Lake Mead National Recreation Area

The Lake Mead NRA is America’s first National Recreation Area. Established in 1964, the 1.5 million acre area offers lakes, mountains, and canyons containing everything from history and geology to modern sports on both land and water.

Snow

On our way to Lake Mead we encounter the reason we chose to stay in Death Valley until the Winter Storm had passed… Snow covered mountains.

It’s rare snow comes this far down in elevation; so when it does, it makes a dramatic impact on the landscape.

Boulder Beach Campground

Boulder Beach Campground is a wonderful place to stop in the Lake Mead NRA. There are almost two hundred sites and all have well maintained, mostly level concrete pads, picnic tables, some shade, and at least a partial view of the lake. The only thing it doesn’t offer campers is electricity. We’ve stopped here several times, as it also provides easy access to bike paths, as well as many other things to do in the area including Las Vegas.

After finding our site we relax, have dinner, and then go for a walk down to the lake to catch the last of the sunset.

We can already see that the water level is up from last year; but we’ll explore just how much another day.

Historic Railroad Trail

Today we head out from the campground to bike across the Hoover Dam via the Historic Railroad Trail. So called, because it follows the old rail trail around the southwest portion of Lake Mead…

…past the marina…

…through several tunnels…

…into the hills, where we come across a herd of bighorn sheep…

and finally across the Dam.

Hoover Dam

We’ve driven here before, and I have to say coming here on the bikes is the way to go. You can see so much more and it’s so much easier to get around. The speed limit is 15 mph throughout the dam and it is rare to actually get that high with the number of sightseers around, so we just joined the line of traffic and didn’t have to worry about being passed by cars.

We make a point to visit all of the parking lots/observation decks and we found the best view from the observation deck at parking lot 12 on the AZ side of the river.

On the way home we get a good look at the campground nestled between the mountain and the lake.

We also get a great view across the lake and mountains beyond looking down the path.

All told we went about 13 miles; which was wonderful on the bikes. You can walk this path, and we passed many people who were. But wow, that would make for a very long, tiring day.

Las Vegas

Today we head into Las Vegas to do a little shopping and celebrate our anniversary. We have a wonderful meal, a successful shopping trip, and a thoroughly wonderful time people watching.

River Mountain Loop Trail

It’s a beautiful morning, and we enjoyed our ride the other day so much we decide to head out on the bikes again and do the River Mountain Loop Trail. Going counter-clockwise from the campground, we travel all the way along the west side of lake mead, by Lake Las Vegas, along the east side of Henderson (where we get a view into Las Vegas), through Railroad Pass and finally into Boulder City. Once we leave Boulder City, we heads down the very steep hill back toward Lake Mead and the campground.

All told the trail is >34 miles long with >2,700 ft of elevation change. We did the trail clockwise last year, and I much preferred going counter- clockwise. In my opinion the views are better and because the climb was gradual vs doing a huge portion of it all at once, we enjoyed the ride a lot more.

The rest of the afternoon and evening, we spend relaxing around camp enjoying the weather and occasionally chatting with other campers.

Lake Mead Shoreline

This morning, we decide to walk down and along the Lake Mead shoreline to repeat the hike we did last year exploring the sunken boats that had been uncovered due to the extremely low water level. This year, none of boats are visible and the shoreline is extremely healthy. You can see how much the water has risen in the two pictures below.

Another Spring Wind Storm

We spend the afternoon sitting outside enjoying the weather until the winds pick up so much we’re forced inside. Yep, it’s another spring wind storm; but at least this one doesn’t have any rain accompanying it.

Looking at weather, there’s a lot more winds and cold to come in all of our next options. It seems the universe is telling us to go home, so we’ve decided to listen and cut the Spring trip a little short.

Next stop, Home!