12/3 Boulder Campground, Lake Mead, NV

I've spent the last couple of days at the national campground right on Lake Mead.  Or at least overlooking Lake Mead, and close to where Lake Mead used to be about 40 years ago.  Now the water is a looooonnnnngg way away--too far for a beach walk, in any case.

Anyway, it is a nice place with spaces fairly well spread apart. Only problem is lack of hookups, which means using coach batteries and generators to periodically recharge your batteries.  Since everything except TV, microwave, and AC works on 12 volt, this is not too much of a problem.  And since it is jacket weather in this area during the day, you really don't need AC.

The drive in from Willow Beach was pretty.  That is an animal bridge in the distance, by the way. 

 

 

Some people think that the desert is boring, but I think it is beautiful in its shapes and colors, even when there is very little vegetation.  However, this dead-looking area supports bighorn sheep, coyotes, rabbits, and many species of birds.  

At least the desert is beautiful until you get to Las Vegas, one of my least-favorite cities.  Note the smog?  I dislike the traffic, the casinos, and just about everything else about this city.  Would much rather be out in the surrounding desert and mountains!

I stopped at a Best Buy and bought a splitter for my laptop.  It has only two USB ports, and one died this week, meaning that I can't use my mouse and anything else.  The splitter will give me three more USB ports so I can backup data and hook up my camera and my WiFi booster.  So now I am headed back to Lake Mead and my campground for the night.

And here it is!  There is still a bit of water left in this lake.  I hope California gets a lot of rain this winter so Lake Mead does not have to pump out so much water for that state.

And my pleasant little campsite!

If you look between the trees, you can see the lake.

I went for a walk past the trees to see the lake better.  Hoover Dam is to the right behind those hills.

A few decades ago, this road was right along the lake.  Not much traffic these days.

A female great-tailed grackle was hopping around my site while I was sitting at the cement picnic table.  At first, I thought she was begging for food, but then I watched her hop up to these little black things and take a drink!  These are two ends of the drip irrigation system they have in the campground, and obviously, she knew there was water there--just a tiny drop on top of each.  She hopped off before I could turn my camera on.

 

And this is a Gambel's quail.  They run around the desert in little packs cheeping constantly to one another.  They can be identified by the feather topknots on their foreheads.  

 

Here are two more pecking for seeds.  (I think these are hens and the previous one a cock.)  All quail are very fast birds, so it is really hard to get pictures of them.  I had to take these from a distance and blow them up.