Searcher: On The Road Again!

Once again it has been a while since my fingers have hit the keys for the blog. We have been traveling from Arizona to California, back to Arizona and up to Utah and back to Nevada. It has been a week or so since I have been in a camp site where I could get an internet signal. This has not necessarily been a bad thing because the various areas we have traversed have been worth every minute of not being able to get a phone signal or internet connection.
The highlight of the last couple of weeks came as we connected with my daughter, Anne Marie and her partner, Daniel Harvey just outside of St George, Utah. We were able to go to Zion National Park with them and camp in a private RV park and then in Snow Canyon State Park just north of St George. While there we rode our bikes with Anne and Daniel through part of the state park. Utah is one of the states that I had never seen before and it is truly beyond description. It is so diverse with canyons, painted deserts, and fantastic rock formations. All the above and this was only in the south west portion of Utah. After my daughter left us to travel north to Washington state, we traveled south to Nevada to the Overton, Nevada area of the National Recreation area of Lake Mead. What we discovered is that the Overton Beach is no longer open. Not only is it not open, there is no longer any water of Lake Mead there! We had to travel another 12 miles south of there to find water at Stewart's Point of Lake Mead. We did something I have not done since my son was about 10 years of age - fly a kite. We had just the right amount of wind to keep the kite flying for many hours. It was the perfect local for kite flying - no electric lines, tall buildings or any obstructions. Felt good to be a kid again.
From the Overton camp site we traveled on to the Valley of Fire State Park. This park reminded me of the Snow Canyon State Park in Utah because of the red rock cliffs and rounded rock formations. The full hook up area of the park was full to capacity, so we camped in the dry camping area and we discovered that this area was the best one of the park in the way it was set up. Each camp site had its own red rock cliff or little canyon around it, It was very private and we felt very much a part of nature. We climbed all over the rocks, took tons of photos and were able to ride our bikes both days, and were able to have camp fires each night. I highly recommend this park for anyone traveling through Nevada, particularly at this time of the year. I certainly hope to return.
We left Valley of Fire and headed down to just 17 miles east of Las Vegas to the Government Wash area of Lake Mead. We arrived with a high wind warning in the area. We set up camp so that the motor home was not broad side to the wind but still had to open windows on both sides to allow the wind to blow through instead of just hitting the side of the camper. Definitely too high a wind for kite flying but Richard was able to go for a bike ride this morning without being blown off his bike. We learned that the water level is down 120 feet from ten years ago in the main body of Lake Mead and it is very evident all along the water way from just south of Overton to this area which is about 47 miles further south of Overton, Nevada. No longer does Lake Mead stretch along this route. There are pockets of water but they no longer connect and many of the beaches, boat launch areas and rv parks have been totally abandoned. Very sad to see and rather frightening to wonder at the ramifications of the loss of Lake Mead. Not sure where we are headed next - most likely south and east!