Touring Majestic America: Part I - Lake Mead, Black Canyon Colorado River

I was not too excited for our vacation this year. We initially were going to rent an RV and take our entire family, including our canine children, on a two-week excursion to Lake Mead, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Lake Powell. After some thoughtful deliberations, we shortened our vacation to eight days, removed Lake Powell from the itinerary, eliminated the RV, and opted to not take Buddy and Bella. Though my expectations for this vacation were low, this family-bonding trip unexpectedly proved to be an amazing and fun experience for all of us. I love my family.  I love spending time with them. We fit well together because we are all eager for athletic and physical adventures and this was the perfect opportunity to do all that.

 

Lake Mead, Black Canyon Colorado River
 

My brother Leroy lives in Henderson, which is a very short distance from Lake Mead. It is blistering hot in Nevada. The temperatures were consistently in the 100s. We arrived on Saturday evening. (Our arrival was delayed by my visit to the Nike Outlet store at Primm. How can I drive to Vegas and not stop at the Nike Store???) We spent Saturday evening chatting with Leroy and letting the cousins play with each other. We woke up Sunday morning and decided to do timed runs at a local high school track. Really? It was 8 a.m. and already in the high 90s.  My little nephew who was only 9 years old did like a 3:30 half mile.  Sheesh!  I can't even do that.  Following our little run, we took our first venture into Lake Mead, and quite honestly, it was simply a disaster. When entering the park, the ranger warned us about the heavy winds on the lake. By the time we got the boat launched and into the water, we stayed for about 15 minutes before returning back to the dock. The kids were screaming for their life. “We are going to die! We are going to die!”, they screamed with smiles on their faces. Lance recognized the potential danger in the situation, and he quickly steered us back to shore. The winds created a very unstable environment with waves crashing violently against the boat. When we returned to the shore, we drove to the nearby Pebble Beach to swim, but frankly, everyone just wanted to return to Leroy’s house to swim in the pool, and so that is what we did.
 

According to Lance, Monday’s excursion was the best day of our entire vacation. Leroy recommended that we take the boat to Willow Beach and cruise along the Colorado River with the beautiful canyons cradling the river. This was just the perfect adventure. It wasn’t crowded. Occasionally, we would see another boat, but the majority of the time, it felt like we were all alone out there. We hiked. We explored, and we went swimming in the freezing Colorado River. Outside temperatures were in the low 100s, but the river water was coooooold. Unfortunately, during this outing, my less than 7-month old IPhone got water damaged. Perhaps, I shouldn’t say "unfortunately" because it just expedited my acquiring the new Galaxy Samsung S5 which is what I really wanted. Yay!

Lance and Dylan exploring

 



My nephew Aidan and Brandon




Isn't this beautiful?  You can see the water reflection.




All of us



 

 



Dylan hikes up a cliff to moons us.





Dylan and I swam to this rock for photos, but Brandon is a terrible photographer!



 

The Colorado River was so clear. You could easily see the bottom of it. It was mostly rocky bottom. We saw ducks and fish and just admired nature.  It was so beautiful. The canyons that aligned the river just carried you to serene place so far removed from the chaos of city and suburban life.  When we were leaving Willow Beach, we saw a pack of wild goats.  At least, I think they were goats.  It was just amazing to see wildlife so close in their natural habitat.  As much as I love visiting zoos, I don't really believe in having wild animals in captivity.

look how clear that water is...



Lance's facial expression says it all.

 

I could have spent all day on the Colorado River. We liked it better than Lake Mead. It was more isolated with less people. Even though the water was cold, we took little jumps in to cool off and it was a welcome relief from the the hot air temperature.  We would cruise up and down the river making ocassional stops to explore and hike and even have lunch.  It really was an incredible day!  Later that evening, we all went to the movies. The kids saw the new Planes movie while Lance and I sat through Hercules. In the evening, we played a very competitive game of foosball at Leroy’s house. My family is competitive, and it gets pretty intense when we are playing games. Leroy's younger sons looked at us strangely as we all got into the intense, heated game.  Leroy and Dylan lost against me and Lance.  Now, I want to get us a foosball table. We were sweating! Seriously! Dripping sweat!  Can you believe that?
  

Tuesday morning, we were scheduled to travel to Bryce Canyon, but our departure was delayed as Lance had to go urgent care. His ear had been troubling him for some time, and it only seemed to worsen. Leroy is a doctor and recommended Lance be seen because he was concerned that the elevation at Bryce would cause more disabling pain. Lance got antibiotic and waxed removed, but the pain in his ear did not subside. In fact, I scheduled him an appointment with an ENT when we returned. (Side note: Lance will have to have surgery in his ear to repair his eardrum. His eardrum is ruptured, which is a result of a childhood injury that never healed.) After the visit to the urgent care, we began the long commute to Bryce. This day was a pretty crappy day too because we got stuck in a traffic jam. There was a severe accident on the interstate. It was so bad that traffic was at a standstill. We sat in a non moving vehicle in over 100 degree temperature for an hour.  We couldn't even roll down our windows, and we definitely couldn't keep the air conditioner running in an idle car for very long. Why could we not roll down our windows? We were next to a truck that was transporting cows and the smell of manure consumed the air.   After listening to the CB, the truck driver told it would be hours before it was cleared.  He knew he had to get his truck moving or the poor cows would be dead so we, along with the truck driver, made a U-turn. We found a longer, more scenic alternate route to Bryce Canyon. I’ve learned to not complain when you are stuck in traffic due to an accident. I’m certain those people in the accident would trade places with me in an instant. We are blessed. 

We all enjoyed the Colorado River, and we are definitely visiting it again.  We have no excuse. It's only a 4.5 hour drive. Motor vessels cannot cruise upstream on Sundays and Mondays, which regrettably was the day we were there.  I would love to go back again so that we can cruise up to the Hoover Dam.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?

 

 

Next Stop on the blog: Bryce Canyon