far side of the bluff we found this odd mineral deposit. It looks like snow! It's actually gypsum. We scrambled over a bunch of large gypsum boulders to climb down the bluff. We had to be careful on them as gypsum is a soft mineral. If we stepped on a thin deposit, it could crumble under our feet and send us tumbling.

We got down the rough backside of the bluff okay. Then we bushwhacked through a bunch of dead bushes in the wash where the lake level had been higher recently, and climbed back up the slope on the far side to rejoin the trail.

To be continued!

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #8
Henderson NV - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 6pm

We're back from hiking Owl Canyon today.

"Wait, what?" you might be wondering. "What happened to all the pictures and video you always post from hiking trips?"

Those pictures and video are in the backlog. And to prevent this whole trip series from getting backlogged too badly I'm leaving them there for now and jumping ahead to this entry. I've skipped three blogs ahead! But to give you a taste I have prepared this one photo from the backlog:

Oh, I'm so scared! Owl Canyon Trail, Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Feb 2025)

Yup, the trail was rough in places. No, it wasn't that bad. Yes, we've seen worse. Far worse. I mean, we didn't suffer a slip or scrape on this trail. And I didn't even drop my camera off a cliff or in a swamp!

One thing the hike did do was tire us out. It also built our appetites. On the way back to the hotel we stopped for early dinner at Golden Corral. Yes, Golden Corral the buffet restaurant that's a favorite of the "Americans 350+ lbs. in motorized wheelchairs" demographic. I mean, the restaurant even has a motorized wheelchair parking area— you could say, corral— with a power strip for recharging... indoors by the restrooms. 🤣

Now we're back at the hotel and staying in for the night. We'll rest up, and I'll probably go to bed early again tonight. Tomorrow I want to get up early to head out to Valley of Fire State Park for a full day of hiking!

canyonwalker: Walking through the desert together (2010) (through the desert)
Non-Vegas Vegas Weekend Travelog #2
Lake Mead, NV - Sat, 15 Feb 2025, 11:45am

We got off to a slow start this morning. It wasn't from sleeping in late, though. I wouldn't have minded sleeping in late. It would've been my first time in about 6 days. No, my body decided 5:45am was waking up time. Then there were a series of things I needed/wanted to do that resulted in us not getting out for over 5 hours. 😒

Where are we going out to?

View across the Las Vegas Wash in Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Feb 2025)

It's the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We're out here for a day of hiking. The photo above is a view from the trailhead. But unfortunately it's already 11:45. The day's, like, half over. What took so long?

Beginning in Henderson, which is just southeast of Las Vegas, my first task was to get a ride back to Las Vegas Airport to rent a car. Why not do it last night when Hawk and I were literally at the airport together? Well, when we booked this trip initially there were different timings, and it made sense to get the car in the morning rather than the night before. By the time my company forced a change of plans on me, the price of the rental car had gone up over $100 for our 3-day weekend. For that kind of money Hawk and I decided we could Lyft/Uber around a few times. And walking to dinner from the hotel last night wasn't bad.

I checked the hotel's breakfast offering on the way out. Ugh, runny scrambled eggs and a room full of boisterous children. It looks like there's a U8 team staying here for a tournament. I skipped the breakfast buffet and ate a protein bar with half a bottle of Coke Zero.

Once back at the airport— actually, the rental car center, which is 2-3 miles from the terminal— I went through the hoops of picking up my car. "I"ve upgraded your car," the rental agent said cheerfully. Hooray, the benefits of elite status! "It's a Toyota Corolla!" she continued. ...Wait, what? Nobody in the history of the world has ever thought, "Oh, my, a Corolla, what an upgrade!"

Well, good news/bad news. My assigned car— my upgrade Corolla— had a cracked windshield and a busted windshield wiper hanging loose. I trudged back to the rental office— yes, it was a trudge, as they gave me what seemed like the farthest away car in the lot— and got a new assignment. This one actually was a slight upgrade. Well, an upgrade from a Corolla anyway. 😂

Hyundai Elantra rental car. It's nearly new! (Feb 2025)

It's a Hyundai Elantra, and it's almost new— just 1,005 miles on the odometer. And it's not really much of an upgrade from a Corolla, though it does look sharper. And it has heated seats— which are a huge bonus for Hawk, whose back problems are flaring.

