By Shelby
Monday, we worked from a local park in Tucson. Because of the holiday, all the libraries were closed. It rained really hard. The roads were flooding. Once the rain stopped, we made lunch under a shelter at the park. I hard boiled eggs for egg salad sandwiches. We also fried 12 single eggs and sausage for breakfast sandwiches on English muffins. We weren’t sure how well the fried eggs would reheat, but we were going to try it. We also made breakfast potatoes. They were really hard to cook through on the cast iron skillet without a cover. The air was so cold, it cooled down the potatoes on top very quickly. After work, we did laundry at a nearby laundromat.
At night, after going into Planet Fitness, we had to drive across the street to park at Walmart, since this Planet Fitness didn’t allow overnight parking. There were tons of campers, campervans, and converted cars parked at Walmart.
Tuesday, we worked from a library. For dinner we had the breakfast sandwiches with reheated fried eggs. They were actually very good! I might have to try making scrambled eggs and reheating them for breakfast.
Wednesday, Spencer wasn’t feeling well, so he took a sick day. The night before had been really cold and he hadn’t slept well. We’re a little worried about the cold going forward. We had expected it to be a bit warmer in the south. Fortunately, Spencer was feeling better by the evening and we went to a cowboy-themed steakhouse for dinner. The steak was very good. The restaurant was in an old western styled area. There were even a couple small rides, like a train and Ferris wheel.
Thursday, we spent the day at Saguaro National Park. In the morning, we went to the area of the park west of Tucson. There was a 5 mile dirt loop road through the park. We went for a few short walks into the desert. The saguaros were a lot taller than cartoons usually portray them. Some of them didn’t have any arms and others had a bunch. Our last stop in this area of the park was Signal Hill where we saw petroglyphs in the rocks that were carved thousands of years ago.
Once we finished with the west area of the park, we drove an hour back through Tucson to the east area of the park. This area had an 8 mile paved loop road. We had a quick lunch in the car before doing another short walk into the desert. There were signs explaining what all the plants were. It seemed like every plant was covered in sharp needles. I liked the giant barrel cacti.
We also did a 4 mile loop hike. The terrain was surprisingly varied. There were many saguaros at the start of the trail, but they slowly tapered off as we got closer to a small river. The bushes got larger and a little greener. The snowy mountains in the distance were very scenic. The sun was getting low in the sky by the time we finished the hike and the temperature was dropping quickly. We finished the loop road in the park and drove on to a rest area near Phoenix for the night.
Friday morning, we drove into Phoenix and stopped at Planet Fitness to shower and eat breakfast. Then we went to the Echo Canyon trailhead for Camelback Mountain. This was a really cool 2.5 mile trail up the mountain. The rocks were very red and there were saguaros and other cacti dotting the mountain. It was also a very popular trail. The parking lot was nearly full when we got there.
The first part of the trail was pretty easy. There were a few challenging climbs where we had to grab onto a railing to pull ourselves up. The rock scrambles that followed were also difficult and took a lot of maneuvering to get up. We frequently had to pause to wait for the people ahead of us. It was quite the traffic jam.
The peak of the mountain was beautiful, but swarmed with people. We could see the skyscrapers of downtown Phoenix in the distance on one side and the suburbs and farmers fields on the other. After taking some pictures, we started our descent. Going down was just as difficult as going up. We had to step carefully, so we wouldn’t slip.
After we finished the hike, we started the four hour drive north to Henderson, Nevada, just south of Las Vegas. The road was very scenic. We drove through a Joshua Tree forest, past snowy mountains, through valleys, and through brown rocky hills.
Saturday, we got breakfast at Denny’s before going to the Hoover Dam. We walked up to a viewpoint from the interstate to see the dam from a distance. Then we drove down and over the dam. It was very cool to see where the water level used to be based on the discoloration of the mountains. We walked over the Hoover Dam from the Arizona side to the Nevada side, from mountain time to pacific time. There was a clock on each side of the dam.
After we finished walking around the dam, we drove up to an overlook of Lake Mead. It was beautiful and strange, almost mystical. It was strange to see such a large lake in the middle of a rocky desert. It was all brown except for the blue lake. From there, we drove back toward Henderson to hang out at a park and work on the website.
Sunday, we finished up the website, watched football, went grocery shopping, and made food for next week. We were in the mood for vegetables so we made ratatouille again. And we are hoping to go to a mall and maybe catch the new Avatar movie in Imax 3D. We’re planning on staying in the Las Vegas area next week and doing some cool hikes in southern Nevada. Click here to see more pictures from Arizona and Nevada!
Fun Facts from Week 39:
- Lake Mead National Recreation Area was the first nationally designated recreation area in the country, being designated in 1964. It is also the biggest reservoir in the US.
- The Hoover Dam weighs as much as 18 Empire State Buildings.
- Hoover Dam is not supported by tax dollars. Electricity sales, tours, and parking fees pay for all operating costs.
- A saguaro cactus does not grow arms until it is at least 95-100 years old. It can take 10 years for a saguaro to grow to 1 inch in height.
