Friday, August 9, 2013

Exploring the Desert

So nice to have a guy who enjoys the exploring as much as I do.  We had a couple of days off together, so each day we'd get on the computers and figure out what part of the state we were going to conquer.
On this particular day, we went north thru Kingman toward Meadview. We live in the 5th largest county in the U.S., so the two hour drive to Meadview covered a lot of territory.  We were still in the same county!!

In Meadview, there was a mine called the King Tut.  It was a HUGE placer mine, it was situated in the mountains that border Lake Mead.  We read about it in one of my history books, and hoped to find it up there. We got close, but then learned the old mine is on private property and the signage wasn't exactly welcoming.  So we climbed to the top of a nearby hill and took a photo of Lake Mead:


We then looked to the north, and could see the "terminus" of the Grand Canyon.  It's where the Canyon ends and Lake Mead begins:


We drove past Gary's lots in town, he has about 2 acres on a dirt road.  The whole block is empty, a reminder of the boom and bust that Meadview experienced a few years ago.  Real estate developers had their eye on that area because they were convinced it would be the next "Havasu," but then the economy fell apart.  New construction stopped to a grinding halt.  It's a beautiful area, a bit isolated, but nothing happening right now.  The convenience store closed!! Can't even buy an aspirin in that town.

So we drove around, taking in the sights:



Found a large white onyx deposit:


Walked around checking out remote ranches and washes:




Found ourselves in old Chloride, and discovered the "Chloride Murals," outside of town in the nearby mountains:






Visited an old copper mine near the murals.  


We were surprised by a huge white owl who was perched down in the mineshaft.  I was poised to take a photo but didn't want to flash him in his enormous black eyes!  He was not happy to see us.

By the time we returned home it was late at night.  Our loop around Mohave County had taken us all day, and the dogs were not happy with us.  After all, we went out the door with our cooler and lunch packed, promising them we'd be right back.