Back at the hotel we gathered our hiking gear for the day. Hawk had already packed most of mine while I was out, which was helpful. But we still needed to finalize where to go. We'd meant to do that last night, but both of us tired out quickly and went to bed early. And it took me a while this morning as I was still unpacking— mentally unpacking— from a busy week of training at work.

As we got ready to actually leave I realized I'd forgotten to pack my hiking gloves. I use them to protect my hands while boulder scrambling. And our chosen hike, Owl Canyon, would definitely have boulder-scrambling in slot canyons! Well, good news/bad news. I could buy a pair of gloves easily at a sporting goods store like Big 5, which there's one of half a mile from the hotel. But it wouldn't open for another 30 minutes.

"No problem," we figured. "We'll go out for a quick brunch first." Except the place we picked was closed. Permanently. Oops. With the drive time there and back the Big 5 was already open, so I just did my shopping. They had hiking socks on sale, so at least I made my shopping a two-fer. And they had the exact type of gloves I wanted.

We still needed brunch. We quickly agreed on another restaurant kind of on the way out of town. Then, as we pulled into the parking space in front of the door, we noticed another restaurant across the street: Del Taco! Yes, Del Taco, one of our guilty favorites. Well, not guilty, because we have no reason to feel guilty for it. We un-parked, drove across the street, and ate at Del Taco.

It was nearly 11am by the time we got rolling again, finally actually driving out to our hike for the day. We reached the trailhead for Owl Canyon at 11:30, laced up our boots, checked our packs, and got ready to hit the trail.

Whew, it's taken hours longer than it should have to get to this point, but now we're looking forward to a fun hike!

Update: Keep reading in Hiking the Owl Canyon Loop - Part 1

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix Weekend Travelog #2
Arizona Grand Resort - Thu, 9 May 2024, 9pm

After arriving in Phoenix this afternoon Hawk and I checked in at the Arizona Grand Resort. We settled in our room, a comfortable if not exactly luxurious suite. ...Well, not luxurious compared to where we've stayed the past 5 days, anyway. You can see pics of a suite here from our visit last year.

Since I already have pics of the inside, here's a photo of the view from the balcony:

View of the waterpark from our room at the Arizona Grand Hotel (May 2024)

This is similar to the view we had last year; same building but a floor or two higher this year. And this year we paid an upgrade fee to get this room. This hotel is getting pretty bad with nickel-and-diming for things. Their room rate looks low at first, but then there's a mandatory $75 per night "resort fee". Then the optional $30/night fee we paid for a room with a view. And the view's not even all that great. We mostly see the backside of the kitchen building for serving food in the pool area. Next time— if there is a next time— I don't think we'll waste $30/night on a "view". Anyway, enough fussing about prices. We're here for the waterpark!

After getting settled in our room by 4pm we went out to the waterpark for an hour or so. We rafted around the lazy river a few times. We pulled out a bit early to dry off, change in our room, and visit a gem store Hawk really likes in the area. After that we killed time for a bit until it was time to pick up her parents at the airport. They're flying in from the east coast to join us here for the next few days.

Now we've got my inlaws squared away in their room. They didn't pay the $30/night extra for a view but they've got a ground-floor room with a nice patio. It's at least twice the size of our balcony. I'm a bit jealous... though being on the ground floor means there's no privacy with people walking past, so they need to keep their curtains drawn when not fully dressed. We're looking forward to keep ours open this evening for fresh desert air as we go to sleep!


canyonwalker: Walking through the desert together (2010) (through the desert)
Los Cabos Travelog #17
Baja California Sur, Mexico - Wed, 8 May 2024, 3pm

Today we went ATV riding in the Baja desert. It was another of the A-or-B activities arranged for my company club trip. I think the "B" activity was a spa treatment, so yeah, I was totally going with Option A. Hawk, too.

