Backtracking

Days 159 – 170 ✈️☔️♒️

November 19 – November 30, 2016 – Laughlin and Seattle

With Thanksgiving on deck, we are headed back to Big Bend State Park to park the motor home while we fly from Las Vegas to Seattle for the holiday. As Ern takes the same route back (via Marty the Can Man and Ferrets!), I go up the opposite side of the Colorado, via Parker Dam and Lake Havasu City. When we were in Parker I had been looking at the peaks on the horizon, trying to figure out which one was “Castle Rock” – as I drove the winding road between the river and the Buckskin Mountains, I came around a corner and then there was no doubt!

Castle Rock

Part of this route goes through a pocket of high crags and cliffs reminding me that much of the Colorado River that we have been camping near is on docile stretches of the river … now I was in country that was carved out of volcanic rock creating steep canyons or wide swaths across low points. Around another corner, a wide bend of the river comes into view with marshlands and huge basalt ridges on either side – very dramatic compared to the flats where we have been hanging out lately! I pulled over to take some pictures and realized that this wasn’t the Colorado River I was looking at, it was the Bill Williams River – which does join the Colorado a little bit to the west.

The Bill Williams River and Wildlife Refuge

Duh… but I discovered a new and beautiful place today! The river, a town, and the Wildlife Refuge were named after Old Bill Williams a legendary mountain man who lived in the area in the early 1800’s, known as “the greatest fur trapper of ’em all“. I can’t wait to come back to this area and explore it some more – duly noted on the To Do List 📝.

Just like Plymouth

When we arrive at the park, we are greeted by Elaine, the awesome Camp Host, with an invite to a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner for the campers in the park 🍗 – a tradition hosted by Elaine and the park rangers – and the November regulars at Big Bend do it up right! Pot luck dinners are always a better version of a buffet … and this one is special to us because it is our first Thanksgiving on the road, and we were able to share it with new friends. It’s a small world … we met many people from Nevada – Mina, Elko, Fernley, and a couple that Ernie had befriended a couple of years back on his first snowbird trip. The park rangers’ families also joined the party, so it was a chance to get to know them a little bit more than just the guys that drive through the park once in awhile. When it came time for the turkey carving, a gentleman who is a retired meat

cutter manned the carving station, everyone queued up to load their plates… with some good natured attempts at line-cutting, and shared a great meal in the warm sunshine. This park is a popular stop for the Nevada snowbirds on their way to Quartzsite and Yuma – we quickly discovered that most of us also had similar travel itineraries – we said our goodbyes, “we’ll see you down the road” and loaded our suitcases and full bellies into the car. First stop Sin City, second stop The Emerald City, to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter Cheyenne.

Rocks and Glass Houses

You’ve heard the old adage … but I’m not referring to throwing rocks :)! We’ll start with glass houses: Cheyenne has not had the opportunity to go to the Space Needle yet, so on Black Friday we took the ferry from Bremerton to the city, and she took me on my first Uber ride 🚙. I must say it is a very smooth process – no need to call or try to flag down a cab, no need to carry cash or be sure you have small bills, no need to worry about them “taking you the long way” – just whip out your phone and the pickup, price and payment are all handled on one screen – I’m a fan!! Seattle’s icon was fairly crowded, but they are accustomed to moving a lot of people, so we were 520 feet up and enjoying the 360 view in no time. The Space Needle was built back in 1962 for the World’s Fair and the long entrance to the elevators displays a timeline and fun facts: there are 848 steps from the basement to the observation deck – no, we took the elevator!! And there have been 6 parachute jumps from off the top – no, we took the elevator!! They take your picture as you enter, and we assumed it was one of those things where they try to get you to buy it later, but not so at this tourist spot – a digital picture is included with the price of admission; there were numerous backgrounds we could choose from, but we just HAD to go with the cheesiest one they offered 😂 Also included with our ticket was admission to the Chihuly Garden & Glass House – what a treat! The scale of the installations is mind boggling, as is the explosion of colors and shapes – and such a cool setting of glass pieces within the all-glass house – it is

almost like being under water … beautiful flowers flowing above you illuminated by a glowing light from above. A garden surrounds the glass house – trees and shrubs interspersed with vividly colored glass creations that stand out, but harmonize with

the natural backdrop at the same time. What set Chihuly apart from traditional glass makers is that he did not force his work to be symmetrical – he let them go “off center” and from that his unique style was born – garden settings have been a constant theme for him, but “It is important to note that these glass forms were not directly based on examples found in nature; they came more from the natural process of glassblowing that Chihuly and his team have explored and perfected …” ~ Mark McDonnell of the California College of Arts.

It rained during the majority of our visit, so we didn’t do any other sightseeing, but the view from our daughter’s apartment was quite nice… watching the ferries and clouds go by, snuggled with her roommate :).

Now on to the rocks …

Out of the rain and back to Big Bend we flew, and I finally made it up to one of Laughlin’s “to do’s” – Grapevine Canyon  – and its petroglyphs. Located off of Christmas Tree Pass and in the shadow of Spirit Mountain, is a boulder filled canyon with steep sides which provide the surfaces for the petroglyphs – I suspect that many of the drawings I see in the easily accessible spots are not all ancient … It looks like more recent visitors have been inspired to add their marks; but I climbed up one of the sides to find some of the authenticated drawings – estimated to be

anywhere from 150 to 800 years old. The extreme heat of the sun virtually bakes the rock faces and turns them into a dark canvas. Spirit Mountain rises above the canyon to the north – it is a sacred place for the Yuman tribes; it is believed that rocks of Grapevine Canyon below is where the symbols of their creation were recorded. As I left the canyon the sun was going down behind me but the east side of the valley was still in the light … you can see how this could certainly be a place for reflection.

The view from Grapevine Canyon (above)    A view of the Sound and the Bremerton ferry  (below)

View from the observation deck on the Space Needle

 

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