A River Walk and a Death Valley Ghost Town

We got out for a nice little walk yesterday. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, there is a very nice community resource here in the Colorado River Heritage Greenway Park and Trails. Our first stop was to be Davis Dam, where we expected a short "overlook" hike.

We could see there was a barrier on the road, and we already knew it was no longer possible to drive across the dam, and so we parked the truck and walked from here.

This is an award-winning bridge, so show a little respect.

And please follow the dam rules.

There are lots of ways to die out here.

Pay attention.

This sign was posted at the barrier, but it was still possible to walk out on the dam.

Bummer for Mike, although he didn't have his drone with him. Still...bummer.

Now here...one need only pick up a newspaper to know that our federal government is run by felons now, so no worries on this one.

And this here...yeah...I just walked on through. Didn't even have a bike. Such a rebel.

Gazing to the right of the bridge was Lake Mojave.

Walking back and toward the power generating station, we could get a good look at the dam itself.

The signs were interesting...a little high for my camera, and so I had to cut them into little bits for you to read. Remember you can make a picture larger by clicking on it.

And to those who call it "ugly," we have just this to say: Neh, neh, neh, because it's paid for.

So, Davis Dam is an embankment dam, unlike Hoover Dam, which is a concrete dam. (For comparison, you can read my blog post about our visit to Hoover Dam right here.)

Here are some statistics about the dam.

The circular objects in the image below are the turbines.

And here's some information about the hydroelectric power being generated here.

Regarding kilowatts and measurements of electricity, here are a few items for comparison.

If we had turned right on our approach to Davis Dam, we would have entered the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. And we know this area stretches all the way up to Boulder City, Nevada, and beyond. So we were interested in this next graphic, showing the dams along the Colorado River.

On our drive out to the dam, we'd passed this sign, and so we knew how to get back to the trail system that comprises the Colorado River Heritage Greenway Park and Trails.

What a wonderful community resource this is. There is water and restrooms all along the way, and it is handicap accessible.

If you look in the lower left-hand corner of the image above, you can see where we were standing when I took that picture. Turning right, we crossed over this really snazzy pedestrian bridge that led to the trail system. I've also marked the short distance we walked out to a picnic area. It was rather cold and windy, and so we didn't stay here long.

From the picnic area, we could look left and see the dam on down the river.

Looking right, we could see the highway crossing the river into Arizona.

Looking straight across was Camp Davis, where the workers who built the dam once lived. Now it is a nice picnic and swimming area.

Here are the only blooming things we saw along the way. It seems all blooming things in January are yellow.

After getting back in the truck, Mike had one thing on his mind...washing our filthy truck. We'd taken it through an automatic car wash the day before, but it barely took the top layer off the road grime, and so we went back for the coin-operated part of the wash. Along the way, I snapped this image out my window. The topography of the landscape is interesting. In the image below, you can see the road we came in on. To its right the land is folded with rivulets from erosion. To its left, it is flat. We studied this for a bit and really have no explanation for such a sharp demarcation.

But this was the object of Mike's desire. He got all in a lather just thinking about it. Ha! Did you see what I did there? You can wash your dog here, if you like. Cats would object to this.

He washed...I waited.

So, okay, I promised you some pictures of the ghost town of Rhyolite back in Death Valley,

and pictures you shall have, if you're not too tired of reading already. Here we go.

The pictures that follow were taken around 2008, and so I don't remember a lot about them, except to say that Rhyolite was a booming town. You can read more about it right here. If memory serves, it boasted a population of about 3,500-5,000 people during its heyday. It is an interesting place to visit, especially when you consider there were successful business, a bank, parades, and all the other things one expects in a small town. And then...gone. Nothing left but falling down buildings. So here you go. I'll add commentary when I know something that isn't obvious. Otherwise, I'll just let you look.

This first one would have been a private residence.

About fifty yards from the house is where they dumped their garbage.

Here's the old train station. Hard to believe the train once came out here.

Here's the bank from a distance, followed by some pictures taken from closer up.

There were casinos in Nevada even then.

I believe this might have been a jewelry store.

This picture really caught my attention. Look at all the people who lived here!

This is Tom Kelly's Bottle House...you can read more about it right here. It's made entirely from bottles.

This bucket of horseshoes was out in the yard.

Along the road out to the town is the cemetery. I can't visit an old cemetery without wondering about those who are buried here. Their names have faded from their markers, and those who knew them are probably long gone.

Okay, so that's all I have for you today. We're hitting the road again today, heading for Joshua Tree National Park for the next three nights.