2022 September - Colorado Springs Trip, Day One

On Sunday, September 18, I left on a driving trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to visit my son Kyle and his family. This is one in a series of trip notes written to my daughter Kasandra, supplemented by pictures borrowed from the internet (i.e., not taken by me) that I assembled when I got back home.

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Hi Kas--

Got your text message. Don't have a comfortable place to type, so this will be short.

Left home about 6 a.m. Sunday, had a very pleasant and fast drive. Took Hwy 166, east of Santa Maria, which I know you were on at least once, with Nancy and me bringing you home from Colorado when you were in college. I haven't been on that road for a while, it was great. Pretty uneventful but still fast through Barstow and on to Vegas, then took to the back roads—this one called "North Shore Drive" along Lake Mead. The lake was depressing because the water level is so low, but the mountains were great. I stopped and walked a marked trail to the top of a hill at a roadside rest stop; nearly 100 degrees, but the wind was blowing fiercely so it wasn't too bad. The walk was only a couple hundred yards, though steep.

Then took a major detour into Valley of Fire, which I think we (family vacation in 1980s) drove through once, but I don't remember if we stopped. Took a one-mile walk at the end of the scenic road; walk was called "White Domes." Hot, beautiful.  Spent a couple hours in the park (it's a Nevada state park), then drove the rest of the way to Mesquite and spent the night at casino hotel.

Here are some pictures from the Valley of Fire. 35 miles north of Las Vegas on I15, then eighteen more miles east toward Lake Mead to get to the Visitor Center and main part of park.

Following the Valley of Fire pictures, all of which have captions, there are a few un-captioned pictures of the Virgin River Gorge.