Geared up for ATV riding in the Baja desert (May 2024) A bus took us to a spot over an hour away. Fourteen of us were aboard for the activity.

After the difficulty I had with snorkeling yesterday you might wonder if I'd want to try another physical activity. Hell yes! It's not the physicality.; it's my familiarity with the equipment. While I've never driven an ATV before I have been driving 4x4 vehicles for 27 years. I'm very confident with reading trails and picking the right line through obstacles. As I took the while after a quick briefing on the controls, I thought to myself, "This is like a Jeep and a lawnmower had a baby."

The photo above/right of me in my gear is the only one I have from this activity. The guides told us multiple times not to try using phones or cameras during the trip. "You'll need to keep both hands on the wheel and pay attention to driving," they advised us. Which was totally reasonable. But it was also because they were taking pictures for us to sell at absolutely hideous prices. How hideous? Over $100 for a digital download of 20 or so pics they made. $72 for single photo printed as a souvenir. Fuck no.

The ATV I drove was a two-seater, front and back. I had wanted a solo ATV but Hawk didn't want to drive. Thus she rode as my passenger for the full hour.

While we were out on the trail we saw other groups in the same area. Other outfitters offer ATV rides, too. And some offer a much more classic 4x4 way of traversing the desert....

We rode modern ATVs through the desert; others rode these ancient ATVs (May 2024)

I was amused we saw camels in the same area as Hawk had spotted beach camel rides a couple weeks ago when we were planning activities for our Los Cabos trip. I was way more interested in ATVs than camels, though. "Compared to ATVs," I warned, "Camels are stinky and mean."

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
Phoenix late April travelog #2
Arizona Grand Hotel - Thursday, 27 Apr 2023, 6pm

We're back in Phoenix for a stay at a hotel resort with a waterpark. Yes, it hasn't even been a month since the last time we did this, in early April. That's why I've put "late April" in the subhead. It's not even a different month. But it is a different hotel! This time we're staying at the Arizona Grand.

The living room in our suite at the Arizona Grand Hotel (Apr 2023)

What's the Arizona Grand? Well, it turns out it's a lot like the Pointe Hilton we've stayed at a few times in the past. The layout of the rooms is similar. The rooms are suites, as you can see in the pictures above and below. Up front there's a living room; in the back is the bedroom.

The bedroom in our suite at the Arizona Grand Hotel (Apr 2023)

The bedroom has a balcony. Ours overlooks the main waterpark area... though it isn't quite high enough to offer a commanding view of the resort. The layout of the buildings is similar, too. After we tire of the main waterpark there's a smaller pool and hot tub in the courtyard of our building. I have a strong suspicion this used to be a Pointe Hotel, too, years ago but didn't reflag to Hilton when the two others in town did. Or maybe it did reflag to Hilton but then went independent.

Lazy river pool at the Arizona Grand Hotel (Apr 2023)

The selling point of the Arizona Grand is that its waterpark is bigger than the other hotel's. The lazy river is wider and... faster. I don't know if I like that better. It was thankfully uncrowded on this Thursday afternoon after lunch. It will probably be a lot busier by Saturday. Maybe one thing keeping boisterous kids out of the lazy river pool is the wave pool next to it. There's nothing wrong with boisterous kids, per se. Kids are allowed to have fun, too. But the lazy river pool is for being lazy. The life guards ought to pass out speeding tickets for people going too fast.

This hotel also has bigger water slides than the other hotel. I don't have a picture of there yet, but there are three. Update: included a pic in subsequent blog entry. One's got lots of turns and is about twice the height of the twisty slide at the other hotel. Two slides are speed slides with about an 80 foot drop. I rode the twisty-turn-y slide a few times but haven't braved the speed slides yet. Buy hey, there's still 3 more days here, and nothing else to worry about having to do!

canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
New Orleans travelog #11
Kenner, LA - Wednesday, 26 Apr 2023, 8pm

This is the part of the trip where we diverge from the original plan we made months ago. Originally we planned drive to Florida this evening after wrapping up our brief jaunt through MIssissippi and spend 4 nights in Pensacola Beach. Ten days ago we canceled our beach plans. Instead we've driven back to New Orleans, returned our rental car, and are flying out early tomorrow morning. Oh, but we're not going home. A day after canceling the beach and struggling with what to do instead we forged plans with friends for a waterpark vacation in Phoenix.

