it was truly a magical trip: H. decided in favor of staying in the same hotel (it was strategically located at the end of the Strip Mandalay Bay) and making day trips from it. So we had both of the worlds: rough of the road during the day and luxury of jacuzzi and upscale restaurants at night.
Day One; Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and Valley of Fire:
Hoover Dam was magnificent, although there were way too many people (Thanksgiving weekend to blame)
We decided against of bringing GPS with us and this was probably a mistake – most signs in the area don’t mention road numbers using the street names instead, and of course we missed the exit and made a detour on our way to Valley of Fire arriving there close to dusk so we didn’t have time to stop at every observation point… Well, we still had a chance to marvel at Seven Sisters:
now for couple more pix from day one and onto days two and three:
Valley of Fire: more shots:
Day Two: Oatman, Laughlin:
damn i should have blogged on the road as it seems that memory fails me in details of that day. One thing for sure it was a mini iron butt cruise – route 95 from Boulder City NV to route 163 (towards Laughlin) was a straight line with a speed limit of 75, and no distractions except for occasional joshua trees that warmed my heart (we toured Joshua Tree Park and Palm Springs desert just last spring). Now route 163 was something different altogether – curvy with a lot of elevations and drops – a dream motorcycle road – i wish there were spots to take pictures, one view was more spectacular than the other… The was no particular reason to come to Laughlin except for H. knew of it as a local bikers hang out: well we haven’t found any bikers but at we had a chance to see Colorado River
or that scene:
but i’m getting ahead of myself – we actually went to Oatman before we got to Laughlin and were lucky to see a bit of historic route 66 (oh couple of months ago we stayed at hotel in Flagstaff that was on route 66 but this merits its own post)
i had no clue about Oatman, H. decided it’s worth to visit – i was thinking it would be some scenic point or something but i was definitely not prepared to see this:
or this:
and so many burros (aka donkeys):
the whole idea of Oatman seemed grotesque, and surreal: i was glad we left the place quickly…
Day Three: Red Rocks Canyon:
that was one of the most beautiful rides:
