Skip links

Main navigation

Passports Not Hallpasses

Family of Four Traveling the World, Exploring New Countries and Learning a Lot Along the Way

You are here: Home / Archives for Blogs

Blogs

Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

After the awesome week of camping, we headed to Hoover Dam. We stayed in a little RV resort in Boulder City that wasn’t worth talking about too much except for the price. It wasn’t cheap, but it was close to where we wanted to be.

The next day we drove to the Dam. Scott and I giggled that we had been to Vegas so many times but never bothered to go to the Hoover Dam for a tour. (I had once taken a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon from Vegas that included a flyover of the dam, but that was as close as either of us had gotten.)

The backside of the dam.

First we stopped in at Lake Mead. Thanks to the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead is the largest man made lake in the country. It was beautiful. The Lake and the Dam are part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Again, the kids were able to do a junior ranger badge (although this particular one was so easy that it shouldn’t actually be worth a badge).

It’s a pretty lake that is 150 feet below where it was even ten years ago.

After the sights there, we drove the short distance to the Hoover Dam. We were all surprised at how much bigger it is than any of us expected even though we had all seen countless pictures of it in books and movies.

It was too large to get in the frame.

The tour took us down into the dam to about 50 floors underground. Learning that the builders worked 24 hours per day for almost two years really brought home the amount of labor it took to create such a structure. They were dumping 16 tons of concrete about every 80 seconds. Because of the heat, they had to cool the concrete in order for it to set. To do that, they ran cooling tubes of ice cold water all over the blocks as they laid them in order to speed the setting process and speed up the work.

The tunnels so far down seemed spooky. Understanding they were made more than 80 years ago made them impressive.

After we were taught about the creation of the dam, we then were able to see the giant turbines that generate the electricity from the water flow. The tour was an incredible learning process for all of us.

Huge turbines convert the energy from the rushing water into electricity.

All in all, the dam stop was well worth it. Boulder City had an outstanding barbecue restaurant that we all enjoyed. Perhaps the most impressive part was that we were so close to Las Vegas, and Scott didn’t even make a single bet. He reported that his hands were sweating the whole time, but I’m not sure…

A Week of Drycamping in the Coconino National Forest

Our trip from Tucson ended just south of Flagstaff in the Coconino National Forest. I had learned of some good spots to drycamp (no hookups for the RV) in some of the roadschooling sites we are in. The place we ended up was nothing short of amazing.

Our views outside the RV window.

The forest in our area had already been somewhat cleared by the Forest Service. So there were trees, but not crazy amounts of them or a ton of underbrush. The kids went wild walking around. Our very first evening there, they stumbled upon a large herd of elk. The elk weren’t really concerned with the kids or us, and just continued on their way. It was exciting to see all the babies.

In between our day trips out to the nearby parks and monuments, we had a blast in the forest. Scott was able to set up our solar panels. We were able to get almost all of our power from the solar and only needed to turn on the generator in the late evening due to the freezing temperatures. The only exception to that was one day that it actually snowed. It was beautiful seeing the huge snowflakes falling all around the RV and in between the trees. The only thing more enjoyable than the snow was the sunset.

The forest was fun for hiking and mountain biking. The kids and I went on a long (almost all uphill) mountain bike path. It almost killed me. Once we finally made it to the top of the mountain, it was smooth sailing, but there were moments when I considered just laying the bike down and napping on the side of the trail.

Gracie loved the forest. As long as there was no one around, we let her wander around with us off leash. I was surprised that she wouldn’t go outside without one of us though. It would’ve been handy on that snowy day…

KIB also got in on the great outdoors and even enjoyed a walk about on the ground outside the RV.

KIB enjoying a sunny afternoon on the patio.

We had the place almost entirely to ourselves while we were there. On the beautiful weekend days, some other outdoorsy folks would drive past us or unload bikes near where we were, but aside from that, we rarely saw anyone. It was brilliant and by far our favorite place to park the RV. Our last night there, we finally used all of our fresh water tank. We never really intended to stay for six nights, so we hadn’t filled up our tank all the way. It worked out fine since since we had a few gallons of water in the RV.

Finally we forced ourselves to leave and headed towards Death Valley. The only surprise there was that we drove through Las Vegas without stopping for a single gamble.