You might think, "Wait, you traded off 4 days at the beach for... the desert?!" Yes, it's the desert, but the waterpark should be really fun. It's bigger than the one we've visited several times in the past. Plus we'll meet friends there. Plus the weather's not great at the beach anyway. Here's what's on tap at Pensacola Beach:

We ditched our beach trip once the weather started looking like this... (Apr 2023)

Ugh. It'd be a trip full of rainy days with high temps not rising above the mid 70s. That's poor beach weather. 👎

And here's what's waiting for us in Phoenix:

...And decided to go to Phoenix for swimming weather like THIS. (Apr 2023)

Beautiful lazy river & waterslide weather!

canyonwalker: Driving on the beach at Oceano Dunes (4x4)
North Las Vegas Travelog #17
Desert National Wildlife Refuge - Mon, 19 Feb 2023, 5pm

I wrote two blogs before this one about driving the Mormon Well Road. It's an unpaved 4x4 route that crosses 40 miles through the Sheep Range Mountains of Desert National Wildlife Refuge. We tackled it in our rented Toyota Rav4— a vehicle that I didn't think terribly much of on the pavement. Would it handle the 4x4 route okay?

At first it seemed like the answer was Yes, it would handle the route just fine. I had already checked recent posts on a wheeling website as well as asked at the ranger station in the morning. Both indicated the trail was in fine shape for 4x4s with a bit of extra ground clearance. Indeed, the first nearly 20 miles of the trail were fairly well graded gravel. Then it got tough. And by tough I mean muddy.

We drove THAT? The Mormon Well Road (Feb 2023)

As the trail neared its crest of 6,683 ft. (2,037 meters) the gravel surface ended. What a place to stop with the gravel— pretty much at the snow line! And since the snow had fallen several days earlier (remember that storm that screwed up my day getting to Vegas on Tuesday?) it was now melting and forming puddles of mud.

The mud started out patchy at first. It seemed like just one stretch to get through, and I could avoid most of it by staying to one side of the road as I drove. But then that one stretch was followed by another, and another, and then more. And soon the mud spread across the whole trail. I was driving with two wheels up on the berm at the side of the trail most of the time, dodging trees and bushes while trying to keep two wheels out of the goop.

It was tough going. I used all my 4x4 skills, picking lines, maintaining speed, avoiding digging in with tire spin, and steering into the many skids as the vehicle bucked back and forth in the mud. Meanwhile the Rav4 was doing yeoman's work. The AWD selector offered a "Mud and Sand" mode which I engaged, suspicious it was mostly a button for show, but it really delivered the goods. There were at least two spots where I thought we were surely stuck, but between my resolve and the Rav4's unwillingness to quit, we got through.

Mud and snow at the top of the Mormon Well Road (Feb 2023)

We pulled aside at the trail's crest. The mud looked a little easier going downhill ahead. Of course, it looked a lot easier coming up before we really got into it!

Getting muddy on the Mormon Well Road (Feb 2023)

This is what our vehicle looked like at this point on the journey. I'm only surprised there wasn't more mud on it!

As we were getting ready to continue onward, another 4x4er came up the trail from the opposite direction. Driving a heavily modified Jeep Wrangler he was surprised we'd gotten up here "in this". He meant the Rav4, not the mud. But also the mud, I guess. Anyway, the other driver had good news for us: the route down was less muddy than what we'd already gotten through. Plus, I figured, driving gently downhill in mud is easier than driving gently uphill; the pull of gravity helps with maintaining forward momentum.

The second 20 miles of the offroad trek passed subjectively much faster than the first 20. This is the phenomenon I've warned about when hiking back out on a trail. You feel you've been there, done that, seen everything. You focus on putting one foot in front of the other, at the risk of sort of sleep-walking through half the trek. Here, our adrenaline was spent from slogging through the mud. We had already seen plenty of the scenery, too. Now we were focused on getting back on time— and continuing to not get stuck.

