We packed the car the night before – only starting around 10pm! We managed to fit everything into the car (barely). We set off mid-morning the next day.
My main concern about this day was getting though the Mojave Desert without our car overheating. I knew there would be a section where we would have to turn off our air conditioning completely (the longest 16 miles of the drive).
We eventually made it to Nevada. We drove around Las Vegas. We got a pretty good view of the ‘skyline’/sea of casinos.
We then headed to the Hoover Dam! Which meant we found ourselves in Arizona and Nevada – kind of at the same time.
I was really impressed with the color of the water at the Hoover Dam and Lake mead. it was so blue and clear!
I was also surprised by how patriotic the whole place was. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
The Hoover Dam was really impressive. The only thing I wished we had done differently was go up to the top of this bridge and get a view over the dam. I think you have to pay to get in, and we didn’t really want to pay any money. I think I would do it next time.
The other reason we weren’t that keen on walking up the hill was that it was so, so hot. 42C is about 108 degrees Fahrenheit!
We then left and got a really cool view over one end of Lake Mead.
On our way out of the area, we drove through Boulder City, which was a really cool town. It would be cool to have spent some time there.
We then drove towards Lake Mead Recreation Area, which is where our campsite was.
The drive was really scenic. We got to see a lot of the park and there was no one else around!
We camped at Echo Bay and our campsite had a view of the lake!
We set up camp right before it got dark. We made dinner and washed some clothes. It was still so hot in the evening. For hours after the sun went down, you could feel the heat radiating from the ground.
We ate dinner and did some research for the next day.
The next morning, we got up right before the sun rose over the mountains. We planned to get up before it got light out so we could pack up before it got too hot. It had only just cooled down to a reasonable temperature at around 3am.
I didn’t sleep much partially because it was hot and partially because there were coyotes howling all night not that far away from our campsite, where we were the only campers. It was pretty alarming.
The views around our campsite in the morning were pretty good. I think this was my view when I had to pee in the desert, because a huge spider had decided to camp out on the door of the women’s bathroom.
We packed the car and left the campsite to go down to the edge of the lake, where the camp host recommended we go swimming. It was so refreshing after sweating all night. There were also no showers at the campsite, so that was going to be our first “bath.” I think it was another 3 days before we got to take a shower.
We had this crystal-clear swimming hole all to ourselves at 7am!
We then hit the road and headed towards Utah!
Our next stop was Zion National Park!
