I was up in time to see this morning’s sunrise:

Here’s a view of our campsite.  The RV is just left of center:

My parents stopped by, and my father went for a walk with our son while I went kayaking with my mother.  We had lunch, and then drove a few miles to the east for a hike in Lovell and Rainbow Wash:

We found an old mine shaft up on the hill:

Hello down there…..

This appears to be an old mining drill:

Back at the RV, it was getting towards sunset and we decided to do a little fishing:

As views from our front door go, this is pretty good:

This morning, our son and I got up early and scouted for a better spot.  Government Wash has about 25 RVs parked there, and we’d like a site right near the water so we can go kayaking.  We walked along the shore to the east.  Here’s the view back towards Government Wash:

We crossed an unnamed wash on the way back:

Government Wash has a boat ramp, but it’s now about half a mile from shore.  The water level is down quite a bit since the construction of the ramp:

Here’s a view from the ramp towards the lake:

After breakfast, we moved the RV to its new spot:

Not too shabby, right?

We of course had to test our ability to launch kayaks at our new site:

This seagull had become entangled in fishing line.  After chasing him around on shore, I managed to get some clothing over him while Trish cut the line.  He seems to be better now:

Soft colors at sunset:

We’re looking forward to spending several days here.

This morning we said goodbye to Barry and headed a couple miles north to the Clark County Wetlands Park.  The visitor center was excellent, and our favorite part were the large animal figurines:

This snake has a cutaway showing his last meal:

These busts allowed the kids to see what it would be like looking through animal eyes:

We walked for a couple miles on the wetland’s trails and saw an amazing variety of wildlife:

According to a ranger we asked after our walk, this fellow has managed to avoid predation for about three months since his owners illegally released him:

This guy was resting among the rushes:

I was very excited to photograph for the first time a Black Capped Night Heron, something I’ve been wanting to do for years:

Raccoon tracks:

Belted Kingfisher:

After lunch in the parking lot, we drove to the Boulder Beach campground on the shore of Lake Mead to dump, fill, and shower, then drove on to Government Wash for some dispersed camping.  We pulled in after dark, but we can see that it’s a very large area and there are a number of RVs here.  We will no doubt do some scouting in the morning for our final site through the weekend.

  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.