As we crossed over the last ridge coming down out of the mountains we started playing a game of how far the road was. "I can see what looks like a building, it's probably 8 miles," said Hawk. "Now I can see tractor-trailers on the road, it can't be more than 2 miles," I countered. Soon enough we were back on pavement. We turned South and headed back to Vegas.

Driving back to Vegas after visiting Desert National Wildlife Refuge (Feb 2023)

Once we got back to Vegas we looked for two things before returning the car: gas and car wash.

I thought we'd need a self-wash place to really knock all the mud off the car. Hawk suggested we try automated wash first. I agreed. It predictably got... most... of the exterior clean but did nothing about all the mud caked inside the wheel wells, the wheels, and around the suspension.

So next we found a self-wash place. It was much cheaper than those in our area back home. We started with $3 because that's the minimum back home for about 3 minutes. Here in Vegas $1 bought 3 minutes. We dropped all $3 in, and I got busy with the pressure hose. 9 minutes of heavy spraying was just enough to knock all the dirt off so you'd be hard pressed to figure out how much mud we drove through.

We parked next to one of the vacuums at the self-wash place to repack our suitcases and change into street clothes before returning to the airport. At first felt a bit self-conscious about changing clothes in a parking lot, but let's just say that self-wash garages tend to be in... not the most discerning... parts of town. Basically we were in the slums. We weren't bothering anybody, so nobody bothered us. Then, with the car sparkling clean and us back in our fancy clothes, we were ready to drive past the gleaming high-rise casino hotels to the airport for our flight back home.



canyonwalker: Driving on the beach at Oceano Dunes (4x4)
North Las Vegas Travelog #16
Desert National Wildlife Refuge - Mon, 19 Feb 2023, 1:30pm

We continue our drive through the Desert National Wildlife Refuge north of Las Vegas. After ascending Yucca Pass and going through the Joshua Tree forest we continued higher to Peekaboo Canyon.



So far we're doing well on time, too. We're making faster progress along the 4x4 road than I estimated.

My optimism is about to get stuck in the mud, though. 😱 Stay tuned!

Keep readingFighting through mud— and snow— in the Morrmon Pass!



canyonwalker: Driving on the beach at Oceano Dunes (4x4)
North Las Vegas Travelog #15
Desert National Wildlife Refuge - Mon, 19 Feb 2023, 1pm

After our morning scenic drive beneath Mt. Charleston (previous blog in this series) we ate a quick lunch in the northeastern corner of Las Vegas then drove back out to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR). At the visitor's center they had a nice display about Bighorn Sheep.

Sheep display at Desert National Wildlife Refuge (Feb 2023)

The Sheep Range is the principal mountain inside the park, so would we see any bighorns? Alas, no. They're generally reclusive animals, and the high desert is a tough environment that doesn't encourage them to take extra risks. We've seen them up close in other places, though, so we'd have to satisfy ourselves with that plus the fact that they'd like be watching us from well hidden positions.

While we scoped out DNWR for today's adventures thinking we might go hiking, it turned out that the hiking was lame, so we switched to Plan B— actually Plan C, as taking that scenic drive below Mt. Charleston was already Plan B— and chose to drive the Mormon Well 4x4 road through the park.

Driving the Mormon Well Road through Desert National Wildlife Refuge (Feb 2023)

Mormon Well Road is 41 miles of gravel and dirt road between paved endpoints. Would we make it in our rented Toyota Rav4 AWD cute-ute? The rangers at the visitor's center thought the road was in fairly good condition, but I could tell from their wording and body language that they really didn't know. I chose to trust in my skills at offroad driving that I could get through more challenges than most people and also know when to turn back if necessary.

The first many miles of the road, at least, were easy going. We started with a few miles of climbing up to Yucca Gap at elev. 4,000 ft. The road surface, as you can see in the pic above, was graded gravel.

