Pahrump, Nevada

After being in California for several months, Pahrump is a little bit of culture shock. First let's clear up the name of the town. It is an Indian name and means "water stone" - seems there is a number of springs in the area which encouraged settlement. The town, with a population of nearly 36,000 is a real tribute to inadequate zoning laws. Next to a thriving business in a real building, you may find a trailerhouse or a couple of blocks of desert littered with signs... But for some reason, we really like the area! (In another post I will tell you about our "almost" purchase of a home in a great development here.) Since Pahrump is only 50 miles from Las Vegas, we had to do a day trip. Some things have changed but Vegas is still Vegas. Of course, we had to stick around into the evening to see the "show" downtown - it was disappointing. We spent some time at Binions - it hasn't changed and it always makes us lonesome for Mike's Dad - he loved that place. I think about one day every couple of years is about the right amount of time to spend in Las Vegas. Another day, we took a day trip into the mountains and what a day it was! When we got up a couple of thousand feet, we were both surprised to see so many Joshua Trees. Oh, I better warn you now - I took over 2oo pictures on this trip. And with the dramatic sky, I was telling Mike to stop every couple of blocks.

We only saw one that was in bloom.

And we saw one that seemed to be guarding the gravel pit.

And one that was just in the perfect place when we stopped to look at the Indian Paint Brush flowers.

Sometimes, Mt. Charleston looked like it was an erupting volcano.

It is fun to think about what force of nature may have created the look of this mountain. The higher we went, the lower the thermometer and when we stopped for lunch, BIG SNOWFLAKES danced and then melted on the hood. Just a short half hour later, this was the road,

and then this. But we kept going up because we just knew the snow would be short lived. Instead it go heavier.

We saw one sign that told us the number of the trail we were on, but we really had no idea where it went or when we might get back on a road we recognized. And, of course, we did not have a map for the area. After traveling this road for a ways, we were about to turn around when there magically appeared a historical site complete with a map. Oh, did I tell you that we didn't have coats? We turned around and headed back the way we had come and after 5 or 6 miles, we were back on Wheeler Pass Road and knew where we were. Along the way, we saw some really cool rock formations. On the way down, we saw the transformation that a bit of snow makes in the land of high desert. I don't remember ever seeing snow on cactus before. When you see a hill climbing area like this and you are in a Jeep with Mike, you know he will be tempted. There was only a few moments hesitation and a quick trip up the easy climb on the right, before I got out of the car and he attacked the next one.

This was the view from the top.

This was a very scary moment when the Jeep couldn't quite make the climb and lost its footing on the gravel - I really thought we were going to be in deep trouble here.

There were a couple more attempts that I videoed. I was going to include a video here but it takes forever to download so you will just have to take my word for it - the Jeep definitely gave its all, but it just couldn't get a grip on that surface. Mike had fun, though! As we were heading back into town, the clouds were hanging over Pahrump. It had been a delightful cloudy day. Tomorrow we head for Death Valley; a report on that trip will be coming soon.