Lake Mead to Ely, NV

Putting too much trust into the GPS got us way too far into Henderson when we left the campground this morning. Too much city driving this early in the day so we were glad when we left Las Vegas behind us, heading North on US 93 towards Ely.

The landscape colors are the usual desert browns and grays when all of a sudden ‘green stuff’ appears to the West of the road – the Pharanagat National Wildlife Refuge. An unexpected site in the desert. We follow this sliver of green all the way past the US 93/NV 318 intersection before the desert reclaims the land. Beautiful weather and riding conditions. The temperature has dropped markedly as we are getting up in elevation, to the point that we had to close the air vent zippers on our riding jackets. It’s barely 70F.

Continue reading Lake Mead to Ely, NV

Home to Lake Mead, NV

After our good friends Chad and Jenna saw us off, we started heading west and unfortunately had to do some freeway riding to get out of town quickly. Sunday traffic was light so it wasn’t too bad though US 60 and US 93 were busy since it’s the shortest route from the Phoenix area to Las Vegas.

The route includes a section of high density Joshua trees known as the Joshua Tree Parkway. Though picturesque, we struggled with increasing winds by late morning which only grew stronger as the day progressed and we approached Lake Mead. By the time we made it the Boulder Beach campground wind speed was 20-30mph, making for an interesting time pitching our tent ;-).