Driving the Mormon Well Road through Desert National Wildlife Refuge (Feb 2023)

The exposed rock in Yucca Gap features a lot of fossils. We drove down a short side trail and parked the car while Hawk went exploring on the rocks.

We're a little worried about time on this trip so we didn't stay too long. The time issue is that we've got to get back to Las Vegas for a flight this evening. To do that we need to be off this trail by 5pm. To be done at 5pm we have to... well, that depends on how long it takes to drive 41 miles. 41 miles offroad is not like driving 41 miles on pavement. Here we're doing well if we're averaging above 10mph. And that's not counting time we want for stops like this one.

A Joshua Tree forest along Mormon Well Road in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge (Feb 2023)

Our next (brief) stop was in a Joshua Tree forest. This pic doesn't look very forest-y, does it? That's because we're in high desert, at 5,000 ft. elevation. There's not a lot of water here. These Joshua Trees— yucca brevifolia, also called Yucca Trees— are hardy, but this is the best even they can manage in this austere environment.

The adventure continues
! Read about our drive through Peekaboo Canyon.


canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
North Las Vegas Travelog #14
Somewhere outside Las Vegas - Mon, 19 Feb 2023, 11am

Today's our last day in Las Vegas/North Las Vegas. Our plan for today, before we fly home in the evening, is to do some hiking and car-touring north of Las Vegas, in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. Nothing is really set in stone, which is good because we weren't sure what the conditions would be like or what trails the rangers would recommend. When we stopped at the refuge visitor's center this morning, in fact, we found out there really isn't that much hiking. It's basically jjust a nature trail around the center, which is down in the uninteresting part of the desert.

We popped out of the refuge (we'll go back later in the day) and went for a scenic drive up in the mountains around Mt. Charleston. Not having things set in stone allowed us to do that. Up at elev. 8,200 ft. we reached the Desert View Overlook.

It's snowy at the Desert View Overlook, with Mummy Mountain in the background (Feb 2023)

It's snowy up here! We started seeing patchy snow on the drive from around 6,000' elevation. Up here over 8,000 there are deeper drifts. Some families with younger kids were coming up here just to play in the snow.

The mountain in the background is Mummy Mountain. At first I thought it was Mt. Charleston, the highest peak in the range just west of Las Vegas, but it's not. Mt. Charleston is behind Mummy Mountain from this angle. And you can't see it because they're of similar height. Mummy Mountain reaches 11,333 ft.; Mt. Charleston reaches 11,812 ft.

It's snowy at the Desert View Overlook, elev. 8,200 ft., outside Las Vegas (Feb 2023)

There's a short, paved trail from the parking lot down to an overlook from. "Wheelchair accessible," the official descriptions all note. Except rifght now it's buried under packed ice and snow up to 2 feet deep. We carefully picked our way partway down it.

A desert view at the Desert View Overlook. Yon mountains are 30 miles away. (Feb 2023)

This third picture is what they really expected us to look at when they named this place the Desert View Overlook. It's a view of the actual desert! One of the signs here explains that different people see different things when they look at the desert. Natives see their ancestral land, geologists see history, the military sees a great place to drop bombs (yes, the sign said that). Surprisingly, "Screw the desert, look at this awesome snowy mountain instead!" was not one of the examples. But, hey, the desert view is nice, too. And not in a way that makes me think of dropping bombs.

BTW, the mountains in the distance, including Sheep Peak and a bit of snow atop Hayford Peak, are 30+ miles away. One great thing, and sometimes one disorienting thing, about the desert is the incredible sight distance.
canyonwalker: Walking through the desert together (2010) (through the desert)
North Las Vegas Travelog #12
Back at the hotel - Sun, 19 Feb 2023, 4pm

We wrapped up our visit to Valley of Fire state park today around 2:30pm. As we'd already done two amazing hikes today— the White Domes loop and Fire Wave/7 Wonders loop— we decided to finish up with easier, mostly drive-to sights. Our first was a drive out to the Fire Canyon Overlook.


