June 6 - On the Way to Lake Mead

Although breezy, the weather forecast for Southern Nevada was 76 degrees. Since we have had so much luck with dry camping this trip, we decided to head for campgrounds near Lake Mead. It was Saturday, so there was a chance of campgrounds being filled, but we bet that since it is usually 240 degrees by this time of year, not many people had actually put dry camping this weekend into their vacation plans.

We took one of those little black line highways on the road map, route 169, off of I-15 and headed toward Overton near Lake Mead. We were right about occupancy. Most of the campgrounds were very sparsely occupied, but despite some great names, e.g. "Echo Bay", they were situated amongst the rocks and gullies with little scenic charm. We had to work our way down the lake towards Boulder City. For about half the drive, the road was "under construction" with segments of nasty gravel and potholes. Sadie was not a happy camper.

Driving through plain old Nevada desert, it is surprising to see such a big body of water. However, what really surprised us was the scenery. We couldn't capture it via film, but it appeared that the mountains had a thin veneer of brown and green covering red, red rock.


The biggest surprise was still to come. As we topped a crest in the road, villas, hotels, all nested on a Mediterranean setting, complete with lake, pops up. "Lake Las Vegas" is a Las Vegas extravaganza. We were so surprised, we did not get a shot of this unexpected mirage in the middle of the desert scenery.


We turned left towards Lake Mead, and finally ended up at Boulder Beach Campground ($5). It was next to a private rv resort so we figured that we would be camping with the regular campers. It did turn out to be quite a diverse campground, but even though there were a couple of large families that looked like they could produce amazing ethnic dishes, most had hamburgers and hot dogs. We were quite pleased to get a good spot in a nice campground with a very good view.