Palm Springs

We spent several days in Palm Springs. It's a beautiful area, a green oasis surrounded by desert and mountains. This parade was through the main drag, just before Christmas.

Joshua Tree National Park is on the east side of the Palm Springs valley. It is a desert area and protects the namesake trees - Peg posed under one of the largest.

This shot was taken late in the afternoon from one of the highest areas of the park, down into the valley.

We played golf twice at this course. Check out the mountains behind Peg and at the 19th hole. Just a beautiful setting.




This roadrunner joined us for a beer.

The Palm Springs aerial tramway takes you up the mountain on the south side of the valley. The ride up is fun, and the view from the top is spectacular.

San Jacinto State Park is at the top of the tram run. The temperature in the valley is in the 70's, but there's snow at the top.

Hoover Dam

We had seen Hoover Dam some years ago, but decided to do it again. Since we were there, there is a new visitors center with many new displays.

There is no doubt that the dam is an engineering marvel, particularly for the time that it was built.

The shot on the right is back upriver - the end of Lake Mead. The bridge shown is brand new, opened in December. Now traffic going over the Nevada/Arizona border does not have to stop for inspection at the dam

Hoover Dam is definitely the "daddy" of the dams on the Colorado - we also saw the downstream dams at Laughlin and Havasu City earlier. In addition to flood control, they provide irrigation and electricity to much of the desert southwest.


This monument is dedicated to the workers who built the dam. Very impressive.

Laughlin / Havasu

Laughlin, NV is situated on the west bank of the Colorado River, about three hours south of Las Vegas. The "Colorado Belle" and the large buildings on the right are all casinos - the city could be called "Little Vegas on the River".

The dam in the middle is one of the many control and irrigation dams ranging north and south on the river. Including Hoover, they provide flood control and hydro electicity for much of the desert southwest.

Havasu City and Lake Havasu are about an hour south of Laughlin, again on the Colorado. There, London Bridge was brought from England and rebuilt across the river.



An English village was recreated to go along with the bridge, in addition to boat rides on the river and the lake, which was created by another of the control dams.

The lake is a beautiful recreation area, right in the middle of the desert.

The Spirit Mountains are located just northwest of Lauglin. A sacred place for the early native americans, it has an area of petroglyphs as extensive as any we've seen.

Apparently, native artists left messages for other tribes and travelers througout the area.

These last two pictures show typical vistas of the desert southwest.