Link: Watch video on YouTube

From here we could have taken a short hike out to the Silica Domes. You can see them— the round topped pale yellow massifs— to the left as I pan around with my camera. We were honestly getting kind of tired, though. We were also suffering red rock beauty fatigue, a risk I described in my previous blog about finishing up the 7 Wonders Loop.

About Video on Hikes

I wasn't sure I would post pictures from this stop. The still photos seemed not that great. They were not evocative of the beauty of standing there. They felt flat. That's one of the challenges of photographing canyon-y terrain like this: it looks way more impressive from down in the canyon than looking over it from above. But then I saw this short video I shot and thought, "Wow, this brings the experience of standing there more alive."

Shooting video when I'm out hiking is something I'm practicing doing more. The inclination doesn't come naturally to me right now. Still photography I've worked into my hiking routine. Making photos isn't a distraction, it's part of how I enjoy hiking. Video is still a distraction, though. That's why I'm working on it.

That said, I've been really happy with the results when I remember to make videos on recent trips. I'm pleased with my videos from the White Domes loop, the Mustard Cliffs and Roast Beef Canyon, and the Hobbit Narrows today. I think the one that got me the most excited about doing this was ridge-walking the Kelso Dunes in December. Click my 'videos' tag below to see more examples.

Calling it a Day

We did try one more stop after this one, a short trail to some petrified logs. As we arrived at the trailhead a small family coming back advised us it wasn't worth the effort. The logs were small, and there are so many other things to see in the park. We know! This is our second time visiting Valley of Fire, and there's only one trail we've hiked twice. Spots we enjoyed a few years ago that we didn't go back to this time include Fire Canyon, Seven Sisters, and the Elephant. Any day where we go home tired and punch-drunk on beauty without even seeing everything is a great day.

In beauty I walk.



canyonwalker: Walking through the desert together (2010) (through the desert)
North Las Vegas Travelog #6
Valley of Fire State Park - Sun, 19 Feb 2023, 9:30am

Today was another day of getting up early. I'd say Ugh to getting up at 6:45am twice in a row on the weekend— tomorrow it'll be three in a row when we do the same on the holiday Monday— but it's for a good cause. We're enjoying the great outdoors on our trip to Las Vegas. Especially now, in February, when temperatures in the desert are moderate. Highs are forecast around 63-65° F (17-18° C).

Our trip today is out to Nevada's Valley of Fire State Park. It's about an hour north of Las Vegas. A small, brown sign next to one of the exits on I-15 is all that tells travelers zooming past at 80mph that there's something here. I remember the first time zooming past that sign 20+ years ago, thinking, "Looks like nothing's here." And I was right.... Nothing is there, along the highway. But nestled in a valley 10 miles east is something amazing.

Roadside scenery at Valley of Fire, Nevada (Feb 2023)

The brightly colored sandstone of Valley of Fire is an ancient seabed. 200 million years ago this desert was an inland ocean. 50 millions years ocean floor rose, the water disappeared, and the sandstone began to be carved away by wind and rain.

These sheer cliffs and spires that put the red rocks on beautiful display are the result of geologic faults. Forces from deep within the earth caused the rock on one side of the fault line to rise and the other side to fall. The erosive forces of wind and rain have continued to carve away at the soft rock.

Roadside scenery at Valley of Fire, Nevada (Feb 2023)

It's a good thing digital film is cheap because I've shot more than a roll worth before even getting to our first hiking trail today.

Roadside scenery at Valley of Fire, Nevada (Feb 2023)

And most of that roll+ worth of digital film I've shot through the car's windshield or by holding my hand out the window while driving. It's so beautiful here it's just not possible to stop for everything!
canyonwalker: Walking through the desert together (2010) (through the desert)
5 Days in the Desert travelog #26
Back home - Wed, 28 Dec 2022, 11pm

We arrived home from our 5 Days in the Desert trip this evening at 10pm. It's been a long day. Though we took it a bit easy this morning, not checking out from the hotel until 9am, we then drove to Trona, hiked around at Trona Pinnacles, and completed the rest of the drive home after a late lunch in Ridgecrest, CA. We drove nearly 500 miles today in addition to the few hours we spent hiking.