The Grand Canyon

On our second day in the national forest, we realized we were just over an hour from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We had previously planned to camp for a few days there, but we were all so in love with staying in the forest that we decided to make the drive that morning.

The Canyon of course was beautiful.

We didn’t really go for any hikes, since we only had the day. The kids and Scott managed to go down a steep rocky outcropping to get some amazing off-path views.
The man in blue who happened to be doing some kind of photo shoot made the views even better.

The wildlife at the Park was even less scared that the ones near our spot in the forest. Mommas and baby elk alike walked past us within a few feet.


Through the crowds, we caught the highlights of the Canyon. We made the scenic drive to finish up the kids’ junior ranger badges at the far ranger station.

All in all a decent trip to the Grand Canyon. Since we weren’t able/willing to hike down to the bottom of the canyon, the day trip served us perfectly.

A Day of Geology and Social Studies

About forty minutes from our campsite were two beautiful places to visit. The fact that the kids could earn junior ranger badges made them all the more enticing.

The first stop was Sunset Crater National Monument. We were all surprised to learn that the scientists are still uncertain what caused the volcanoes in northern Arizona to form. Whatever the cause, we were all shocked to see such a stark contrast there compared to the surrounding areas. Lava Flow trail was stunning even with my big mug in the photo!

Aspen trees next to pine trees seemed to be the majority of the very little vegetation scattered among the volcanic rock. Unfortunately the crater itself was closed to visits in an attempt to help preserve it.

The other (and directly adjacent) monument was the Wupatki National Monument. On the way there, we stopped so Scott could help push a couple of women out of the ditch. The kids thought it was hilarious that one of them refused to leave until I hugged her. Backing up, putting my hands up, and even verbally closing it down, she still insisted on hugging me. I didn’t even push her car out!

Finally at the monument, we were able to see pueblos built by the indigenous people over one thousand years ago. The knowledge that went into building the pueblo included making it possible for the people to have a well vented fire room to stay warm in the winters without suffocating. We were all impressed with what it took to make such a large, essentially town-center for hundreds of people, work so well.

The largest and most restored of several different pueblos built in the area.

While we weren’t allowed to go inside the rooms, the walkway took us right up to the building. The complexity of a building so old was amazing.

[I laughed when I started editing these pictures. What the photos don’t show is how unbelievably windy it was that day. There were a few moments where the kids hid behind us while using us as windbreaks. Had we not been there, they may well have blown away. We skipped the last two ruins due to the winds.]

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest was about two hours from our camping spot, so we shot for a relatively early start. To break up the drive, we stopped just outside of Winslow, Arizona to see the Meteor Crater. Other than actually seeing the almost-mile across crater that was created 10,000 years ago (by a 150 foot meteor!), the stop was ridiculous.

Way down there, is a six foot tall cutout next to a flag. This is provided to give a sense of how deep the crater is.

After not being impressed, we continued our journey to the Petrified Forest National Park.

We had heard mixed reviews on the Forest. I was expecting very little and was very happy when my expectations were exceeded.

The scenery was beautiful.

Even the ridiculous kids thought the landscape was some of the most interesting we have seen.

I was worried we wouldn’t see much petrified rock, but it was everywhere we looked. The badlands areas had very little, but the “forests” were exactly what you would expect in terms of the amount of wood.

Some pieces were small and vividly colored.

Othe pieces were huge and littered the ground.

We managed to make a few smaller hikes to see some of the less discovered areas. I was surprised by how few of the visitors left the paved roads and walked down any of the unsaved paths. Behind the second visitors center on the south side of the park, we were able to see Old Faithful. This particular tree is approximately ten feet in diameter.

Old Faithful is huge!

The kids finished up their junior ranger badges at that visitor center as well. The park ranger happened to be a volunteer. He was pretty entertaining.

All in all, Petrified Forest was well worth a visit. When we left, Keali mentioned that it was her favorite of the parks so far due to the crazy changes in landscapes around every corner. The badlands to the cliffs, the reds to the whites, and all the layers of deposited rock as seen in the Grand Canyon made it interesting. The abundance of petrified wood was fun to learn about. (See Keali’s blog if you are interested in what causes the wood to petrify.) This park is a “must see”.