Utah to Lake Mead, Boulder City

Bright and early start Sunday morning reveals blue skies, white mountain tops, and fog over Deer  Creek Reservoir.  Had a nice visit with my daughter, and helped her move into a new living arraignment with her good fried Jenny who just purchased a condo and moved into it herself last week.  Stephanie will spend weekdays down in Provo close to school, and weekends up in Salt Lake City area with Jenny.  She is still feeling the ill effects of last year’s surfboard incident, something which she might have to deal with the rest of her life.  She can only handle a couple of classes at a time, and cannot work.  Like these NFL quarterbacks who got knocked in the head one time too many, she has really gone through the ringer, so to speak.

       

Thank goodness the fog over the lake was not hovering close to the ground, so we had a very enjoyable drive down Provo Canyon and on to I-15 where we headed toward Las Vegas.

Got a good shot of Bridal Veil Falls as we came down the canyon.

While Marcia, who took most of the pictures, got a good shot of the fall colors.  Yes, start of fall in Utah’s Salt Lake City/Provo area, a wonderful time of the year.  Wake up to 32 degree weather one day, and 55 degree weather the next.  Highs can be in low 40’s and up to the 80’s…and as fall moves closer to winter, well…use your imagination.  But the colors you see are just fabulous!

      

The Wasatch had a dusting of snow while we were here…thank goodness the rain let up just long enough to move Stephanie on Saturday.  Soon the Wasatch Mountains are in our mirror…

And the deserts of Utah lay ahead. 

   

As we leave Utah just south of St. George, you enter Arizona for just a few miles, passing through another wonderful canyon.  Few people live in this area of Arizona, and if you do, you are isolated from the rest of the state with access only through either Nevada or Utah.

We make it through the Nevada desert, through the hustle and bustle of the never sleepy city of Las Vegas, and on down to Lake Mead.  We are just passing through on our way to Phoenix for a very short visit with friends on Tuesday morning before heading to Kansas City. 

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States.  The National Park Service oversees the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and there are various camp grounds in the area.  We stayed at the Boulder Beach Campground.  With the Senior Pass to get into the area for free, the pass also gave us a discount on camping to only $10 per night. Not sure where we are staying tonight, but it will be within an easy drive of Cracker Barrel in Phoenix where we will meet our friends before heading on to Kansas City.