Here are Five Things in retrospect about the trip:

1) Lots of driving. I knew at the outset we'd tally a lot of miles going back and forth between staying at a hotel in Barstow and driving out to the desert every day for hiking, but I hadn't thought hard about what it'd total up to. The answer is 1,784 miles. In 6 days.

2) Better driving than flying this week. Driving such long distances is tiring, even though I do handle it better than most people. "Why not fly so you can just sit back and relax?" some ask. This past week... Ha! Commercial aviation has been a trainwreck. Weather woes are tying up more than half the country, and the airline I fly most often, Southwest, has suffered an operation meltdown. They canceled 15,000 flights around Christmas, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.

3) Last-minute buys at REI were useful. I was frustrated on Friday morning as we were packing to leave home that I would need to buy a couple of things: another pair of long-leg hiking pants (I had only one set) and a good flashlight (mine was dead with the battery compartment jammed shut). I was even more frustrated when lines at our local REI store moved so slowly. Oh, and the items were expensive: $80 for the pants, $25 for the flashlight, plus tax. Batteries were included, at least. Fortunately both turned out to be good buys. I needed the second pair of hiking trousers, and they worked better than their seemingly cheap material suggested. (Maybe the material only feels thin. I'll know their durability after another few months.) And the flashlight worked well in exploring caves.

4) We overpacked a little— but the preparation was good. In these trip retrospectives I always consider how close to optimal our packing was. Failing to bring things we need is a mistake, of course, but so is way overpacking. It takes up space and slows a traveler down. This trip I packed a few shirts and a pair of trousers I didn't need. They were street clothes. I packed them because I thought we might do non-hike-y stuff, but it turns out all we did was hiking, driving to & from hiking, getting meals after hiking when we didn't care about being dusty, and resting in the privacy of our hotel room. We also packed a bag of games we didn't play. Those were primarily a rainy day strategy (literally!). We thankfully didn't have too much in the way of rainy days to deal with; just a half day or so.

5) Unplugging from work. It's not really a vacation if you're still thinking about work... or worse, if you're still checking in on things/logging in to help out because you really can't unplug from the job. I succeeded in this regard. I not only stayed unplugged from work the whole time, I forgot about it. Seriously, I don't remember what I need to do first when I go back. That'll be my first order of business next Tuesday morning. 🤣 But between us we're 1-1 in this regard. While I unplugged from work on this trip, Hawk put in almost a full day worth of work spread across Mon-Wed this week.



canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
5 Days in the Desert travelog #25
Ridgecrest, CA - Wed, 28 Dec 2022, 1pm

We're close to wrapping up our "5 Days in the Desert" trip. Today we're headed home, but first with a detour to visit Trona Pinnacles just southwest of Death Valley. We've been wanting to visit the Trona Pinnacles for years, but it seems that each time we're in Death Valley there just isn't quite enough time to get over here. Thus we tacked it on to the end of this trip. It was an easy drive from Barstow to the town of Ridgecrest, California this morning. From there it was about a 15 mile drive out of town to reach the access road, then a 5 mile drive on dirt and gravel roads.

Trona Pinnacles, California (Dec 2022)

So, what are the Trona Pinnacles? They're a set of tufa spires, tufa being a calcium carbonate formation created underwater. Yes, underwater. This desert basin at about 1,800 feet elevation used to be 700 feet underwater. At the end of the last Ice Age, glaciers from the Sierra Nevada melted and formed a huge inland sea. What's left of it today is the mostly dry Searles Lake, several miles north of here.

Trona Pinnacles, California (Dec 2022)

The main access road to Trona Pinnacles is accessible to orindary passenger cars. There's also a short driving loop. There's a hiking loop, too, plus a number of shorter trail up to & around the various tufa formations.

Trona Pinnacles, California (Dec 2022)

We had fun hoofing it through the main clusters of formations. After that we drove into one of the other sets of formations. The roads to this other part of the park are rouger and require 4wd and/or higher clearance to avoid getting stuck.


Now it's time to head home. Well, after we finish eating lunch in Ridgecrest it's time to head home.



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